Cost of Living NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (216)
See it if you like awesome theater with superb acting directing & staging about people desire to connect in the most unusual circumstances.Powerful!
Don't see it if You do not like heartfelt theater.
See it if You enjoy a well acted play on relationships. The story relates to those with disabilities and their caretakers in a warm, impactful way.
Don't see it if You are sensitive to brief nudity. It is tastefully done and very real.
See it if you like excellent writing, acting, staging and acting all in same performance. Difficult (disability) treated well - not a downer
Don't see it if If watching excellent acting by disabled actors is difficult do not go. But you will miss excellent production.'
See it if you are craving to see more representation on stage. two of the four actors are actors with disabilities, which enriches this honest story.
Don't see it if you might be uncomfortable with discussions of disabilities or death
See it if A dramedy about the cost of caring for others & the caregivers that need care & thoughtfulness Tons of laughs. Intriguing lives of disabled
Don't see it if Not interested in people with disabilities & their needs: emotional, physical & day in their life
See it if Thoughtful show about troubling subject--engaging and well acted. Staging was great.
Don't see it if Don't like shows without intermissions and are uncomfortable with nudity.
See it if you want to open your mind to see a play about 4 individuals with different "flaws/living needs" & how they each deal/or accept them.
Don't see it if you don't want to think or be moved.
See it if If you are ready for an in depth look at the lives of people with disabilities...and the resulting challenges to their relationships.
Don't see it if You are squeamish and prefer light entertainment in the theater Read more
Critic Reviews (34)
"Majok carefully constructs how caretaker and patient come to depend on each other...What most intrigues is what Majok keeps off stage, and not to the betterment of her play...Director Jo Bonney delivers four fine performances, with Williams being especially empathetic in his opening monologue. What her direction doesn’t do is make up for the play’s sameness of tone. Each scene and its revelations unfold at a deliberate, unvaried pace."
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"Each character is vividly sketched to the point that I wished I knew more about them...The entire production is first-rate: the acting, the revolving set, the character-appropriate costumes and the smooth direction by Jo Bonney. I read that the author expanded this work from a two-character play and the opening monologue. The combination was not totally successful; some of the stitches show. Nevertheless, seeing it is a worthwhile, if painful, experience."
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"Until Martyna Majok’s 'Cost of Living' takes a forced, not very credible late-play turn, the drama is riveting and deeply moving as a result of the writing, the poignancy attached to the characters and the true-to-life acting...Suddenly the author takes us down a further road that undercuts everything that has gone before, and although still deeply moved by what has passed, one might wish that the play had undergone a severe back-end edit."
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"Playwright Martyna Majok writes with pith and originality, capturing the attitudes, emotions, and syntax of a range of characters in unexpected situations. Conversations are strikingly real and insightful...This piece deserves far wider exposure. Acting is first class. Each player submerges him/herself with a naturalness we never question...Director Jo Bonney keeps the piece fluid."
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"Despite the setup, 'Cost of Living' is not some kind of activist production trying to make a politically correct statement about people with disabilities; instead, it’s an intimate story about two men and two women facing the daily challenges that life brings them...'Cost of Living' is carefully constructed by Majok and her 'dream' director, Jo Bonney. They avoid sentimentality or sympathy—although the drama is deeply involving—while treating all four people as equals."
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"A sharply drawn portrait of the everyday frustrations and miseries of physical disability...Under Bonney’s direction, the pacing often drags while Williams’s delivery tends to be monotonous and halting. His character is also burdened with a rambling and superfluous opening monologue...At its most powerful, Majok’s play provides harsh glimpses of how unbearably hard life can be. But 'Cost of Living' eventually goes all soft."
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“A study of four people, emotional but pierced with bitterness and, surprisingly, laughter…The four actors form a gripping ensemble portraying the interwoven layers of the human condition…The two story lines are performed effectively yet have no connection until an ending that is just a bit too tidy…These four actors bring authenticity to the challenges explored by Majok, the afflictions that are obvious, those that are hidden, and the connections that make them universal.”
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"A play only in the sense that it uses actors to act out a 90-minute study of two cases, played side by side on a revolving stage...The four actors under Jo Bonney’s detailed direction are superb...I found myself missing more of a story line in the writing of the play: but the originality of its subject, the accuracy of the dialog, and the excellence of the performances, all contributed to a well-spent evening at the theatre."
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