Crackskull Row NYC Reviews and Tickets

"Molloy has little interest in providing the characters with the psychological underpinnings that might justify their actions—if, indeed, anything could; instead, she prefers to pile on the shockers. Kira Simring's direction can't supply what the play so sorely lacks; as a result, her blunt, straightforward staging is often borderline risible, especially during the overheated climax…Molloy reaches for Greek tragedy and ends up with something closer to an episode of 'Maury Povich.'"
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"This is a particularly unpleasant ghost story the playwright serves up, filled with images of blood and filth and Oedipal obsession that are difficult to shake off upon exiting the theater...Simring and the entire cast have thrown themselves completely into the creep-fest, and it certainly is a polished work...Molloy's play does contain elements of black humor, but she brings a unique blend of hyperrealism and psychological morass that takes 'Crackskull' to a whole new level of ickiness."
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"Alternating between black comedy and emotional intensity, this wildly dysfunctional family drama is cleverly written, hypnotically presented and sensationally performed...Director Kira Simring’s superior staging theatrically presents the play’s complicated situations with clarity and surrealistic flourishes...'Crackskull Row's' lurid aspects successfully coexist with realism making it sometimes frightening and always entertaining."
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"Molloy puts a spell on words and rearranges them according to the rasp of her own rhythm. They are lyrical and symmetrical and pauses are necessary to soak them in. The excellent cast place their bets on the melody and they are all the more tuneful for it. Director Kira Simring leads from the language and guides lust and menace in the actions and breathing space."
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“Molloy’s language may occasionally prove as baffling as her plotting; written in a dense Dublin Irish patois filled with all sorts of colorfully imaginative expressions, it privileges atmosphere over clarity, sometimes sounding like Conor McPherson on a wee hours pub crawl...Judging by its vagueness the play might as easily have been called ‘Scratchskull Row;' still, bits and pieces of its dramatic detritus are definitely worth salvaging.”
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"One gathers that this play was pulled from the bottom of playwright Honor Molloy’s trunk. It shows. This is not to say there isn’t excellent writing here or a compelling story, but rather that intermittent weeding and additional on-subject writing would make the piece immeasurably more successful…Both Donnelly and Lane inhabit their characters...Director Kira Simring does a splendid job of utilizing the set…Outbreaks are mostly kept to plausibility. Intimacy is beautifully depicted."
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"The dark and disturbing play by Honor Molloy walks in circles through the swamped woods of one’s mind, leaving us without the firm ground of reality until the end...‘Crackskull Row’ intertwines realism and myth, giving a homicide in Dublin the taste of a Greek tragedy. It’s a very heavy and painful story brilliantly worded by Honor Molloy and directed by Kira Simring."
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"Director Kira Simring clearly guided the cast in building a tight ensemble. Yet it is the moments when the tension spikes and the reality becomes blurred that the specificity wanes...The story and language of 'Crackskull Row' are exquisite, and the performances from the actors are lovely against a beautifully designed set. However, looking at the piece as a whole, it falls short of becoming triumphant by leaving the audience asking questions that detract from the play rather than enhance it."
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