Dead Dog Park

"Several interesting moments emerge here. To get to them, however, requires patience, even for a show that runs just over an hour…What begins with energy — the first scene is anxious and involving — loses steam once that trial starts. The script, by Barry Malawer, teases at complex moral questions and the possibility of a did-he-do-it plot. Yet revelations and details are kept scarce, and Mr. Malawer passes up chances to bolster the tension." Full Review

"An excellent piece of theater...This poignant drama explores the subjects of police brutality and racial tensions. With a superbly written script and extraordinary direction, the play's talented cast will keep you throughly captivated...'Dead Dog Park' presents multiple perspectives of a complex social issue that has taken center stage in America's news cycles and political debates. It is a play that should be seen by everyone to encourage an essential discourse about civil rights." Full Review

"While the play sounds as if it could be torn from tomorrow's tabloids, it is neither an indictment of police brutality nor the opposite; nor is it a thriller. It is a taut, provocative drama of ideas...While keeping our attention for a rapid and never-lagging seventy minutes, Malawer and Tucker also stun us—late in the action—with a grand theatrical surprise. All told, 'Dead Dog Park' is an intriguing, topical and thought-provoking piece of drama." Full Review

"A tough, taut drama, filled with some of the least sentimentalized characters in recent memory...In Eric Tucker's diamond-hard staging, five members of the company of six are omnipresent on stage...Malawer provides a complete and honest inventory of the collateral damage involved...This is a play that will stimulate many a conversation; for that alone, it's worth seeing." Full Review

"The play’s subject of police brutality toward black victims couldn’t be timelier even though its issues of guilt and responsibility are deliberately left ambiguous...We become immersed in the murkiness of the tragic events and each character’s response, before, during, and after the trial...Eric Tucker handles the multiple scenes and locales in his cleverly minimalist way." Full Review

"Mr. Tucker includes the audience into the decision-making process and challenges the audience to grapple with the play’s themes...Playwright Malawer offers more questions than answers and engages the audience in the maelstrom of crime and punishment...An important piece of theatre that engages the audience in the thrilling matrix of ideas and enduring questions that will somehow determine the quality of life in our collective future." Full Review

"Minimally staged but tautly performed by a polished cast, the play draws its impetus from the hyper-politicized climate in which clashes between white policemen and black civilians have come under intense public scrutiny...The play offers no easy answer to the question of culpability...The most compelling character is the young man's mother, a working single mom, exquisitely and honestly portrayed by Eboni Flowers with a mixture of anger, weary frustration, and gritty determination." Full Review

"Malawer tackles the social and economic fallout of residual racism, the unjust legal system, police brutality, and the travails of law enforcement by focusing on this incident and plunging it into uncertainty...The ensemble works well to reveal the measure of anxiety, pain and suffering...Though there are some minor slow spots...overall the production hits its mark. 'Dead Dog Park' is an important play because of its powerful message and because of its undercurrents." Full Review

"'Dead Dog Park' is proof that theater can be vocal, aware, present, raging and engaging...[Director] Tucker unfolds the drama moment to moment, building up playwright Barry Malawer’s script towards its most heated exploration of justice...Tucker weaves poetry out of moments of stillness, then unleashes heartbreak within a single sentence. He effectively raises the tension, creating an aura of anticipation, keeping the cast – and the audience’s – nerves raw." Full Review

"In lean, believable dialogue, playwright Malawer captures the conflicting perspectives of his characters...Director Eric Tucker has assembled a highly competent cast...Five of the six actors are kept on stage throughout the play...This directorial choice emphasizes the fact that each person ensnared in the catastrophe in Washington Heights is destined to remain entangled with the others...The result is fierce momentum and a degree of poignancy that the drama wouldn't have otherwise." Full Review

"Director Eric Tucker has done a terrific job in making no one in the play truly likeable, though all are sympathetic, which is ideal considering the overall message...You don’t walk away from 'Dead Dog Park' feeling good about what you saw even though what you saw was well done. It handles important issues well and makes you look at them more deeply than you might have when you first sat down in the theater." Full Review

"With everything stripped away, the actors are left to rely on their rawest emotions and instincts. The results are effective, and Tucker has crafted a production which is brimming with vulnerability from the small cast of six...'Dead Dog Park' is a powerful new play which is full of empathetic and complex characters. Backed by outstanding direction from Eric Tucker, this minimalist production addresses a touchy issue which is all too relevant to the times at hand." Full Review

"This ensemble cast is nothing short of exemplary and the script by Barry Malawer is powerfully bold in its construction of character-driven, intelligent dialogue...Eric Tucker deserves accolades for nurturing such compelling performances from his top-notch cast and creatively staging the action. All involved with this production should feel pride...If one play deserves to makes the jump from Off-Broadway to Broadway this year, it should be 'Dead Dog Park.'" Full Review

"There isn’t much to criticize in terms of character development, either in the script or in the efforts of the more-than-game cast...Because 'Dead Dog Park' forces us to view this conflict from the perspective of a presumed-innocent white police officer, we are then forced to ask of it: why?...There is a reactionary danger in asking a mostly-white Manhattan audience to side with the white authority figure." Full Review

"Malawer's dialogue is precise and curt, though at times inevitably bordering on cliché…The six-person cast delivers a first-rate performance, sustaining the story's compelling pace…Tucker knows how to get the most of a story told with a small cast…The result: a story that would normally take much more time to be told in a traditional production unfolds at a break-neck pace, often affecting intense raw passion. And the result is a memorable play." Full Review