Dutch Masters NYC Reviews and Tickets

"A good, tidy play, in its structure and even in its metaphors...The script asks provocative questions about appropriation and responsibility, but mostly it titrates its information in a slow, suspenseful drip, gradually revealing more and more about the circumstances that have drawn these two young men together. Each revelation reorients the relationship a couple of degrees...If 'Dutch Masters' were messier, it might be even better."
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"Holland crafts powerful stage portraits that play on Duff's swaggering buff blackness and Horowitz's timid, well-meaning whiteness; their physical interaction suggests a tense game of chess that keeps threatening to spill over into violence or sex...Although their star turns yield moments of heartbreaking drama, 'Dutch Masters' remains a one-note issue play. The basic situation is implausible...The back-and-forth interrogation that ensues seems formulaic."
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"A concise yet impactful work that manages to pack in a lot about troubled race relations in the US...Duff and Jake Horowitz's performances are especially vivid in highlighting the contrasts between the two characters, with Duff's alternately charismatic and terrifying extroversion bouncing off Horowitz's general nervous anxiety...A viscerally gripping experience...also a thought-provoking one, bound to inspire reflection long after its immediate intensity has worn off.""
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"Engrossing and racially charged two-character drama...with its shattering plot twist...In 70 gripping minutes, Keller takes this familiar premise in a compelling direction. His biting dialogue reflects the divisive era...Holland's kinetic staging mines all the tension possible with his varied pacing. The play's Pinteresque qualities are fully realized by Holland's strong grasp of stagecraft...Though its primary theme of race is vividly imparted, 'Dutch Masters' succeeds as well as a searing mystery."
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"Under the direction of actor André Holland, the impressive young cast navigates the play’s shifts and ambiguities beautifully...Keller’s script lets us down in the final moments, the action coming to an abrupt, anticlimactic stop. The situation it depicts may, indeed, have no neat resolution, but these characters deserve a better ending. It’s a testament to how well the rest of 'Dutch Masters' works that its disappointing conclusion is so jarring; overall, it’s a ride worth taking."
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"Holland has every sense of pacing of the play, written by his former NYU colleague, Keller. His script calls for frequent shifts in status, and the filmic quality of the performance feels like additional scenes could easily be spliced in. Holland also seems to love the everyday slice of life, perhaps, a vision of his younger self. Eric, played by Duff, is extraordinarily present. Steve, played by Horowitz, builds moments with an incredible sense of truth."
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"One of those plays that dares you to ask yourself some difficult questions...Expertly played by these two fine actors, they talk, with great discomfort and suspicion, about books, summer school, weed, girls, and plans for the afternoon. The connection between the two ricochet around, giving us a great deal to play with in terms of what is going on inside their heads...The interaction is tense with this conflict of viewpoints, but also hilariously well-played."
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"Tightly structured by Keller and beautifully directed by Holland...The source of their emotional bond gradually unfolds to become the heart of the play...The first half of the play unfolds almost like a mystery story...Every time you think you have a handle on it, another piece of data emerges and shifts the frame...The whole thing snaps into place. Everything you’ve seen before make perfect sense, and the whole scope of the play becomes both larger and more intimate."
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"We learn why when Steve leaves the train with Eric and goes to his apartment, a little more than halfway through...This is the moment at which 'Dutch Masters' becomes more engaging and more pointed...Requires a suspension of disbelief...Both the playwright and the director help guide the two talented young cast members into giving performances that manage to keep us tense and in suspense."
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“‘Dutch Masters’ is an intriguing, tense and thoughtful two-hander that rifts on race and class while exploring a relationship between two young men who meet, apparently by happenstance, on the subway. It tries to understand why these two young adults see life, often even the same incidents, through completely different eyes. Sometimes the views are aligned, but more often disparate vantage points preclude a common understanding. It is wonderful.”
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"Keller's skillful writing and directorial talent by Holland have created a work of racial inequality that resonates...Erick (a tour-de-force performance by Ian Duff) is a young black man riding the NYC subway...What starts as a harmless and then irksome exchange...morphs into a distressing and volatile encounter that reveals clear-eyed picture beneath the hazy gauze of ignorance...This production paints a powerful and eloquent statement of our nation's challenges and lack of progress."
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