Wilderness NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (54)
See it if Really powerful and personal. Everyone should be able to relate to something in it. Emotional piece for sure. Clever use of visuals.
Don't see it if You don't like self-examination pieces or therapy centered narratives.
See it if Absorbing, heartfelt work about psychic healing thru therapy in the wild. Intense acting & multi-media presentation help cover bumpy script
Don't see it if Entertainment value is questionable, an evening of mental illness is difficult; has a bit of public service/presentational quality about it
See it if you enjoy real problems for youngsters in today's world,
Don't see it if you only need a story of Life With Father in a happy fantasy world.
See it if You enjoy documentary stories. You like natural, realistic dialogue & relationships. You like plays about social issues.
Don't see it if You want light entertainment. You don't like plays about social issues. You prefer more crafted dialogue w/a clear, resolved ending.
See it if you enjoy mixed media presentations. It really works here.
Don't see it if do not like dramas about broken people from broken families and the results there from.
See it if You enjoy well balanced and intelligent writing about very real problems.
Don't see it if You want easy answers to how children become problem kids.
See it if you want a multimedia drama/documentary about troubled teens & the pain it causes them & their families
Don't see it if you would be distracted by or find the play slowed by videos interspersed with the acting Read more
See it if you're interested in hearing stories of adolescence and families focusing on identity and finding yourself.
Don't see it if you'd prefer to see actors of a more professional caliber delivering strong material. Some of this felt rushed, moments were too short.
Critic Reviews (5)
"A terrific, moving new multimedia theater piece about troubled youth...Despite the complexity of its structure, the production’s emotional fluency is bell-clear, as is its honesty about the complex and sometimes mysterious roots of the characters’ problems...The young actors are all superb...'Wilderness' is at its eloquent best when it is simplest, when the characters and their parents discuss their lives, in unadorned language, with an honesty that is deeply affecting."
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"There isn't much new here. The play never becomes more than a static after-school special of the '90s. The performances themselves also feel forced and not fully lived in...Director Bockley places this collage together as best as he can, though the performances can never recover from their moments of forced sweater-on-chair ballet. I craved more time with each scene, allowing us to understand and explore each moment with nuance rather than melodrama and interpretative dance."
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"Now and then the juxtaposition of interview footage with scripted scenes took some of the punch out of the latter...Interpretive movement sequences, directed by Devon de Mayo and Patrick McCollum, did not seem entirely necessary but nonetheless fit in with the overall aesthetic. While some of the stories, at times, seemed to become repetitive, the play ends on an uplifting note...In the hands of its talented cast and imaginative creative team, the stories take on incredible life."
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"A compassionate glimpse at the outer edge of teenage angst...A smart ensemble of young actors turns the real-life stories from Hamburger's research into an endearing constellation of high school kids in distress...Though it's poignant to hear from the parents, the interactions between the teens are what's most compelling here...There's a lot of beauty here. Between scenes, the teenagers perform unison choreography, which is, often, evocative and graceful."
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"What could be maudlin and sentimental is anything but. In one of the most vivid moments a kid reveals that her mother tried to hang her when she was younger. A counselor burst out into tears (usually crying onstage is the sign of lazy writing) and when asked why says, 'it just seems like someone should cry,' in a plainspoken way that can only break your heart. One of the greatest strengths of 'Wilderness' is that it feels too real to be a play."
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