"A singular, shape-shifting drama that transports audiences to places it never expects to go...Although the designers have magnified somewhat the sights and sounds of the production to accommodate a larger theater, it does not appear that the playwright has significantly altered the text. Nor have the actors modified their sterling performances...'Fairview' remains a striking, even startling, consideration of white perceptions regarding racial identity."
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"Twists and turns contain so many surprises, so many unexpected and occasionally jaw-dropping moments, that to describe them would be to ruin half the fun...'Fairview' is extraordinary. It is funny, it is insightful, and it is shocking. It makes you uncomfortable, in all the best ways. It leaves you thinking about it for days afterward, and then it leaves you rethinking what you’ve thought...As Trumpism has come into full flower, 'Fairview' is an eloquent, defiant response."
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"Smart, unexpected, richly layered, difficult, and even confrontational...‘Fairview’ moves from an unremarkable, sitcom-worthy premise to an urgent, incisive examination of how we think about race...Drury offers a window into the frustrations of living and creating as a Black person within our not-so-post-racial world. Thanks to her acute observations, this sharp cast, and Benson's pulsing production, 'Fairview'...is challenging, but always worth the attention."
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"Utterly fascinating and forceful play. Like a good food fight, it wildly throws out implied conventions and disturbing vantage points...It transitions dramatically into a heady examination of race, strongly held expectations, and white privilege. Layered on top is an upsettingly accurate internal dialogue...Directed with resolution and unabashed confidence...the piece pounds us forward dramatically, challenging us to overcome.”
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"The stunning production of 'Fairview,' Drury’s challenging play, is now being remounted with the same extraordinary cast and creative team...The new run offers theatergoers a second chance to see...But, for better or for worse, this second run also comes with a new context...Drury is making a larger point, delivered meta-theatrically, that black people always feel on stage, always being observed, judged, summed up. This message helps make 'Fairview' tricky to review."
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“The play is shattering in a literal sense...A knockout play about race...I’ve never felt more alone while surrounded by people on every side...The play’s scorching final act reversed my isolation to such an extreme that I felt more exposed than if I had succumbed to a primal scream. I later understood why...This isn’t just about a handful of made-up characters on stage, entertaining an audience one minute and forgotten the next."
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“Let me give you fair warning on 'Fairview,' Jackie Sibblies Drury’s dazzling and ruthless new play: If you see it — and you must — you will not be comfortable...You will also wind up questioning your basic right to sit there, especially if, you are a white person...Directed with disarming smoothness...Structured as a series of perspective-altering surprises, and they keep coming at you...A glorious, scary reminder of the unmatched power of live theater to rattle, roil and shake us wide awake.”
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"There are slight longueurs in Sarah Benson’s Soho Rep production—the provoking of mild impatience may be intentional—but its bolder strokes are unforgettable. ‘Fairview’ argues for the possibility of people of color representing themselves, onstage and off, without an overlay of white perception, judgment and narrative. It gently body-checks privilege.”
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