See it if You enjoy Will Eno's writing style and sense of humor, and you're looking for a play with a resonant message.
Don't see it if You're looking for a show with a lot of action, or you're not a fan of Will Eno.
See it if you are intrigued with Will Eno as a writer and love his warped sensibility. He keeps you attentive to his view of the world.
Don't see it if you want theater that is dead on and clear and you don't have to think so much. This is deftly a play that require audience attention.
See it if Morality play about selfishness. But it’s really about endless opportunities to love. Full of irony & humor, expertly performed. Great sets
Don't see it if You won’t enjoy dark dry humor and a meandering main character with little plot. Each vignette has a similar message, but is a creative gem.
See it if You are into theater of the absurd, you like to think at the theater, you love how words can be used so deliciously
Don't see it if You prefer naturalistic plays with a straightforward story line, you don't want to be challenged to ponder as you are walking out
See it if you love: Will Eno and/or Henrik Ibsen's plays, dry comedy and actors who can pull of such material. Enjoy contemporary reworking of classic
Don't see it if you don't like dry comedy, or line delivery by actors that is intentionally flat. If you only like musicals, need your Ibsen very faithful Read more
See it if You want a truly odd story with very dry humor and an anti hero protagonist. Great acting and staging.
Don't see it if It gets slow at times and is quirky enough to throw you if you don't go with it. If you don't like Will Eno's work don't see it.
See it if you are a fan of repurposing older shows.
Don't see it if you do not like Ibsen or dry humor.
See it if You enjoy humorous (and slightly sad) plays that are modern fresh plays on classics.
Don't see it if You’re looking for something straightforward and quick moving.
"The playwright Will Eno puts his own stamp on Ibsen’s version in “Gnit,” which opened at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn on Sunday night. Portraying the protagonist as a listless young man on a search for self, Eno ends up with a funny story that is myopic in scope — a self-aware and sometimes cloyingly precocious thought experiment in individualism and identity."
Read more
"Peer Gynt was initially received with a mix of praise and skepticism. Eno’s work has often divided audiences similarly, with some calling him an heir to Samuel Beckett and others protesting that, like Peter, he falls short of realizing the lofty goals he sets. Gnit almost seems like a response to such critics, as if to say: I may be on a doomed quest for meaning, but just go with it."
Read more
"What’s strange about the show, now resuscitated after its long hiatus, is that a Rip Van Winkle air still hangs around it. For its entire two-hour length and for a while thereafter, it’s disorienting, making you feel as though you’ve just woken up...Gnit is an odd night at the theater, full of suspended understanding and puzzled laughter. Eno writes droll, sorrowful jokes that land late enough that your mind doesn’t have time to be amused or upset."
Read more
"The worlds of fairy tale and Will Eno are both capable of revealing the beating hearts that lie underneath their metaphysical messages. Gnit, unfortunately, just doesn't seem to have a strong enough pulse."
Read more
"Ultimately, Gnit is a minimalist account of an epic, using small deflecting jokes to shy away from anything like grandiosity. It's to Butler's credit that his cast doesn't try to oversell this limited material, but it's harder to tell what anyone sees in it."
Read more
"Will Eno’s wry, contemporary Gnit solves the problem of attempting to stage Ibsen’s unwieldy, five-hour verse play Peer Gynt...Heavily influenced by the plays of Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco, Gnit is a journey of the self to enlightenment with travel throughout the world. Part road movie, part folklore, and part horror story, Gnit makes an old play new again."
Read more
"Peter Gnit himself admits that he may not be the most sympathetic character, though as he is portrayed by Joe Curnutte, we see an internal dialogue between sympathy, apathy, and a commitment to the journey within him. As he looks back upon his journey at the end of the play, we wonder – was it worth it? Did he find the truest sense of self – and if he did, what did it cost him?"
Read more
"The first act of “Gnit” is crazy funny, and so it’s unexpected when Oliver Butler’s flippant direction turns dark with the death of Peter’s mother at the end of the first act. We’ve watched this woman and her son go at each other for over an hour; but now at the final moment, regardless of all the crap that’s gone down in their pitiful lives together, death breaks an elemental bond from which Peter will never recover. The final scene of act one is powerful, heart-wrenching theater."
Read more