"The show describes itself as a 'theatrical multimedia meditation,' which means that it’s purely atmosphere: On Christopher and Justin Swader’s long horizontal set – an open trench that somehow smells of moist earth — director Kristjan Thor has actors amble around and murmur about abandonment."
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"Characters seem to be at once on Hart Island, in the stories as they are relaying them, and in a support group, all of which are conveyed by Christopher and Justin Swader's multi-tier set. A level of mulch brings the earth into the theater and seems to contain secrets, like an archeological site. Mentally, you'll still be digging hours after the end of the play as you entertain connections between these characters that might not be immediately apparent."
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"Similar to the set design, the play is heavy. There is a lot of emotion on the stage that can take some time to settle. The stories of these characters and of the history of Hart Island stick with you well after you leave that gym. It's the bodies that are buried there that haunt you, yes, but so much more. There is a lighter reflection here too. A sense of how tragedy can bring us all together no matter our background, and unite us in a way we never felt possible."
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Whether or not Tracy Weller’s Hart Island directly harkens back to Masters, it certainly has similarities, most particularly in its poetically rendered revelations of the underbelly of life and death. Weller turns Hart Island, impeccably rendered in Christopher & Justin Swader’s set occupying most of The Gym at Judson, into a dark metaphor revealing more than any statistics or headlines could ever do about existence during the Covid pandemic.
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"Mason Holdings’ haunting 'Hart Island' epitomizes downtown, avant-garde performance at its best: cerebral, theatrical, scrupulously researched, and bursting with heart."
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