Her Requiem NYC Reviews and Tickets

"A thoughtful, beautifully acted new play...directed with assurance by Kate Whoriskey...Mr. Pierce’s characters are superbly drawn, his dialogue smooth and smart. He’s a promising writer...But the plotting of 'Her Requiem' becomes a little baggy...From this point the play becomes diffuse, a quilt of underdeveloped subplots."
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"Contrived and gently pretentious, Greg Pierce’s 'Her Requiem' is the Off Broadway equivalent of a 'New Yorker' short story...Characters are improbably glib yet earnest; moral stakes are real but unfrightening; the tone is bittersweet puzzlement...Pierce raises several questions over 90 minutes, few of which he answers to satisfaction...The acting is strong, with Friedman and Winningham—two of New York’s finest character actors—touchingly torn between protecting their child and their marriage."
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"While it boasts strong performances and pungent dialogue, 'Her Requiem' fails to make much narrative or thematic sense...Besides that absurd plot device, the playwright fumbles the ball with his characterizations...Director Kate Whoriskey...is unable to lend much coherence to the emotionally scattered proceedings. Nor are the performers, although such veterans as Friedman, Winningham and Van Patten deliver their usual unimpeachable work."
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"Greg Pierce’s well-written but ineffectual play about a teenage wunderkind whose miraculous musical genius turns her home life upside-down and inspires a morbid death cult....After introducing the characters and giving us some background on how everyone got here, the playwright seems at a loss...The only tension in the air is between Caitlin's warring parents, who at least argue with intelligence and some eloquence."
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"A fascinating look at the fine line between commitment and obsession, practicality and philistinism...Director Kate Whoriskey hits all the right notes, a happy meeting of smart design and layered performances...Winningham and Friedman have a believable chemistry...Pierce probingly explores our tendency to see our own issues in a great work of art, even if those themes weren't intended by the artist."
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"A solid production by director Kate Whoriskey, but Pierce's promising text could use some consistency of tone. The play seems somewhat satirical at first, which undercuts the moments of discomforting reality between Caitlin and Tommy, who may or may not be aware of his predatory manipulations...A variation of the stage-mother scenario,'Requiem' has some interesting ideas that haven't quite coalesced yet, but with Winningham and Friedman at the center, the piece certainly intrigues."
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"Little of what he's built captures your imagination, or for that matter your attention...The surprises and misdirections that crop up along the way, as everyone begins jockeying for position closest to Caitlin's gaze, are compelling. Not much else, however...Further, tone problems are rampant...Aside from Winningham, the acting is uneven, too."
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"'Her Requiem' is hardly flawless, but Pierce hits some right notes. Its characters are intriguingly if perhaps way too off-beat. And if does pose some interesting questions about artists, art, and what price a young artist like Caitlin — and her family — must pay before a work emerges into the light."
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"Greg Pierce writes a wandering path that leads to the showdown, and these actors bring their A-game all the way through...In the end, it comes down to the two men battling it out...[but] it is the women who sort through the ballast in this tale. It just takes the author a long time to get us there. Next outing we would all be okay with getting there sooner and opening up the gates leading out of archetypes into the unknown."
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"Improbable if skillfully acted new drama....The play takes a couple of even more unexpected turns. I won’t spoil them except to say that they feel imposed by the playwright, in order to goose up an otherwise tame story, and to make it more thought provoking...Pierce can thank director Kate Whoriskey for assembling a first-class design team and a group of actors who, by their very presence nearly guarantee something worth watching."
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"Some of this is improbable, not to mention a little melodramatic, but director Kate Whoriskey has put together an elegant production. I wanted to move right into the comfortable home that set designer Derek McLane has created for the family. And the casting couldn't be better....But it's all a little too much for a 90-minute play. 'Her Requiem' is ambitious but it both overpromises and underperforms."
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"Life is mirroring art, which is mirroring life, in 'Her Requiem', the ambitious new play by Greg Pierce...'Her Requiem' addresses various intriguing ideas...but their execution lacks coherence at times...At the conclusion of the play, Caitlin’s requiem is completed, but the audience only hears the first chords. It seems an appropriate metaphor for this play which, with a few rewrites and sharpened focus, could be quite excellent."
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