Indian Summer NYC Reviews and Tickets

"Although the play’s four characters are given sensitive readings by the fine cast, Mr. Moss’s play remains so muted that it feels like an overcast day at the shore...It feels vaguely formulaic, as if assembled from a kit to create, well, the kind of delicate-hued, funny-sad plays that Annie Baker specializes in. All the talk of the ocean brings to mind the play’s flaws: it has a washed-out, watery quality, and the characters, while agreeable company, are not exactly bottomlessly interesting."
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"A warm and gently breezy new play about teenage love on the Rhode Island seashore…The touchingly tentative coming-of-age dialogue of the first act is not quite matched by that of the second, but the engaging cast puts the play’s cosmic mildness across. Although Moss dips his toe into the dark and vast waters of the ocean, he doesn’t let it linger there for long. He’s more interested in what the tide brings in, however briefly, before washing it away along with who knows what else."
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"Life’s a beach in Gregory Moss’s coming-of-age dramedy. Abandoned by his mom, 16-year-old Daniel (Campbell) clicks with 17-year-old Izzy (Kibler), a local girl with an attitude and a beefy older boyfriend Jeremy (Tippett)...After a promising start, the play crumbles sandcastle-style due to cartoonish characters, an over-explanation of its themes and plot detours."
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"A complex (and somewhat sleepy) meditation on lost opportunities…Moss has some important insights about the nature of relationships, the injustice of circumstance, and the cruelty of time, but those observations would be a lot more impactful in a better-edited play. Presently, watching 'Indian Summer' feels a lot like hunting for a lost wedding ring in a watery cloud of sand and seaweed: We know something truly valuable is there, but it is hard to discern through all the muck."
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"A genial, if rather standard, coming-of-age play…There's some lovely writing when Daniel and Izzy start indirectly expressing affection for each other, and a bit of weirdness when George asks the teenage girl to put on one of his deceased wife's dresses and have a conversation with his as if she were her, but director Carolyn Cantor's strong cast is charming and 'Indian Summer' is a sweet bit of romantic nostalgia."
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"'Indian Summer' is an odd, but affecting, one - a romantic comedy and a meditation on loss, a tough-minded look at the fragility of relationships, and a sometimes illogically plotted tale that nevertheless makes clear how small choices can lead to unexpected results. The production benefits enormously from the sensitive performances of its cast...Moss doesn't go in for dramatic fireworks; instead he understands that the most profound effects are felt beneath the surface."
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"A lot of fraught talk about vague things and half-realized emotions, which results in what is, however comfy, a fraught, vague, and half-realized play…The conflicting notions of what the play is prevent it from ever fully cohering...The acting, though honest, is on the befuddled side…Daniel and Izzy's final scene together is a powerful tribute to the dying art of subtext. But as a whole, 'Indian Summer' fails because it wants everything but is willing to compromise on nothing."
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"Gregory S. Moss’ 'Indian Summer' at Playwrights Horizons is an uneasy mix of two stories, the first about the doomed romantic encounter between two teens and the second concerning the quiet existential suffering of an elderly man. Despite sudden shifts of tone, Moss manages to leave the audience feeling deeply for each of these characters."
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