See it if you like brilliant actors at the top of their game, Mary Louise Burke is AMAZING.Entire cast is terrific.Story is interesting & well written
Don't see it if Actually I can't think of any reason NOT to see this.I guess if all you like are showy musicals, this might not appeal.But go anyway.
See it if A quiet stunner from Annie Baker working at her peak, this is a gorgeous, meditative work performed by a killer cast.
Don't see it if Baker isn’t afraid of silence or letting moments take their time to build. I’m sure some will be bored, but I was riveted and moved deeply.
See it if You're a fan of Annie Baker's work. You are willing to listen, laugh, be disturbed, appreciate something that isn't flashy.
Don't see it if You can't sit through shows with silences, pauses, endings that don't wrap things in neat packages. Read more
See it if you like cutting edge theater with great acting and real feeling and humor
Don't see it if you like conventional musicals or something lighthearted
See it if you want to see five of the best actresses in New York (and one man) give a master class in what old pros can do.
Don't see it if you’re squeamish about talk about illness and bodily pain, or you want to hear every line (I have good hearing but still missed many lines).
See it if You’re an Annie Baker fan with an appetite for off-beat drama.
Don't see it if You’re not prepared to be bored between exuberant explosions of original dramaturgy. Read more
See it if As someone living with chronic pain, the frank discussions depicted here resonated strongly.
Don't see it if Inclusion of the male character did seem to undercut the draw of having five older women discussing pain and lived experiences. Read more
See it if you like minimalist writing style with long pauses and a depressing atmosphere. Lot's of dark dark laughter.
Don't see it if want a simple, light heart play. the play can be upsetting, with challenging topics.
CRITIC’S PICK: “For all the detailed behavior that shows up at the surface — the various ways the women sip from their water bottles, the shuffling or striding or creeping to their chaises — you always sense the greater weight of whatever lies beneath. That the characters also live in a world of ideas gives the play its intellectual heft and complex texture, both light and profound.”
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“ ‘Infinite Life’ is a play about pain and illness — about the messed-up guilt and meaning we ascribe to these uncontrollable things, and the crises of identity and faith that they cause, and the way in which they so often go ignored, dismissed, under-researched, and preyed upon, especially in women.”
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“...’Infinite Life,’ Annie Baker’s tender and compassionate but staunchly unsentimental new play about people living with chronic pain and disease.”
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“Pain may be trapped in the sufferer’s body, but great acting in such primal, honest drama can soothe a collective hurt.”
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“Director James Macdonald assembled an ace ensemble...If ’Infinite Life’ doesn’t quite knit together into a fully satisfying whole, it’s always worthwhile to see what’s currently on the playwright’s mind. And it doesn’t hurt one bit when the acting is exceptional.”
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“In ’Infinite Life,’ Baker isolates the simple act of existing as (or in) a body and shows us how it’s not so simple.”
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“ ‘Infinite Life’ has much to say about the ideas it explores, and it does so with laser-sharp exactitude...Baker has never shied away from writing plays that run over three hours in length, but, despite its dragged-out ending, this one seems to cry out for more.”
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“If there is anything, um, debilitating about ’Infinite Life,’ it’s that the action — or inaction — is dictated by the halting rhythms of pain...Audiences exiting likely won’t have felt actual pain in sympathy with the characters but maybe will understand its enervating effects as never before. Baker deserves much thanks for that.”
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