Is God Is NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (31)
See it if you like theatre that grabs you by the throat and throttles you for 90 minutes of sheer vitality and bloody life
Don't see it if you dislike theatre that engages all aspects of your being, like to relax and unwind in the theatre; you dislike visually aggressive shows Read more
See it if Ultimate dysfunctional family is fated by a revenge curse. Cycle of violence in the extreme. Gripping language. Jolting staging & sound.
Don't see it if You aren’t prepared for a grotesque, brutally violent play. The few moments of humor just set up more intensity.
See it if you like theater that goes for your guts; will see a play about volcanic, justified rage (not the more commonly known blind, stupid rage)
Don't see it if you prefer the intensity of people’s emotions to be tempered, suggested, and never fully revealed; favor revivals of tried & true material Read more
See it if you like Greek tragedy set in contemporary times, dark, thought-provoking theatre that will challenge you
Don't see it if prefer comedy, musicals or light entertainment. This production has rough language and themes. Read more
See it if you like revenge fantasy plays that are bursting with inventive theatricality.
Don't see it if shows that center around violence bother you
See it if You want riveting unrelenting drama and trauma
Don't see it if Youre looking for traditional revenge play in an uncoventional setting, and unsettling story
See it if You love a good revenge play.
Don't see it if You can't deal with violence on stage.
See it if you like fresh new theater.
Don't see it if you dislike bloody violence. Although the play is great at exploring the awful consequences of violence, it is still violent.
Critic Reviews (12)
"A snarly new master of high-octane carnage has risen into view...'Is God Is' may be pitched in a key of absurd exaggeration...But this production also implicitly asks us to consider the roots, futility, and inevitability of cyclical violence...No allusive echo is merely random in this play, written in a vernacular epic style...Its masterstroke is newly contextualizing ages-old themes and motifs into a thoroughly contemporary, divided African-American landscape."
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"Characters crack jokes, but the play is far more tragedy than comedy...Although the action in Taibi Magar’s excellent Soho Rep production happens in two planes it feels appropriately epic...The performances are strong, particularly by the two pairs of twins. Harris writes so blisteringly that the actors could just let the language’s flames carry them along. But the masterful Hughes proves to be the perfect kindling for it, and Fuller is heartbreaking."
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"It feels both exciting and… well…not quite as epic as it could...I kept longing for the work within it to feel more expansive, more explosive. The potential is there. Harris’s play is a rich, funny, unnerving, exhilarating goldmine — its current production is only unearthing some of its treasure...It’s ultimately Magar who could push the production further...The current staging often leaves the twins feeling static...The attacks become more theatrically interesting than shocking."
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"Considering its subject matter, 'Is God Is' shouldn't be a funny play, but it often is — albeit with diminishing returns...Harris's superficial treatment of the ancient theme of revenge feels like an excuse for her true passion: giddy gore topped off with a snappy throwaway line...Harris and Magar seems less interested in elucidating this zero-sum violence than shoving it into an awkward box and allowing us to gawk at its grotesque extremity...The theater can do so much more."
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"More an act of provocation than a fully realized play. Harris also owes a debt of gratitude to her director, Taibi Magar, whose knack for bravura staging marks her as someone to watch. 'Is God Is' runs the gamut from gripping to grating, but, in any case, it makes an impression...Either the bleakest of tragedies or a blatant piece of manipulation...Might leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, but I'm betting it will leave you curious to see what it's author does next."
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"Aleshea Harris' ‘Is God Is,’ the second winner of The Relentless Award, now having its world premiere at the newly renovated Soho Rep is an absolutely ferocious play. Channeling the Greek plays, ‘Electra and Medea’, the Jacobeans, the early plays of Sam Shepard and the Spaghetti westerns, this is the revenge play to top them all. Directed by Taibi Magar who also staged the equally relentless ‘Underground Railroad Game’ at Ars Nova, ‘Is God Is’ makes for riveting theater.”
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"Harris, Magar, and the cast and designers delicately situate themselves at the intersection of high and lowbrow. The play's narrative would be at home in a pulp film, yet its approach is a rigorous one, interrogating questions of ethics, morality, genre, and representation. The real feat, though, is that it does this while telling a darkly funny and, at times, genuinely disturbing story. There are moments where the content of the play is hard to watch. Fortunately, this production never is."
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"The story that rolls out is not filled with hearts and flowers. It is not happily ever after. It is ruthless and oddly comic at the same time...Purely feminine. There is no man on whom the sisters rely or with whom they confer...Depend only on themselves...This is writing that goes deep, not wide...There is nothing and no one who is extraneous...Ditto for the direction by Magar which is spare and spot-on...An allegory about the human condition."
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