Killing Time NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (12)
See it if you like new plays
Don't see it if you dislike plays that need some workshopping
See it if seeing a mother and daughter perform together is enough for you; you enjoy 2 character relationship plays even if the writing is flawed
Don't see it if you're expecting a well-written play; you're hoping for a dynamic production
See it if You're interested in the premise.
Don't see it if You don't want to see a slow show with patchy acting.
See it if You appreciate very good acting. You deal with issues of aging and terminal illness.
Don't see it if If you would rather not see a rather dark play, even with some black humor.
See it if you have interest in issues of end of life loneliness and desire to control one's own fate. Good dialog. Gradually revealing story-line.
Don't see it if you want a light evening.
See it if you are comfortable with a script that focusses on death. There is plenty of humor tossed in but it is about death and what you leave behind
Don't see it if if you don't like two-hander plays, themes about death, small theaters, simple staging Read more
See it if Cellist (played live by actor) wishes to end her life w/ social worker assisting as sound board. Confounds aged stereotype.Actors related.
Don't see it if This Brits Off Broadway entry lacks cohesion (projections), but this dramedy's raison d'etre is built around the live cello.W/o it, standard Read more
See it if You enjoy seeing the British imports at 59E59. Acting was very good but script was not. Seemed longer than 90 minutes.
Don't see it if I don’t think many people would enjoy this play. A one note rant about wanting to die. I noticed that many fell asleep during the show. Read more
Critic Reviews (11)
"This well-crafted dark comedy keenly addresses end of life issues...Brigit Forsyth's performance as Hester Brooke is outstanding...The Creative Team has done a wonderful job of setting the scene for 'Killing Time'...'Killing Time' is being presented in the intimate Theater B, an ideal, space for the show. Metro area audiences will be entertained and moved by this compelling production."
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"Sara is a bit of a train wreck, and, for her character to make any sense, she would need far more exploration than she gets here. This is rather strange, since Mills, the playwright, also plays Sara, so she has no one but herself to whom she can complain about her thinly written role...The director, Antony Eden, is hard-pressed to make anything of this uneventful dramatic endgame...It's a cup of weak tea when something far stronger is indicated."
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"This British production is a family effort, as Forsyth and Mills are mother and daughter in real life. The play is worth seeing primarily for the sharp and uncompromising performance of Forsyth, whose blunt-talking, often-witty Hester is a joy to watch, even in her darkest moments. The production also uses Forsyth's skills as a cellist-and as a composer-to great effect."
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“While it contains the seed of a promising drama, and a sharply crafted performance…, too many of its 90 minutes do little more than mark time…Eden's low-key, slow-paced production, too rarely enlivened by humor, does little to ignite our concern. Mill's episodic play is simply too talky and desultory, large swaths of it little more than Hester's depressing soliloquies...If there's any reason to kill time at 'Killing Time' it's to see Brigit Forsyth's believable portrait of a dying artist.”
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"Forsyth gives a feisty performance as Hester Brooke...What keeps Mills’ play going is the acting. Forsyth communicates Hester’s concerns about what her life has meant, and morbid humor is mined when Sara reads Hester a pre-prepared obituary...This is a slight work, but the intimacy with the closely-seated audience and the acting intensity of Forsyth and Mills keep things rolling in a manner that makes us question the course of mortality."
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“A poignant look at death and our legacy in world that can’t live up to the fantasies prescribed in our literature, our movies, and the internet. However, at times the sardonic humor so typical of British comedy can fall a little flat. This does not appear to be the fault of the delivery, but rather that the lines are a bit too scripted...’Killing Time’ is an at times thought-provoking, at times funny 90 minutes that leaves you with an uncomfortable balance of depression and hope.”
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"A peculiar two-hander about a professional cellist with a terminal illness and a sort-of social worker who may be the angel of death...It limps its way through some half-hearted meditations on living, dying, and legacy...It’s directed, just about, by Antony Eden, whose flat production does nothing to sustain flagging interest levels...I saw this show two days ago and have already entirely forgotten how it ends. 'Killing Time' in more ways than one."
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"Stuff happens. An old friend dies. Sara gets drunk. Hester plays the cello. Revelations spill out. But it always feels as if these are excuses for Mills to philosophise uninspiringly about death, about music, and about legacy. There’s never a palpable sense of drama or jeopardy, just a long, meandering, morbid conversation strung out over 90 minutes...The whole thing ends up an unconcluded muddle, grasping for a trite kookiness that never materialises."
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