Mankind
68

Mankind NYC Reviews and Tickets

68%
(209 Reviews)
Positive
59%
Mixed
26%
Negative
15%
Members say
Ambitious, Funny, Thought-provoking, Clever, Quirky

About the Show

Playwrights Horizons presents the world premiere of Robert O’Hara's ('Bootycandy') audacious comedy about a world without women.

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Member Reviews (209)

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716 Reviews | 157 Followers
71
Clever, Indulgent, Funny, Quirky, Thought-provoking

See it if You like satire, speculative plays about the future, feminist leaning productions with all-male casts, brisk staging

Don't see it if You're not a fan of feminist messages, men behaving badly, religious & cultural satire, dystopian fantasy or unexplained situations

670 Reviews | 156 Followers
72
Ambitious, Clever, Disappointing, Relevant, Slow

See it if you want to see the latest provocation from an important US playwright.

Don't see it if you hate when a high-concept play's high concept takes over & drives the vehicle off the road. Read more

635 Reviews | 237 Followers
81
Clever, Funny, Relevant, Indulgent, Edgy

See it if You enjoy post-apocalyptic plays that challenge current ways of thinking, especially with regards to religion.

Don't see it if You’re expecting a play that challenges one particular idea. This play rambles and isn’t sure of what exactly it’s challenging.

505 Reviews | 729 Followers
60
Great staging, Thought-provoking, Ambitious, Edgy, Indulgent

See it if you’re into sci-fi B movies and are looking for something completely different.

Don't see it if you prefer conventional theatre or aren’t into an all-male cast.

567 Reviews | 147 Followers
74
Thought-provoking

See it if if you like expensive staging larger than life with a thought-provoking what-if premise.

Don't see it if offended by same-sex farcical pregnancy.

459 Reviews | 117 Followers
60
Ambitious, Audacious, Unfocused, Indulgent, Disappointing

See it if you enjoy satire with an edge, even if it scattershot and unfocused.

Don't see it if you like a disciplined play with a clear focus Read more

Nic
470 Reviews | 91 Followers
84
Ambitious, Funny, Quirky, Underrated, Great staging

See it if you're a fan of what-if scenarios and unique storytelling.

Don't see it if you don't like daring theater. Read more

469 Reviews | 54 Followers
71
Ambitious, Entertaining, Relevant, Refreshing

See it if like O'Hara's work

Don't see it if not interested in current topical dialog

Critic Reviews (30)

The New York Times
January 8th, 2018

"The story keeps twisting even when you need it to stay put and shout. Another switcheroo arrives every few minutes, which quickly grows as tiresome and lets the satire deflate into mere sarcasm. It’s a problem of focus. Satire is about the sharpness of the darts but also of the targets. Here there are too many targets...This pinwheel of snark feels like a stunt, and there’s little that the cast can do, under the author’s distracted direction, to keep a feeling of agitated desperation at bay."
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Time Out New York
January 12th, 2018

“Even as 'Mankind' posits the radical adaptivity of male bodies, it suggests an equal adaptivity of patriarchal male rule as potentially disruptive energies are absorbed into a larger culture of surveillance, violence, control, and greed...Good material for satire, but O’Hara doesn’t seem sure how to shape it...Bravura moments are undermined by heavy-handed messaging and exposition. Like many an allegorical brainchild, the play seems like it was fun to conceive and harder to bring up right.”
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New York Magazine / Vulture
January 8th, 2018

"Jason and Mark mostly alternate between bro-y detachment and screaming at each other, but in one of 'Mankind’s' strongest scenes, they start to open up about their pasts...O’Hara here succeeds in bolstering his sketch-like premise with a much needed dose of sincerity. It doesn’t last: We soon return to the world of cartoonishly drawn supporting characters, destructive male venality and idiocy, and mostly predictable digs at our messy moment’s sorry state of things."
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Variety
January 8th, 2018

"The offbeat premise is intriguing, but the writer fails to take it all the way, choosing a surreal treatment that is visually stunning but intellectually hollow...O’Hara, doubling as director, hasn’t quite decided how he wants us to feel about Jason’s dilemma...Despite being twisted, the Christian symbolism is clever...But it’s alarming to realize that, although the play seems to have come to an end, it’s only intermission and there’s another whole act to go."
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Theatermania
January 8th, 2018

"We wait for comic gold to materialize, but it never does as 'Mankind' plods along for a leaden two hours...Offers neither the wit nor bite of O'Hara's earlier plays...My mind remained thoroughly unblown by a play that is not nearly funny enough to compensate for all its plot deficiencies...O'Hara serves as his own director, resulting in a saggy presentation that betrays an almost religious reverence for the text...No characters ever rise above a broadly drawn sketch."
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BroadwayWorld
January 9th, 2018

“O’Hara’s wild gender politics satire...While the plot gets a little muddy in the second act...’Mandkind’ is so high-charged with imagination and audacity for its first half that the fumes of creative energy keep pushing it forward...Though the plot involves Feminism, ‘Mankind’ is more about the better side of men in their attempts to understand women; often looking foolish in the process, but still well-meaning.”
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Lighting & Sound America
January 9th, 2018

“A ponderous, largely laugh-free affair that begins on a mildly inventive revue-sketch note and quickly proceeds to box itself in, leading to a second act that roams far and wide in search of a salient comic point...O'Hara's satire is so vague and generalized as to be toothless...The production coasts on the considerable charisma of its leading men...A satire without much sting -- O'Hara gets so tangled up in the details of his dystopia that his outrage is rather badly muffled.”
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Talkin' Broadway
January 8th, 2018

"The play's very funny, very human opening is unfortunately quickly subsumed by a host of big ideas and controversial social issues...It all feels scattershot, and as a result, 'Mankind' is as frustrating as it is enervating...The second act is even loopier and more meandering than the first...Above all else, 'Mankind' lacks a self-reflective level of irony that might have made the play more successful as social satire...The play might have been more appropriately titled 'Mansplain.'"
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