Marjorie Prime NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (63)
See it if You appreciate great acting, contemplating the issues of aging, family relations.
Don't see it if Aging and human frailty are fearful topics.
See it if Insightful intelligent introspective soul-searching
Don't see it if Must see
See it if you want to catch Lois Smith live in an incredible play before it gets turned into a potentially Oscar nominating performance in 2017.
Don't see it if you can't handle death & grieving even as it's doled out with a sci-fi quirk that leaves an indelible mark on all who saw it.
See it if If you have ever suffered the loss of a loved one. This was a moving exploration of how future technology might change the grieving process.
Don't see it if You want something light and fluffy.
See it if Extremely original, thought provoking and well acted. The plot unfolded in three acts, each more riveting than the last
Don't see it if You want something light, fluffy and happy
See it if you are interested in elder care and end of life issues treated with thoughtful care.
Don't see it if you feel manipulated by sci-fi gimmicks.
See it if you like to see modern plays that showcase talented younger generation playwright.
Don't see it if you don't like sci-fi and you have a recent loss in your life.
See it if you like considering implications of future technology and enjoy clever, well-thought out playwriting
Don't see it if you don't want to think about death, aging, or mortality. You want to see a cheerful and joyous play.
Critic Reviews (28)
"Harrison takes the scenario exactly to where you'd expect and by the end of the play's seventy minutes we're in a world of artificial life passing on a history that never was. It's a premise with potential, but once the scenario is revealed and the morality issues debated, the drama is played out with little intrigue or surprise."
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"'Marjorie Prime' isn't especially dramatic; it works by stating and restating its initial situation...Anne Kauffman's beautifully acted production keeps raising nagging questions...By the finale, 'Marjorie Prime' is in danger of not making sense...'Marjorie Prime' is best enjoyed as a chamber piece, and on those terms it certainly has a creepily insinuating effect."
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"Infinitely complex, intellectually provocative, and flagrantly moral, 'Marjorie Prime' is a masterpiece of dramatic construction and execution...Kauffman's production could hardly be better: crisp, futuristic, and yet resolutely now, a cry from the future to the present. Despite the cast's and Kauffman's best efforts, however, parts of the play, particularly in the first half, tend to drag...Even so, 'Marjorie Prime' is an absolute winner."
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"On a technical level 'Marjorie Prime' is expertly constructed and contains serviceable dialogue that propels the plot, but in totality it never rises above the level of an academic contrivance. The premise is a familiar but promising one, but in execution it is flat."
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"'Marjorie Prime' is an ambitious and provocative rumination on the crossroads to which all our journeys through life lead. The every day aspects of the play cover much that's predictable...Fortunately, under the direction of Anne Kauffman the in and out movement between ordinary and extraordinary is accomplished with subtle fluidity. Best of all, the cast is more than up to tapping into the nuances of the characters. "
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"Anne Kaufman directs with a steady hand. Even scene changes are well orchestrated...We can see the stagehands but we can’t see them well, reflecting the blurring of light/life and death/ obscurity at the heart of the play. 'Marjorie Prime' dips a little toward the end but bounces right back. It raises all sorts of questions about that most basic of topics: life and death. It answers none of them, observing and imagining but offering no pithy answers."
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"But mostly the AI conceit feels like a device for examining the one, inherently human condition that no robot can know: death and grieving. The story-telling process of programming the primes offers the most interesting parts of the drama...This is where 'Marjorie Prime' has the most to say; the plot surprises afforded by the AI story come off as mere provocation."
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"Insightful and only slightly science fiction play...The main strength of 'Marjorie Prime' is not in its imagining of future robots, but in its precise perceptions of present-day family dynamics...There is much humor in the telling and retelling of the family stories, and much precision in the performances of the four actors, under the expert direction of Anne Kauffman."
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