See it if enjoy well-acted stylized comedies. All female cast playing all the parts. Enjoy spoofs. et into the style (well directed), a real hoot.
Don't see it if want drama or a show with big ideas.
See it if With a plague & a 10th century text, Horowitz sets the Madonna/Whore trope spinning Broad comedic acting & arch stylization abound winningly
Don't see it if The absurdist repetition & Davis' overtly showy direction often show up Horowitz's flaws esp when the script looses sight of Mary's journey
See it if well acted absurdist show with a bright young cast
Don't see it if you want a coherent piece with traditional plot lines and accessible comedy
See it if you value obscure source material. Here it's Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim’s Medieval dramedy "Abraham, or the Rise and Repentance of Mary."
Don't see it if you were never a Richard Foreman fan or a Suzan-Lori Parks fan or a Wooster Group fan but if you don't know who they are, give this a try. Read more
See it if You enjoy a simple comedic version of serious dramatic writing
Don't see it if You are expecting a hilarious production it was clever and sweet.
See it if You appreciate eclectic and nontraditional stagecraft and witty heroines
Don't see it if you prefer period-accurate stagings
See it if you want a work inspired by a female Middle Ages canoness about divine redemption told in a modern style with a lot of fun.
Don't see it if you want more of a traditional work or a modern setting and not want to infer too much. Read more
See it if Sparkling comic take on a 10th century play about a plague orphan taken in by religious fanatics. An all-female cast excels at broad comedy
Don't see it if A classic play made comic for modern sensibilities and current issues. A remarkable production, but not as winning as Jenkins's An Octoroon
From the acting style, as directed by Josiah Davis, the play seems to be a spoof. Unfortunately, it is not funny though the actors cheerfully mug their way through Horwitz’s text as though they find it hilarious. Its Middle Ages protagonist Mary played by Haley Wong is so naïve and unsophisticated that it is difficult to believe her portrayal. Much of the dialogue is very repetitious and becomes tedious while the plot is so emaciated that it is a wonder that it takes 80 minutes of playing time.
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Hrotsvitha, a German canoness who wrote in Latin, intended “Abraham, or Fall and Redemption of Mary” to glorify Christian virtue…while Horwitz, a queer Jewish woman writing eleven centuries later, wants her adaptation to get laughs. I’ll confess it was mostly other theatergoers who laughed…but I did find the script pointed and witty, and the use of an all-female cast clever, and that itself was a kind of redemption.
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