Nat Turner in Jerusalem NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (107)
See it if you like shows that make you wonder what's actually going on, & leave you no less confused than when you arrived. Not much actually happens.
Don't see it if you're hoping to understand Nat Turner better. The dialogue goes on and on with very little of substance being communicated. Read more
See it if You are interested in slavery, American history, relevance to today's racial politics.
Don't see it if You don't like shows that are mostly talk with few characters.
See it if you like history. See it if you are interested in black history.
Don't see it if you do not enjoy two/three character plays.
See it if Acting and staging matter most. You're a history buff. You can glean meaning and enjoy engaging discussion follow the show.
Don't see it if You have high expectations for this production. You want straightforward theater & you don't like ambiguity.
See it if You are a student of American history.
Don't see it if Are an impatient audience member.
See it if Your looking for a creative use of space with strong performances & clever writing
Don't see it if Your looking to know more abt the struggles of Nat Turner or hoping to be challenged by the understanding of his rebellion.
See it if a well-modulated, emotional, believable performance is a goal. Mr. Brannon scores a 90. The play-would rather read-extraordinarily topical.
Don't see it if you are not able to sit quietly while two characters debate. if you have difficulty listening to violence retold. Read more
See it if If you want to see a historical drama about an often forgotten incident in US history from a promising playwright with very good acting.
Don't see it if If you don't mind that the script doesn't deliver on the unique dramatic possibilities presented in this interesting play.
Critic Reviews (27)
"Mr. Brannon as Turner is so underplayed we never feel his faith other than the words, his conflict or his struggle...Vickers is an interesting actor and I would like to see him in something else...Davis’s play is monotonous and boring though at times beautifully poetic. Megan Sandberg-Zakian, direction moves the set, but not the audience."
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"Playwrights have full license to tell their story the way they see it. Davis’s version is not all that convincing or all that compelling...Sandberg-Zakian keeps the story moving, yes; but one can wonder at her device of overloud rock/gospel music between scenes...Despite the potentially explosive subject matter, 'Nat Turner in Jerusalem' turns out to be non-compelling. Let it be added that this is a case where the program note is more intriguing than the play itself."
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"'Nat Turner in Jerusalem' takes on the important 1831 slave revolt with the seriousness deserved by this legendary and famously brutal insurrection. Alas, the 90-minute hair-shirt of a drama by Nathan Alan Davis is didactic, preachy and airless in ways that seismic history must never be...Brannon never gets beyond the beatific martyr in director Megan Sandberg-Zakian’s production, staged on a runway with audiences on either side. Every so often the platform moves. The play does not."
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"Working with a small canvas Davis paints a portrait of a prophet of sorts...The duologues Davis has devised between Turner and his two visitors are engaging and often eloquent...Yet occasional moments ring false...Credibility aside, the production by Megan Sandberg-Zakian is deftly pared down and engaging, and Davis’s poetic language is given full weight."
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"Nathan Alan Davis' rather static play about the event centers on a detail of the rebellion...The play is essentially a dialogue between Turner (a powerful Phillip James Brannon) and Gray (Rowan Vickers), a more-or-less decent man...The evening, directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian, keeps promising to climb to something more, but that never happens...It's a frail reed on which to hang a play about a watershed moment in pre-Civil War American history."
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"Davis' handling of this potentially galvanizing material is dramatically inert...He seems far more interested in overly theatrical, poetic monologues about faith, friendship and justice than he does about creating an actual conflict...Consider seeing it for Phillip James Brannon, who is very effective at conveying the depths of Turner's unshakable faith and searching nature."
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"Regardless of the embellishment or not, the interaction between Mr. Turner and Mr. Gray was at times mesmerizing and at other times preachy. What did stand out is that the conflicts that took place in the 1800's are not all that different from the conflicts and struggles today. The circumstances may be different but the roots remain the same...Set simple, lighting a bit spotty, theatre configuration innovative, thoughts of a repeat - scary."
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"The sparse, persuasive two-hander examines America's racial history, but feels disturbingly close to the present day...Brannon's Turner is tough to look away from: fervent, fearless, and unconcerned with eliciting pity...Occasionally, the dialogue becomes repetitive: Davis parses every piece of subtext and symbolism, often explaining things he doesn't need to. The scenario he's placed onstage speaks eloquently enough to our national past, and to our present."
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