Night is a Room NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (27)
See it if you like thought-provoking theatre with stellar performances. But don't read ANYTHING about it. (Spoilers!)
Don't see it if you find "difficult" subject matter off-putting. Quite a few people left at intermission.
See it if you think role of theater is to provoke - even shock - audience and enjoy seeing two leading actresses acting up a storm.
Don't see it if you don't like seeing play where audience laughs in inappropriate places as nervous response to audacious premise.
See it if want to see some great acting on stage. Subject matter is absurd and from from the norm.
Don't see it if You are easily offended and you do not like situations that are far away from the norm.
See it if you want to see a topic that is likely unfamiliar to you. Lots of drama and shock value, but unsatisfying. Well acted. Difficult material.
Don't see it if you don't tolerate non-traditional sexual themes well. There's no sweetness or sunshine here.
See it if you enjoy good acting and provocative situations.
Don't see it if you expect an interesting premise to develop in satisfying ways.
See it if You support new work and women playwrights, and have enjoyed previous dark, twisted Naomi Wallace plays
Don't see it if You think a "shocking" premise deserves to be followed up by reasonably believable plot points. This felt like a Law & Order SVU rip-off
See it if you don't mind disturbing familial themes.
Don't see it if you mind disturbing familial themes.
See it if you're interested in complex plays with big ideas, and are patient with inconsistent performances.
Don't see it if the level of acting is important to you (the leading performance was quite weak), and you like your plays well crafted.
Critic Reviews (20)
"Wallace…has a great ear for dialogue and has crafted a vivid picture of the lives of the two very different women...I would tighten up the introduction or change the pacing. But as the play progresses, Rauch expertly guides the later intimacies and blow ups so that they crackle with energy and no moment seems extraneous. If you’re looking for a play with unpredictable twists and outstanding acting, you’ll be rewarded with a deft portrait of ruin and renewal."
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"'In Night is a Room,' playwright Naomi Wallace has accomplished that most difficult of tasks: she has written a story that is entirely new...Director Rauch demonstrates a mastery of working with powerful material, shepherding its varied elements with assured simplicity. He guides the arc of the narrative allowing it to dance on the verge of chaos...'Night is a Room' is thought-provoking, gripping drama. You are caught between Can’t. Watch. and Must. Look., but resistance is futile."
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"Playwright Wallace manages to simultaneously debase and exalt the erotic impulse as she asks us to consider what absolute, unconditional love between two people means. In doing so, she makes you feel with your gut rather than your brain, indeed before you can even attempt to reason though her universe. 'Night Is A Room' is not easy entertainment. But it is rare and powerful, and will leave you, somehow, feeling both drained and invigorated when you leave the theater."
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"It’s hard for an entirely domestic drama to genuinely shock an audience in 2015...Wallace, director Bill Rauch, and stunning performances pull it off…The play’s second act doesn’t live up to the first; once the relationships are reconfigured, Wallace doesn’t quite know where to go with them...Still, its investigation into the ways in which love can utterly remake us, and our own hearts can confound us, is unsettling, emotionally raw, and finally poignant."
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"The acting starts out so fine and nuanced that one feels excited and even comforted by the promise of an assured theatrical journey…Naomi Wallace devotes the first hour of her play to the set-up, and then the shock, letting the audience absorb what’s happened in a long, well-done dramatic scene. But after that, the playwright doesn’t seem to know where to go. The characters’ reactions are one-note; the remaining plot is uninteresting and pointlessly prolonged."
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."One could argue that the playwright has done more to sensationalize the matter than to treat it believably, and that the problem is exacerbated by the casting...Whatever one takes away from its provocative material, the production is held together by the compelling performance of Ms. Dowd, whose ability to mingle multiple shadings of wariness and bashfulness with determination and strength creates an intriguing sense of mystery."
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"After the big 'reveal' which I will not give away here, what follows seems anti-climactic. The final scene spins its wheels and ends unconvincingly. The production is better than the material. All three actors, particularly the women, are excellent. Rachel Hauck’s set design is simple but evocative. Clint Ramos’s costumes are well-chosen. Bill Rauch’s direction is confident. If only the play did not peak too early and then go on too long, it would have been a more satisfying experience."
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"Do you have to understand a show in order to like it? I've been asking myself that question since seeing 'Night is a Room'… Aided by the supple direction of Bill Rauch, the actors in this odd triangle are excellent...Despite their impressive work, I'm still not sure what to make of the developments that unspool from Doré's surprise. Much of what follows is melodramatic and some of it borders on the grotesque. But Wallace clearly wants to draw a kind of visceral reaction from her audience."
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