Nirbhaya NYC Reviews and Tickets

"All the women describe the holes left in their lives by violence, gaps into which they feel they can still fall at any moment...A society’s imprisoning silence has been torn open for them...The feeling of having being erased keeps coming up as these women speak. In 'Nirbhaya,' it would seem, they are restoring themselves — and the woman of the play’s title — into visibility."
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"The most harrowing theatrical experience currently in New York....One doesn't walk away with the sense that any of these women are victims: They are survivors. 'Nirbhaya' boldly brings their stories out of the shadows, where far too many abuse victims languish. It's a worthwhile journey, if you're willing to take it."
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"The effect of witnessing 'Nirbhaya' unfold can only be marginally described or captured... Each story and connecting every narrative thread, the work tugs, goads, and surges through like dazzling light, even blinding an impassive critic. A poignant song, perfect in its poetry."
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"If you realize that your heart has momentarily stopped beating and you are holding your breath, then you will indisputably be eliciting the appropriately human response. Your fellow audience members are likely joining you in this awestruck silence...It is not hyperbolic to proclaim that this may well be the most important and imperishable pieces I have seen in my twenty plus year history of New York City theater."
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"'Nirbhaya' delivered the emotions that many plays with similarly powerful plots failed to, without sounding like a therapy session...Every single scene...was well thought giving just the right sense of reality without going to the revolting reenactment of it. The play ended beautifully with a powerful portrayal of a martyr that started changes through a groundbreaking work of performing arts."
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"'Nirbhaya' is billed as a play, but a more accurate summation would be that it is a testimonial built upon affirmations...'Nirbhaya' is an outstanding and emotionally devastating work that bellows to urgently promote women’s rights...The stirring created by 'Nirbhaya', both the person and the performance, will hopefully lead to a further cultural awakening."
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"Whilst the piece overall is well-conceived, some of her choices are a little uninspired...Despite its small flaws 'Nirbhaya' is certainly one of the stand-out shows of this year’s festival: timely, urgent and entirely fearless.
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"‘Nirbhaya’ isn’t a success through gloss but because of the unvarnished potency of listening to these women share their ordeals...She deserves enormous credit for getting these women comfortable enough to talk about the terrible things that have happened to them. At a time when rape threats have become casual social media currency, it’s intensely sobering to have a play like this that reminds us so viscerally of the real horrors of sexual violence."
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"There is so much emotion surrounding Yael Farber's 'Nirbhaya' that it may be beyond criticism...It is undeniably powerful and unbearably harrowing...It gives us the tools to empathise, but not the tools to take action. In an intimate venue with the opportunity for discussion afterwards, 'Nirbhaya' could start to change the world; playing to hundreds at a time with no audience aftercare, it veers dangerously close to well-meaning theatrical misery memoir."
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"It’s one of the most uncompromising pieces of theatre I’ve ever seen, unbearably tough almost all the time...Farber and her performers are continuing along the trail blazed by the worldwide outcry that followed Nirbhaya’s violation. Proudly, they shatter the pervasive shame culture of silence that surrounds sexual violence against women."
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"The power of theatrical performance is painfully apparent in this work, which is more a testimony than a play and takes verbatim theatre to a new level...This must surely be the most moving Edinburgh presentation of the year and despite its grim subject matter should not be missed."
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"At times this is intensely uncomfortable viewing...Like the women at its heart, this is a powerful and fearless production."
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"As the harrowing stories begin, 'Nirbhaya’s' initial effect on the audience is to stun, to cow, to leave us helpless. With a nimble economy of stagecraft oppression is summoned with a heavy air."
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"One of the most powerful pieces of theatre I’ve ever seen...This is consciousness-raising theatre of the old school...As one performer says, 'We can be silent no more.' That is reason enough to see this urgent, compelling show."
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"This is a terrible, dreadful couple of hours in the theatre: I hope it is a long time before I am so upset again by a similar intensity of feeling. It is also art of the highest order."
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"Powerful and incredibly moving, 'Nirhbaya' prises open the crack that the real life event caused, in getting women to speak out about their own experiences of abuse...Farber's compelling language, layered onto the real stories, is mostly violent, angry, poetic and a bit sweary... Farber's message is clear; this is a collective problem and we – men and women – must speak out."
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"The text is both brutally direct and opaque, almost lyrical, but constantly disturbing... Farber does not limit the play to being a recitation. Her approach is imaginative...'Nirbhaya' is a powerful play that is shocking for all the right reasons."
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"This type of production works beyond and outside of the normal constraints of theatre – asking us to question the role of theatre in spreading an important message and how art can bring about change and give people, who have been previously silenced, a voice...This is a brave, real and haunting piece of work which stops you in your tracks, leaving you speechless."
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"'Nirbhaya' is, without a doubt, the most remarkable evening I’ve ever spent at the theatre...This is surely a work of theatre like no other."
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"'Nirbhaya' is one of the hardest experiences an audience can face...There is the feeling of being trapped while watching 'Nirbhaya'; the descriptions of events are utterly sickening, and yet the stories must not be ignored. 'Nirbhaya' speaks out against the complicity of staying silent, and while this play may be too much for many to endure, it is an unforgettable and beautifully crafted piece of theatre."
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"Farber uses all her skill as a theatre-maker to create a show that is as beautiful as it is hard-hitting...It also, most memorably, exposes all the different beauties and strengths of the six great women who make up the cast; their stories full of tears and rage, their songs, their radiance, and above all, their shared determination that this death, among so many, will be the one that changes things, for good."
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"Yael Farber's brave, vital and, sadly, relevant play 'Nirbhaya' gives a voice to victims of sexual abuse, doing so in a production that is raw, slow- burning and, at times, difficult to watch...Throughout the play, the audience is involved and challenged."
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"It almost feels invasive to comment as a critic but this is a play; as such, there were too many stories to absorb, which weakened its impact. But in the foyer afterwards, noticing some audience members weeping and embracing the cast, I realised that this was a real life experience for them and can only hope this offered some form of therapy for them. A devastating, thought-provoking play."
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"This is a play beyond words, above star ratings and separate from the usual concerns of reviewing...The show is not perfect but it is powerful...I’m not giving a star rating to this show. This is not even a real review. The theatre isn’t what’s important here. Go and see it, and see if you can still breathe at the end. The show is about the power of words, the power of broken silences and being prepared to speak out."
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"You feel like a fly on the wall, watching the injustice happen and subsequently feeling the pain that young woman may have felt...'Nirbhaya' was an affirmation and that a dangerous attitude towards women in India really affects the majority who have been suffering in silence for too long."
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"What makes this show outstanding is the way in which Art and life blurs in front of us...This can’t be reviewed as simply Theatre...This is Art at its highest purpose...bearing witness...inspiring change...strengthening the power of speaking truth."
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"This piece is so powerful as a play because the performers actively seem to challenge us as they look into the audience at the humanity that has wounded them so...'Nirbhaya' is a rousingly angry and relevant piece of theatre...We are bombarded by the abominable every day and so we build a wall against it. 'Nirbhaya' seeks to leap that wall."
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"Every now and then, you’ll witness a moment of theatre so powerful, you forget it’s a play at all. ‘Nirbhaya’ is one such play...It leaps from the pages of the script and into your soul."
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"There is no way to soften or fluff up the reality of rape and sexual violence, this play is squirmingly uncomfortable at times...Although intense and shocking there is a message of hope. The first step to ending the cycle of violence is breaking the code of silence and this play is part of a chorus shouting out the truth."
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"'Nirbhaya' is a fierce and finely woven tapestry of re-enacted testimonies...It’s rare to experience theatre so pure and true to this ancient Aristotelian dynamic to bring about a profound awakening and transformation in the spectator, and through us, to impact on the community at large. What I mean is, to heal the city."
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"'Nirbhaya' means ‘fearless.’ This theatre piece, and the cast within it are beyond deserving of that title...This piece is harrowing but absolutely essential."
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"It is both harrowing and impressive...'Nirbhaya' was very difficult to watch but absolutely worth it...This was strangely a very positive play for me as it marked the possibility of change."
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"This is not theatre to entertain, but nor is it done to shock. It is done to shine a light, to examine the dark places that too often we avoid...Their pain and hurt can help others, inspiring change that has taken too long to come – allowing 'Nirbhaya', which means ‘hope’, to live up to her name."
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"The play felt disappointing and anachronistic...What 'Nirbhaya' the play does not do is to go beyond cathartic rage into a region of greater nuance or complexity...Nice play, but it doesn't live up to the hype."
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"Sometimes the theatrical equivalent of a cry of despair, a howl of rage and a call for revolution is the only response that will do. 'Nirbhaya' is such a response...These are not comfortable issues but we must listen to them, discuss them, debate them, even if we don't want to. Silence is no longer an option. It's time to speak out."
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"Praise, though, should be given where it is due, and there is refinement amidst the chaos... Even the most disturbing moments of the production are handled with an elegance one may imagine inconceivable."
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"I watched and I held my tears, I used the anger rising inside me as strength in a conviction that I would not remain silent...This play is so powerful and moving that it will change each person that views it."
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"'Nirbhaya' is an extraordinarily powerful issue based drama...Political and yet universal, angry yet restrained, so brutal at times I had to look away, so beautifully focused that an hour and thirty five minutes passed without my noticing. This play should tour the world and help try to make it a better place. Unmissable."
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"'Nirbhaya' is by no means an easy play to watch. It is like receiving a hard kick between your legs...Tied in with Nirbhaya’s story, the playwright skillfully interweaves instances of sexual abuse, gang rape and domestic violence the actors have personally experienced, leaving viewers both shocked and overwhelmed."
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"The pain and outrage caused by the attack have grown into a resonating work of theatre...The genius of this piece is that Farber and her cast have, rather than create another work of documentary drama, turned to the unique capacities of live theatre...This piece combines the presentation of unbearable facts with ingenious aesthetics in a manner so brilliant that it is, surely, one of the most powerful and urgent pieces of human rights theatre ever made."
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