See it if Meditation & exploration of gun violence,isolation,mental illness inspired by Va Tech shootings but dreamlike & oddly lacking verisimilitude
Don't see it if You can’t take gunshots scenes depicting mass shootings on campus or how easily we become insensitized to violence
See it if theater about our current political-social world (gun control, mental illness) interests you.
Don't see it if you can't deal with guns/gunfire or you want to see a comedy.
See it if you like a small but intense play, great actor, tough subject matter.
Don't see it if you would like a more developed play, and would want a more cheerful subject
See it if You want an in your face take on gun violence in America. You like non-linear storytelling and open ended discussions.
Don't see it if You're looking for more concrete answers and clearer storytelling. You've seen/read a lot on gun violence and want something more original.
See it if you want a thoughtful exploration of gun violence among disaffected students who feel isolated by society; strong acting/writing
Don't see it if , like the Times reviewer, gunshots are a "trigger" for you; there are a number of blanks fired. Note the play is dark but not frightening
See it if You think about what kinds of "signs" people should be watching out for when they want to stop certain people from having guns
Don't see it if You might be scared by a simulated mass shooting
See it if you want to see a play about a teacher who cares about a troubled student...
Don't see it if you don't like watching violence or are looking for a light piece of theater...
See it if You are interested in adolescents at risk and how their distress affects other students and faculty.
Don't see it if You are easily startled by loud noises. Read more
"The deepest fears of these characters are physicalized and then wiped clean over and over, and then it happens to the audience. It’s bone-chilling, and, I guess, effective if that’s what it’s supposed to do. It’s also in very bad taste...The play is muddied from the start of the office hour...Dennis leaves the room unchanged...If nothing is different, why does this play exist? The only answer I can land on is the shock value of Cho’s refractions."
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“Cho doesn’t seem to be seriously exploring a terrifying national trend so much as capitalizing on it. She undermines her evident interest in alienation and connection, by creating interaction that too often doesn’t ring true...Had the play not been opening just a few days after yet another record-breaking mass shooting, it would be easier to appreciate Cho’s structurally inventive experiments, or the ethereal moments created by the design team.”
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“If we already know that what we're seeing is going to be subverted by the suggestion that its outcome is only potential, not actual, then the shock dissipates…Cho's writing is sharp enough to keep us listening and watching despite the play's trickiness but, even without the rewind stratagem, both Dennis and Gina become increasingly hard to accept as real people… Mass shootings will continue…whether we pay close attention or not. 'Office Hour' does little to advance the conversation.”
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“Dramatic license should be revoked in Julia Cho’s new trolling-for-victims drama...Kim practically sweats maternal concern, making David Mamet’s professor in 'Oleanna' look like a model of propriety. Switch the sexes of Gina and Dennis and Cho would have a real debate on her hands...Neel Keller directs some extraordinary scenes of imaginary violence that build to one extended fantasy sequence, which falls flat."
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"Basically a set of variations on gun violence for no good reason that I could find...The bulk of the play consists of Dennis’s visit to Gina’s office hour, seen it several versions, all of which end badly, with an escalating level of violence. If the playwright’s intention was to show how easily we become desensitized to repetitive violence, she did succeed at that. Unfortunately I thought the main effect of the play was to trivialize an important topic. The actors are fine."
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"I have some quarrel with the way the playwright and director toy with the audience via a series of shocks. But, abetted by a razor-sharp cast, the play is hot stuff...The stakes, both in imagination and in reality, escalate as the play charges forward without intermission, and the whole problem of chilling violence that we see in the daily headlines is conceptually addressed...The playwright, director, and cast confront this head-on with such intensity that one is glued to the stage."
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“For all its focus on gunfire, it doesn’t really deal with school shootings and what makes someone a shooter. It’s more concerned with emotional comprehension and issues of creative expression...The net effect is a play in which two sets of concerns keep displacing each other...It says something for Keller’s production that it’s able to hew to a straight line artistically in the face of all the script’s divagations, and even greater praise goes to Sue Jean Kim."
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"Sue Jean Kim delivers a strong portrayal – one that is focused, and truthful...Cho’s cynicism appears to be aimed at the tyranny of political correctness...As directed by Neel Keller, scenes of imagined killing and suicide, merge with the banality of everyday conversation. Tense scenes are repeated, so that we see the potential for different outcomes. The reality feels miserable enough, but the fantasies are lurid, and deathly!"
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