See it if you like plays with multigenerational casts, treatments of dysfunctional English families, themes of loneliness and finding happiness.
Don't see it if you have a difficult time understanding thick English accents, don't like dramas or plays about dysfunctional multigenerational families,
See it if you want to see a quiet drama about 3 generations of a family with many issues; a few touching moments especially at end
Don't see it if So many problems it seems like a soap opera. Despite frequently going from problem to problem (& one part of the set to another) it is slow Read more
See it if you like family dramas that are a few steps up from TV soap operas. Wonderful cast playing working class people in unfulfilled lives.
Don't see it if The cast is stymied by inconsistent British accents unlike anything I've heard before. 2 1/2 hours of vignettes keep the play superficial. Read more
See it if You like tense family drama
Don't see it if You are wanting something light and fluffy. This ain't it
See it if you have the patience to see past what feels banal at first blush but underneath hides an interesting take on the struggle of life/death.
Don't see it if you are looking for speedy writing, desire a fast-paced plot, or if fluctuating accents or long-ish run times bother you
See it if you like family dramas
Don't see it if you dislike plays that explore familial interactions or that are downers Read more
See it if you are willing to look at patterns of behavior rather than dramatic action; are sensitive to the play's undercurrents of pain & loneliness
Don't see it if you are impatient with scenes that appear to go nowhere; you want overt conflict to drive the narrative. Read more
See it if you like terrific acting even if the story takes over 2 hours to go nowhere.I didn't much care for the characters.Plot felt contrived.
Don't see it if you want something fast paced.I wanted to get involved with the characters, but each 1 was on for too short a time for me to identify with
“A long, lumbering drama…Both unwieldy and undercooked. The action is sliced up into dozens of brief television-style scenes -- few, if any, of which build to anything like a climax…The author's attention is spread so equally among his cast of characters that, individually, they are starved for development…Pepe gets good, honest work out of his cast, constrained as they are by the script's narrowness…‘On the Shore of the Wide World’ often seems to be dangerously lacking in a dramatic pulse.”
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“Neil Pepe's production of Stephens' ‘On the Shore of the Wide World’ will not please all. The pace is consciously slow - like the life lived by these characters. However, the wait is worth the effort. By the end when the family reunites for Sunday dinner, the play has become both powerful and poignant. The title, incidentally, comes from the next to the last line of a Keats' sonnet, in which the speaker worries about missing out love, fame and success, an apt summation of Simon Stephens' play.”
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"I found myself wishing that this overlong play had never left its home shore...More mundane than poetic. The cast...ably handle their characters' reactions to the confinement of the familial shores and the painful loss of a beloved family member. But none of these people really seem worth getting to know...Neil Pepe's largo-paced direction and Scott Pask's serviceable scenery to accommodate the ever-shifting duos don't help."
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“A complicated and profound family drama with a virtuoso ensemble...Stephens doesn’t allow ‘On the Shore’ to be neat and tidy for the sake of clarity. He dares to make his play as messy and chaotic as life often feels. Atlantic’s artistic director Neil Pepe counteracts the messiness by grounding it with organized and compartmentalized staging…Every member of this ten-person cast delivers pure acting gold, making every moment irresistible.”
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“Stephens uses this technique, feeding us pieces of the plot second-hand and after the fact, just enough to pique our interest without making us feel cheated of the live action...Director Neil Pepe ensures that every element is aligned with and complements every other. Pacing, placement, and design couldn’t be better.. And the performances he elicits from his cast are marvelous…It is, of course, Stephens’s wonderful script that makes it all possible."
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“Not a bad play, it’s just average, and overlong…What saves this production is the fine acting by the entire cast…There’s nothing very fresh or revelatory here, although Mr. Stephens has drawn his characters very well…Although the characters are interesting, well-drawn, and superbly acted, the pace of the play is slow…Regrettably, the plot meanders and twists and turns for almost three hours and then ends with an abrupt whimper.”
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"Tends to steer clear of the high intensity that is typical of its genre, instead opting for subtle and intricately crafted moments, delivered by a stellar team of actors and directed with delicacy and nuance...Ultimately, the beauty and the brilliance of this play is in its almost lack of climax, and the fact that every contributing element is working towards this vivid portrayal of the deeply and universally human tendency of being trapped in one’s own life."
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"Beautiful, poetic, and devastating...The family Stephens has created is steadfastly trying to deal with all of its inner demons and domestic trauma that slowly seep into our collective surface over the course of this tad too long play...At times the play meanders and elongates moments for no need. But we can feel the authentic dynamics ebbing and flowing through the poetry of the dialogue."
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