On the Shore of the Wide World NYC Reviews and Tickets

“Alas, this meandering, multi-generational dysfunctional family drama proves to be surprisingly tepid in Neil Pepe’s workmanlike production…Some major plot elements simply move by too quickly, while others add up to very little…Everything about the production really forces the cast to do all the heavy lifting, and thankfully, they are mostly up to the challenge...I suspect that American audiences will wish they’re sitting on a different shore, or at least in a different theater.”
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“Stephens' screenplay-like script...is written in 42 scenes, some quite brief, and not a few ending abruptly just as you're beginning to invest in them…It's hard not to regard the play as a truncated TV miniseries…Although the characters, for all their struggles with suppressed feelings, aren't especially interesting, the talented company does its best to maintain a modicum of interest for at least the first act…There's not much…that hasn't been seen in countless other domestic dramas.”
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"Stephens structures his tale in a way that brings soap operas inevitably to mind...What breadth his panoramic tactic achieves is nullified by a nagging lack of depth...Neil Pepe’s production flows assuredly on Scott Pask’s homey, two-level set, but a more minimal environment might have allowed a theatrical swiftness to offset the episodic choppiness of the script. While the cast is full of seasoned performers, none except Wilson fully slips into a persuasive Northern groove."
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"An intriguing but not quite satisfying evening...The actors contribute a good deal to the evening. Rosenfield is central, as the non-expressive teen at play’s center, while Wilson and McCann offer compelling portraits as the non-expressive parents...Stephens builds his story in small steps, not unlike a television drama of the soap variety. He manages to keep us engaged—he kept me engaged, anyway—but things turn clunky on several occasions."
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“I approached the present play with low expectations. They were met...The play has a seemingly endless succession of short scenes that generated very little interest for me. I don’t require sympathetic characters, but I expect to feel some involvement which was lacking here. I looked at my watch often…The fine cast, which struggles uncertainly with the accent, deserves better than this…Director Neil Pepe does his best with material that is basically inert.”
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"While this dysfunctional family drama has some arresting moments, it drags on too long and becomes predictable and cliche-ridden...Stephens’ quirky observations and plotlines turn into soap opera fodder...Fortunately, Neil Pepe provides a strong staging and the cast delivers heartfelt performances, depicting the pain of buried longings...The actors and director deliver a professional product but it’s nothing new or exciting."
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"Stephens’ play has a supple brilliance to it. However, the actors in this production speak in such a maddening hodgepodge of British and Irish accents that it makes it impossible...to take this intense drama that seriously...They certainly seem to rush at the text when more slowness and sensitive pacing is required. It became, for me anyway, a polyglottal mess, even as my brain tried to work past all the bizarre attempts at north-west England-speak into the brilliance of Stephens’ words."
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“A surprising misfire...A kind of truncated version of a TV miniseries…We get only the broadest outlines of his central characters and the sketchiest versions of what has happened to them, including some plot twists that are both clumsily handled and frankly hard to swallow…Director Neil Pepe and his mostly game cast do what they can with the material but Stephens’ script leaves them mostly alone on that wide-worlded shore.”
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