Operation Crucible NYC Reviews and Tickets

"While it's meant to be helpful, a glossary of local jargon in the program is usually a surefire sign that you're going to have difficulty following the play. Adding to the confusion is that the often dimly lit play leaves us in the dark, in both senses of the phrase. Given the circumstances of the plot, it's understandable that both director Bryony Shanahan and lighting designer Seth Rook Williams wanted to have many of the rapid-fire scenes unfold in utter pitch black. But it doesn't abet..."
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"The actors evoke the portraits of these men with vitality...Their exertions are beautifully executed. Each of their motions creates a picture of their operation, and their abilities and mental stamina...The direction and staging by Bryony Shanahan is flawlessly executed by the actors who work as a marvelous team...The play’s currency cannot be understated and for that reason and its thrilling execution, it should be seen."
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"Directed with imagination and taut pacing by Bryony Shanahan, the performances are sublime...Mr. Knowles writing is rich and his characters deeply empathetic. With poetic, earthy language, he manages to tell with clarity four individual stories in 80 minutes, weaving in and out of time periods and framing the play with vivid descriptions of that historic night bombs fell on Sheffield."
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"It’s dramatic and powerfully engaging as it flutters about, sometimes confusingly, jumping forward and backwards in time...The men portray this team of four as a unity of souls constructed with precision like integral parts in a larger machine that is more like a family then anything else...In general, their stories work wonders, pulling us in to a warm hearty and manly hug, but it’s in the overall direction, singular pacing, and the arch of storytelling that causes the walls to collapse."
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"The production is great at contrasting the control the men hold over their tools in the factory – 'it’s magic lads' – with their lack of power against the more ‘metalized’ identity-extinguishing soldiers showering bombs down on them...Knowles’s writing, made sharp with the barbarous humour of the Yorkshire men as they jokingly swap jibes also has a poetic almost streams of consciousness quality...This helps externalise their individual experiences of war."
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"Just as important as its words is the inventively choreographic direction…A high-intensity performance in which each word, gesture, and activity is precisely calibrated…Succeeds in creating a strong sense of localized male camaraderie, stoicism in the face of danger…and anger under stress. As performed…it tends to be more theatrical than dramatic. Long passages in the dark…offer opportunities to doze. The characters…are easier to differentiate by their faces…than by their personalities."
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“Playwright Knowles puts us in place, time, tenor, and horrific incident with imagination and muscularity, yet never goes overboard...There’s not a weak link in this compelling ensemble. Every actor pulls his weight with respect to his peers. Focus is complete; timing impeccable, physicality redolent. Yorkshire accents are made clear...Director Shanahan helms the piece with creativity, power, and adroit minimalism...A compelling theatrical experience. Beautifully produced.”
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“Energetic and affecting, and a little disorganized. It’s also intensely physical...Caroms around like a pinball, never spending more than a few minutes in one location and transitioning schizophrenically from narration to dramatization and back again. Shanahan paces it furiously...So cohesive a quartet that it’s hard to single any of them out...A fine little play...It might be even better if Knowles worked a little more logical cause-and-effect into it, and if he didn't seem to have a case of theatrical ADD.”
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