Pass Over (Lincoln Center) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (91)
See it if You want to see a brilliant, powerful, timely play that will leave devastated, yet hopeful for the theatre.
Don't see it if You want a light entertainment, or you can't handle a challenge.
See it if You want to see masterful acting, spectacular writing and staging. The message is profound and clever in it's depiction.
Don't see it if You want a light hearted musical.
See it if you're open to a poignant, touching view into the lives of young black men, the futility, the hopelessness, the dreams.
Don't see it if you're racist and are unwilling to open your mind to the experiences of disadvantaged groups.
See it if You like to be challenged by new work, like great writing and acting, are interested in theatre which is relevant to now.
Don't see it if You can't handle plots which traverse timelines, are offended by strong language or want to see something light and carefree and fun.
See it if you can! This is what good theater should be. Extraordinarily theatrical, shockingly honest, incredible performances and a LOT to say.
Don't see it if you're looking for a play that will help you pretend that the world's problems don't exist.
See it if you can handle discomfort and want to see perfect beat work by three physically engaged and emotionally honest actors.
Don't see it if you are going to dispute the premise as a way to avoid dealing with all that the play explores.
See it if it's an incredibly gripping story that presents the current lives of young black men in an absurdist fashion à la Waiting for Godot
Don't see it if you can't handle strong language, violence, or are simply someone who is racist
See it if you care about politics, humanity, America's history of violence toward black men. You want to see how political theatre can work.
Don't see it if you can't bear violence onstage, even with great artistic value.
Critic Reviews (16)
"Despite its grim relevance, 'Pass Over' creates a vivid world of injustice while riffing on earlier ones...This is daring dramaturgy, requiring the utmost in tonal control to keep it from tipping into righteous bathos. Danya Taymor’s thrillingly tense LCT3 production mostly succeeds. Technically, it is ideal...Within this prison, Ms. Nwandu has been careful to particularize and humanize her main characters so that the tragedy is not just theoretical or surreal."
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"An intimate political play that grapples with epic themes and is likely to leave you shaken...Taymor keeps the pace popping, so the moments when everything stops hit hard...She elicits heart-rending performances from Hill and Smallwood...and Ebert is careful that his symbolic characters don’t slip into cliché...Although much of its repartee is quite funny, 'Pass Over' is a tough show. It’s intended to challenge and cause discomfort, and a lot is left to interpretation."
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"The work proves a powerfully imaginative drama that will shake up audiences, instantly tagging the playwright as a significant new voice...'Pass Over' is more effective thematically than as drama. The dialogue at times feels aimless and repetitive...The narrative lurches confusingly, and some of the symbolism and its meanings prove elusive. But there's no denying that the work packs a powerful punch, one that's fully realized in this production, superbly staged by Danya Taymor."
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“A provocative, inflammatory, exquisitely written work — a new masterpiece of modern drama...Provokes the uncomfortable, challenging conversations we need to have as our country grapples with racial bigotry that persists not just in law enforcement but in the very fabric of American culture...Impeccable performances...'Pass Over' urges us to get to the tough business of addressing the racial issues that we're afraid of discussing and then act to end the injustices."
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"The cast of the one-act play, under Danya Taymor's direction, is uniformly strong...Playwright Antoinette Nwandu is an important new voice who has done an especially fine job of capturing the language of the urban streets and making it quite poetic. More importantly, in Moses and Kitch, she has created truly sympathetic characters who are trapped in what Moses explains is a 'mega-four' for life."
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“There’s a lot to unpack in the 90-minute ‘Pass Over’: slavery allusions, biblical overtones—both of which could use more consideration from director Danya Taymor. But you can also boil Nwandu’s drama down to three simple humane words: Stop killing us. It’s an appeal, a demand, and, sadly, a wish.”
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“’While the protagonists emerge as potent symbols of enduring injustice, they’re ultimately less compelling as individuals. For all the tenderness, humor and anguish that Hill and Smallwood mine under Taymor’s sensitive, animated direction, we get little sense of what drives their characters beyond pain and oppression...If 'Pass Over' makes a strong and necessary statement, it proves less conducive to starting a conversation.”
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“One only has to watch the nightly TV news or read a newspaper to be aware of the plight of young black men in America being persecuted and even killed with alarming regularity by Caucasian policeman. While this unfortunate turn in American society can nonetheless feel far removed for many (especially in Manhattan), playwright Antoinette Nwandu forces us to face this phenomenon head on in ‘Pass Over.’”
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