Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (44)
See it if you are ready to confront issues (mainly feminism) and theatrical devices that are way outside the box; you appreciate smart, edgy theatre.
Don't see it if you can't handle provocation, confrontation, uncomfortable subject matter or explicit sexual language. (All presented with a sense of humor)
See it if you appreciate straight forward thought that bounces off the walls and around the room and hits you over and over. Aha. She said. Aha again.
Don't see it if you can't deal with shame, find no humor in this world, or if you just don't like to think.
See it if you like to challenge yourself with edgy theatre, you love language, & you love women even when they speak, even if they speak their minds.
Don't see it if smoke and claustrophobia happen 4u, bright lights and loud sounds freak u out, u need everything explained, u want easy laughs -- uwork4this
See it if you can. This is what theater is meant to be.
Don't see it if you like fluffy shows that make you feel good about the world we live in.
See it if you like opinionated female playwrights & don't mind their point to be presented more than a bit in-your-face. Also, if you like stage blood
Don't see it if you think that argument presented without going overboard is much more compelling. Also, if diappointing misuse of good ideas annoys you.
See it if You like experimental, feminist theater and don't care about plot or stakes.
Don't see it if You don't like it when writing exercises are given full theatrical treatment.
See it if Bring your smartest, woke-est friends to this. You're gonna want to unpack it afterwards. Cool design, committed performances, vital ideas.
Don't see it if Like it or not, the oppression of women is at the core of how we think speak and behave. How do we acknowledge & move beyond this?
See it if You're okay with unconventional structure, dialogue, stuff that borders on performance art. Really funny and thought-provoking.
Don't see it if The word "experimental" makes you flinch.
Critic Reviews (20)
"Birch’s first few vignettes are inventive, fast-paced, and deliciously funny...The play takes an uncomfortable and ultimately unsuccessful turn during a scene about motherhood that turns into a bloodbath of self-mutilation, and there it starts to lose us...We’re left with a final image seemingly pulled straight from a Taylor Swift music video that feels forced and confusing rather than empowering, leaving us with the dated and infuriating idea that feminists are trying to eradicate men."
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"She had me almost all the way through, did Ms. Alice Birch. Her play is a hot mess of slivers of relationships that rumble through our visual field like ball bearings in a blazing skillet...In the script notes Birch states: "Most importantly this play should not be well behaved." This cast follows these instructions and is guided very well indeed by Lileana Blain-Cruz’s direction...In the final, cruel scene, Ms. Birch chucks us all off the apple cart...It felt like a body tackle."
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“An uncomfortable, infuriating and brilliant indictment of a patriarchal world...As led by director Lileana Blain-Cruz, the four-person cast is fearless, willing to embody the spectrum of emotion and physical surreality the play demands. Their commitment makes the more uncomfortable parts of the play hard to watch--but also impossible to turn away from...A jarring vision, but for those who live with the rising frustration of gender inequality, it's one that you may find a sense of peace in.”
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"While Daniel Abeles, Molly Bernard, Eboni Booth and Jennifer Ikeda are serviceable in their roles, their quartet feels too tidy to hit the high notes of Birch’s full-throttled scream of anger. As invigorating as Birch’s writing can be as she calls out behavior and language we are accustomed to taking for granted, 'Revolt‘s' extremes leave us at an impasse that we understand to be deliberate, but which is no less frustrating."
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"Hilariously spot-on about the ways in which men and women talk to one another…There are one or two other in-your-face elements in 'Revolt' that are less shocking than annoying after several decades of deployment. But the 29-year-old British playwright establishes her exquisite ear and her distinctive voice from the very first scene…In all of the vignettes, we don’t learn exactly what’s going on at first; in the best of them, the language keeps us engaged and the unfolding satisfies."
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"Birch’s plotless, semi-absurdist material takes an angry feminist ax to many issues, often hilariously, but as the play progresses, its tone increasingly darkens...Feminists will love this stuff and others will want to argue with it, but it will certainly make people talk...And, since it’s staged by Blain-Cruz with such fiery intelligence and given such sterling performances by Abeles, Bernard, Eboni Booth, and Jennifer Ikeda, it's unlikely anyone will be unimpressed by its theatrical power."
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"The intriguing 'Revolt' aspect is that no matter how puzzling the exchanges are, only infrequently do they baffle or alienate the spectator. No less than a triumph of Birch’s will, the accomplishment is also due to director Blain-Cruz and the actors, all of them young and all of their consummately adroit...If patrons run into trouble following the expressed thoughts precisely, the underlying message of conflicting generational attitude is clear."
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"You don’t see many plays like Birch’s anywhere in NYC...But, under Lileana Blain-Cruz’s direction, the other scenes feel hectoring and disjointed. Neither Abeles, nor co-performers Eboni Booth and Jennifer Ikeda can match Bernard’s stage presence and they seem a little lost as Birch’s writing leads them into ever stranger places...All this comes close to being total drivel...But Birch delivers a welcome burst of avant-garde energy, even if her talents could do with a little more discipline."
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