Samara NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (48)
See it if You already like the playwright (I forgot that I don't so this is my fault) - it seems consistent with his work.
Don't see it if You want a more straightforward play with more typical staging & seating (as a short person, my second-level seat was uncomfortable).
See it if You really enjoy avant-garde work and you're more interested in the script than the performances.
Don't see it if You prefer linear plots, elements that fit together, or are looking for strong, memorable performances.
See it if poetic stream of consciousness
Don't see it if need narrative or plot
See it if you appreciate the more technical aspects of theatre. Very interesting staging, lighting, costuming, and music.
Don't see it if you look for some sort of definitive plot line with a conclusive ending. The writing for this show could have been developed further.
See it if You want to see a show that may be an allegory about what you owe and are owed in life or maybe something else.
Don't see it if You would rather not leave wondering whether it made any sense at all.
See it if Greek or tragic theatre interests you, you want to explore its expression in a futuristic setting, and you like long monolog and bagpipes.
Don't see it if you prefer light or comedic genre, musicals, interesting sets and music, and clear plot lines, themes and resolution.
See it if You enjoy poetic pieces with minimal dialogue, conflict, or character development.
Don't see it if You can't stand esoteric, experimental pieces that don't necessarily have a traditional, linear plot structure.
See it if you want to be confused for 80 minutes that feels like 4 hours.
Don't see it if you value your sanity
Critic Reviews (15)
“Some of the acting has a flat, uninflected quality, but there's also a sharp infusion of naturalistic behavior mediated by dramatic pauses that come not single spies but in battalions…This visitor didn't find Maxwell's decaffeinated play good to the last drop…The action makes sense but mood is just as important here; with no characters or plot to care about, and a pace that makes paint drying seem fast, you may feel like a container of curdling milk in that huge carton surrounding you.”
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“Instead of trying to pursue her own vision, Benson has her own cast try to imitate the New York City Players anomie-affect. Despite some lovely moments, it’s a failed attempt: ironically, by pretending to be a Maxwell show, the production runs counter to his work’s ethos of—not pretending…While Blackwell, Lazar, Burrows, and Faudree are all usually marvelous performers, they seem lost here, roaming between conventional expressiveness and pseudo-deadpan.”
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"Torturous in every way...It felt like you were in a prison camp. Once the show begins, lifeless narration by Steve Earle assaults us. Later on the show deviates and goes into some beat generation hipster pretentious babble...The plot is so convoluted, that I just gave up caring and wanted to escape...The direction by Sarah Benson is stilted and tries too hard to be creative. There is atonal music by Mr Earle, again perplexing as nothing seems cohesive."
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"An eloquent and poetic existential Western that takes audiences on a soul-searching journey across a dark, mysterious frontier...Just as there are no standard rules in Maxwell’s plays, there are nonstandard narrative guidelines in 'Samara'...Maxwell and Benson provide just the right mix of abstraction and exposition, packing a whole lot into a small amount of time...'Samara' is another superb foray into the known and the unknown by Maxwell."
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"Produced by Soho Rep in Sarah Benson's smart production, 'Samara' is a western in the key of Greek tragedy—a humane meditation on various ventures into parts unknown...Benson choreographs these harsh encounters with precision, and the cast imbues them with an emotional specificity that prevents the scenes from collapsing under their existential weight...Though hinting at these deeper connections, the production luckily stays in the realm of abstract imagination."
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“The dancing lights and disembodied sound start to feel like one abstraction and about three endings too many, but the effect is pleasurable, if not entirely convincing. Maxwell has entrusted Benson with his strange baby, opening the way for an expressive clarity not usually associated with his writing. The cost of that clarity is an acting palette that borders on the slapdash; it is often nigh on impossible to divine if acting choices are anti-naturalistic or just not very good.”
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"A journey play that often feels stagnant...There are cowboys but no clear villains or heroes. Also absent are clear resolutions...The characters in 'Samara wander,' their goals obscured by regret or a general lack of purpose...There’s a beautiful moment where the stage is dark while Earle reads a descriptive passage of the landscape...Clouds appear and it’s as if we are floating above all of the limitations that acted as cages for these characters and for a brief moment there is utter clarity."
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