Small Mouth Sounds NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (325)
See it if You love innovative, creative, out-the-box theatre. So clever. So engaging. Great cast. Staging and audience set-up rocked! Love! Love! Love
Don't see it if You're opposed to lesbianism, nudity, lack of dialogue (although there's enough), flutes, fire, open space seating, darkness, or voice overs
See it if you want a night at the theater like you've never experienced before
Don't see it if you're scared of a play with hardly any talking
See it if You want to see something brilliantly original in form that is a beautiful, funny, and poignant.
Don't see it if You are uncomfortable with silence or having to infer situations with limited dialogue.
See it if You enjoy people watching
Don't see it if You need to eat candy and check your phone throughout the show
See it if You want a truly unique experience that speaks about humanity...or if you want to see a penis onstage.
Don't see it if You enjoy lots of talking. Don't like experimental staging. Are offended by male nudity.
See it if Most original shows I've seen I loved it the cast was magical it was sensitive beautifully acted and moving And extremely intimate evening
Don't see it if If you are uncomfortable with sustained intimacy
See it if you enjoy productions where one's humanity, quirks, & pain are expressed without the need for words.
Don't see it if you are bad at reading nonverbal communication in others. Read more
See it if you want to see something different that challenges how and what we choose to communicate. It was beautiful and touching and profound.
Don't see it if you need action or a fast moving play. There are few words and one needs to allow it the time to play out on its own schedule.
Critic Reviews (32)
"Mere words cannot express the depth and beauty that abounds in Bess Wohl’s transcendent 'Small Mouth Sounds'...In spite of the serious sounding synopsis, it is incredibly amusing...Hit maker Rachel Chavkin has succeeded in giving her ultra-talented cast enough leeway to fully explore every nuance through Wohl’s well-written characters...I can’t imagine that a better theater piece will emerge in 2016."
Read more
“A quirkily comic and simultaneously dramatically affecting work, it’s come to its full potential thanks to the protean talents of its seven-person cast, and especially the inventive direction of Rachel Chavkin, the current 'It Girl' of theater who consistently takes superior material and raises it to the next...There are moments when this 100-minute work feels as if it’s worn out its welcome, but when the lasts scene is played, you’ll feel small for having wanted the show to end.”
Read more
"One of the unexpected theatrical joys of the spring of 2015 was Bess Wohl’s 'Small Mouth Sounds'...The various interactions are perhaps more aggressive than soothing, but that is the playwright’s point. What makes the play remarkable is that so much of this is expressed without words, or with minimal dialogue...'Small Mouth Sounds' is a play unlike any other, yes; but Wohl and Chavkin bring you right into the drama, and it makes an engrossing and pretty much delightful evening of theatre."
Read more
"Wohl has a great time with the idea that these disparate people must co-exist without speaking, and the inventive director Rachel Chavkin conducts the proceedings with precision and sensitivity worthy of a Böhm or Maazel...Wohl can’t resist cheating on occasion, when someone or other simply has to speak...And I was disappointed that the heard but unseen guru is a standard-issue charlatan...Nevertheless, the ensemble is spectacular and the 100 minutes fly by."
Read more
"Six people in varying degrees of turmoil have gathered for a five-day experience that will help them re-create themselves, presumably for the better...That double sense of existence as a mix of comedy and tragedy permeates the evening, as the characters tentatively begin to interact emotionally, communicating without speech...They've been able to give one another the small, passing gifts of comfort and understanding. 'Small Mouth Sounds' is a lovely gift of its own."
Read more
"At its best, 'Small Mouth Sounds' contrives sublime moments of Chaplinesque comedy from this clash between Nirvana and reality...Wohl also wittily conveys how the smartphone has put a definitive end to peace and quiet even in the remotest places. But her play ultimately lacks dramatic variety and, under Chavkin’s direction, the action drags at times...After about an hour of this, you may nonetheless find yourself feeling a bit low on mindfulness."
Read more
"The actors so ably embody their characters through their postures, their sideways glances, and their movements that when they do finally speak those moments come as a surprise and feel gratifying…In a play so focused on sounds and silence, it's fitting, then, that the sound design is remarkably done…Overall, the play acts as a realistic snapshot of six lives…Every bit reveals them just enough for us to empathize with whatever of us we see in their pain and joy and misfortune."
Read more
"Sweet and diverting, if not as deft or probing as it seems to want to be. Still, it's fun and very well-performed…I didn't fall completely in love with the play, the overarching narrative of which sometimes felt a little too easy in some places, and a little forced in others…As an extended acting exercise that has been placed in the hands of a very good ensemble, 'Small Mouth Sounds' is better than good. I'm just not sure that the characters' stories fully add up to the sum of their parts."
Read more