Smokefall
72

Smokefall NYC Reviews and Tickets

72%
(69 Reviews)
Positive
70%
Mixed
17%
Negative
13%
Members say
Great acting, Confusing, Clever, Quirky, Absorbing

About the Show

MCC Theater presents a tale of magical realism colliding with manic vaudeville in a family drama that looks closely at the fragility of life and the power of love.

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Member Reviews (69)

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913 Reviews | 928 Followers
75
Clever, Surprising, Thought-provoking, Great acting, Underated

See it if A different and refreshing new style of storytelling with a slight dash of magical realism. Well acted and paced. Moving. Sad/hopeful.

Don't see it if You want linearity/realism and don't care about claustrophobic perspectives, though you know people who think like that in real life.

888 Reviews | 1017 Followers
84
Clever, Entertaining, Great acting, Great writing, Quirky

See it if You like magical realism or Wes Anderson's films. Quirky story w/ fascinating characters. I cared & was interested in their journeys.

Don't see it if You don't enjoy magical realism or the utilization of flashbacks or narration to tell a story.... I however, enjoyed all of these elements.

982 Reviews | 343 Followers
65
Ambitious, Derivative, Uneven, Great acting, Quirky

See it if you love Thorton Wilder and are willing to see Our Town-lite.

Don't see it if you are bumped by fantasy mixed with realism.

546 Reviews | 1879 Followers
90
Absorbing, Great acting, Great writing, Intelligent, Resonant

See it if You want your emotions stirred and you want to see brilliant performances.

Don't see it if Think-y shows aren't your thing.

716 Reviews | 157 Followers
85
Absorbing, Ambitious, Great acting, Edgy, Quirky

See it if you enjoy the unusual, the nonlinear, a bit of magical realism, something not literal but mysterious, like Zachary Quinto

Don't see it if You only like realistic, chronological plays, can't abide with figures from different eras popping on stage together, don't like the ominous

488 Reviews | 316 Followers
77
Clever, Great acting, Quirky, Original

See it if You want to see a well acted play with a unique form of storytelling. All the actors were excellent.

Don't see it if You don't like plays about families.

520 Reviews | 107 Followers
87
Clever, Entertaining, Edgy, Intelligent, Original

See it if If you want to be challenged. This is so good in so many ways. The staging was incredible. I wish there were more plays like this.

Don't see it if If you want to think. If you are looking for fluff this is not for you. In my ranking this is a rare 2!!!

479 Reviews | 262 Followers
15
Plodding, Heavy-handed symbolism, Banal, Uninvolving, Excruciating

See it if you want to see one of Mimi Lien's terrific set designs.

Don't see it if you have other plays on your must-see list. Everyone should just skip this one.

Critic Reviews (46)

The New York Times
February 22nd, 2016

"Mr. Haidle’s flights of imagination mostly left me less than enraptured...The director, Anne Kauffman, has made a specialty of adventurous new writing...and the cast is first-rate...But the play’s characters are defined exclusively by their eccentricities and flights of odd lyricism; they have no believable emotional pulse...When you have a fetus quoting Michel Foucault, you are moving beyond absurdity and treading dangerously close to plain old pretentiousness."
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Time Out New York
February 23rd, 2016

"Welcome back to Haidle’s brand of whimsical literalism, where commonplace ideas and character types are tricked out in self-conscious structural gimmicks that serve mainly to gild the obvious... its evocation of Thornton Wilder’s 'Our Town' only points up, by contrast, the sententious cutesiness of a play that treats, for example, 'the world is round' as an insight."
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New York Magazine / Vulture
February 22nd, 2016

"It’s as dark as you please, but so cute in its approach and so heavy-handed in its symbolism that it ends up belittling the very ideas it wants to advance...Anne Kauffman has directed without her customary verve...the theatrical energy almost never rises to the level necessary to support such a complicated agenda. Even when it starts to, it is usually shut down by another bit of annoying whimsy, or the realization that the philosophy underlying it is often no more profound than Dr. Phil."
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The Hollywood Reporter
February 22nd, 2016

"The strained interactions among these barely defined characters seem to go on forever...Telling instead of showing, the playwright spoon-feeds his themes as if he's afraid the audience will be too obtuse to catch on....For all their considerable efforts, the performers are hobbled by characters who feel less like flesh-and-blood figures than creative conceits. There's tragedy aplenty in 'Smokefall,' but it's doubtful you'll find your eyes tearing."
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Variety
February 22nd, 2016

"It turns out the show is yet another domestic drama about the all-American nuclear family, this one trying hard to distinguish itself from other domestic dramas about the all-American nuclear family by stylistically swerving from realism to surrealism...No one says anything the least bit interesting, and whatever we know about these people we learn from Quinto, who is called Footnote and plays the narrator."
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New York Daily News
February 22nd, 2016

"Anne Kauffman, a solid pro, repeats directing chores and guides this capable enough new cast, but even so the play delivers a few flashes of whimsy and not much else...The show’s takeaways are pretty obvious. We lose people. Life comes full circle. To love is 'the greatest act of courage.' That may well be. But it’s hard to love this 'Smokefall.'"
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Theatermania
February 22nd, 2016

"It often feels more like a college seminar on magical realism than a rigorous example of the genre...The actors are miraculously able to deliver this dense text in a way that doesn't sound like they're reciting from an essay on world literature...Unfortunately, director Anne Kauffman's production is equally lifeless...Likely to appeal only to undergraduate philosophy students (and those who wish they could be in college forever)."
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Lighting & Sound America
February 23rd, 2016

"Haidle has given himself quite a tightrope to walk, blending domestic drama with wild flights of fancy and vaudeville-like routines, the farcical often occupying the same space as a pervasive melancholy. But darn it if he doesn't pull it off, shifting dramatic and emotional gears with the skill of a top race car driver, even as he conducts a conversation about the forces that shape our lives: chance, choice, genes, and destiny."
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