Smokefall NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (69)
See it if The storytelling is compelling in its non-linear shaping. The "birth" scene is fantastic and original.
Don't see it if You find non-linear storytelling and actors playing multiple roles to be confusing
See it if you want to mine the effects of familial dysfunction across several generations through a challenging narrative approach. You like puzzles.
Don't see it if you'd be confused by lead actors playing multiple generations of family members across time and space, sometimes with little differention.
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.
See it if You enjoy a wonderfully acted story about a basically unhappy family spanning 4 generations, much of which is told in flashback.
Don't see it if You want a strong story that easily flows. If not for the narrator, this would have been all over the place, but he kept it flowing.
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.
See it if If you are up for another plot about an unhappy, dysfunctional family that is chock-full of biblical, literary and philosophical references
Don't see it if You are not up for plot points & dialogue dense with symbolism and arcane references. There are a # of "replay" moments that become tedious
See it if you really want to see Zachary Quinto and think for an hour and a half
Don't see it if you want something and mindless - this one is a thinker
See it if you want shows that leave a lot up to interpretation
Don't see it if you prefer shows with linear plot structure
Critic Reviews (46)
"The sometimes heady, rarely affecting 'Smokefall,' explores Big Ideas, without quite assembling them into engaging theatre...The players in director Anne Kauffman’s production all bring feeling to their roles, though whether the play itself elicits any from audiences seems like another matter. While its dialogue may give you pause to ponder Life’s Big Questions, the characters are rendered sufficiently remote and indistinct that their interpersonal drama is less than emotionally engaging."
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"Zachary Quinto nimbly takes on several characters, including one named Footnote, who narrates the action; and another named Fetus Two, whom we meet in the show's best scene, dressed as a vaudevillian and trading one-liners with his twin about whether it's worth it for them to leave the womb...The grim daily lives and poor choices that playwright Noah Haidle has given four generations of this family strains for the profundity of 'Our Town' but ends up in the shallow end of the pool."
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"Every performance in 'Smokefall' is as rich and nuanced as Haidle’s writing, Anne Kauffman’s direction, and Mimi Lien’s inventive scenic design...Haidle implies in 'Smokefall' that whatever individual family members do, and however our loved ones err, fail, and injure those closest to them, the notion of family, and a family’s history and love, will persist."
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"A haunting drama that combines magical realism with vaudevillian hucksterism...MCC has pulled off a visually interesting feat, under the direction of Anne Kauffman...It’s quite obvious that Haidle believes some things can keep growing, maturing, evolving and improving, even if they’re diseased."
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"Notes of magical realism keep the plot revolving through time, in MCC Theater's intelligent, slightly uneven production...Anne Kauffman has staged the production with fluidity and grace...Thanks to the witty, mostly credible plotting and excellent acting...The biggest question Haidle works to illuminate, though, is whether life is worth living despite inevitable tragedies and setbacks."
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"'Smokefall' is about a very deep subject — time — but someone forgot to tell Haidle that he’s writing for South Coast Rep, not Simon & Schuster."
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"This encore engagement is better than the original staging...Director Anne Kauffman's production has only deepened as it has grown, although I think the trajectory of the last 10 minutes still needs work...Haidle has made a few judicious nips and tucks in his script. More notably, Kauffman clearly has reworked scenes that danced too much on the surface...The acting remains first-rate, both witty and unstintingly honest."
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"An attentive production...Those with a penchant for homespun elegy playfully whipped up may enjoy 'Smokefall,' but the work is really a collection of derivative themes in search of a fleshed-out drama...The despair running under the surface of Haidle's play doesn't quite justify the sickly sweet way the characters interact...This isn't an actual family — it's a playwriting conceit."
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