The Antipodes NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (169)
See it if you love the work of Annie Baker. This is a play and a production that you've never seen before. Writing, acting, direction: all perfect.
Don't see it if you need instant gratification in performance and crystal-clear plot. Read more
See it if Knockout great. Pointed and humane, experimental and virtuosic, risky and graceful. It has so much to say about this moment. Go in unspoiled
Don't see it if Some will find it off-putting. But it's great to see a play that puts you through a common experience while nudging you out of groupthink.
See it if you are a hard-working audience member and find reward in a play that you may not fully understand until mulling it over for a while.
Don't see it if odd transitions, digressions, shaggy dog stories, and coy exposition will confuse and annoy rather than intrigue and excite you. Read more
See it if you're interested in the power and function of stories. (If you're not, why are you seeing theater at all?)
Don't see it if you're looking for any sort of plot. Also, it's 2 hours with no intermission, so if you have bladder issues, maybe skip this one.
See it if You love Annie Baker, our best American playwright in theatre. its one of the better plays of this year
Don't see it if YOU MUST SEE IT IF YOU CAN
See it if brilliant satire corporate speak plus original take on what storytelling means 4 our inner life & our culture, fine direction by Lila N.
Don't see it if you're put off by production of series of unrelated, often bizarre, stories, want clear, plot-driven show; drama about corporate leader weak Read more
See it if you're an Annie Baker fan. As always she helps us to see and hear ourselves in everyday conversations and in real time.
Don't see it if you don't like Annie Baker's plays. She doesn't venture far. She doesn't have to. Your first Annie Baker will always be your favorite...
See it if you're a fan of Annie Baker; if you want to see an expert ensemble bring a delicate/intricate/unconventional play to memorable life
Don't see it if you need characters to be likable &/or sensible; if you can't with plays that don't have a clear/legible plot
Critic Reviews (36)
"Annie Baker’s in-all-ways fabulous new play...Ms. Baker delivers a complete and confident narrative...As directed with a time-blurring seamlessness by Lila Neugebauer, and acted by a perfectly blended ensemble of nine, 'The Antipodes' leaves you glowing with a wondering satisfaction. I mean the happy satiety that comes from being in the hands of a real right-brain/left-brain author who channels her ineffable instincts with a master artisan’s practical skills."
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"You’ve heard Hemingway’s blunt formula for writing: 'All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.' Annie Baker’s characters more or less follow that advice in 'The Antipodes,' her latest intensely vivid hypnotizing act disguised as a play...This hermetic premise—executed with gimlet-eyed flair by director Lila Neugebauer—gives Baker (and the audience) permission to view narrative in all its tangled, self-consuming oddness. The cast is a dream team of weird-play wranglers."
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"Not to say it is sour or mean; the production, beautifully directed by Neugebauer, is just too thoughtful to settle for unkindness. So are the uniformly excellent actors...Some of the digressions and hermetic annotations feel a bit unprocessed...Baker is too thoughtful a playwright to make any two hours spent with her characters unedifying. The pinprick insights...are sharp and often hilarious. Still, I wonder whether 'The Antipodes' will eventually prove to be have been a transitional piece."
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“‘The Antipodes’ proceeds at a glacial pace that seems to grow slower and slower as the play goes on and on…It’s not that Ms. Baker is unable to write striking dialogue, but the total effect is abusive of the attention span in a way that I find barely endurable...It’s pretty damned obvious, not to mention tedious—and did I already say 'pretentious'? If not, it’s that, too. Lila Neugebauer, the director, exhibits an uncanny knack for juggling large casts...The actors are all very good."
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"When good playwrights are unable to write, they sometimes write bad plays about being unable to write. Annie Baker, who is normally a very good writer, has written such a play in 'The Antipodes'...The exercise is painful for these brain-dead writers, but pure torture for audiences...The only other interesting story doesn’t come until near the end of the play. That leaves a lot of dead stage time to be filled with superficial thoughts about Time and Space and cabbages and kings."
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"Despite its amusingly pungent dialogue and the expert performances, 'The Antipodes' ultimately feels as stifling as being trapped in a conference room during an interminable meeting. Neugebauer works hard to overcome the material’s inherently static nature...Baker’s writing proves provocative and insightful. But she seems to be straining too hard here for a significance that feels unearned. This play about storytelling might have benefited from having an actual story."
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"Baker’s writing this time is patchy, ranging from moments of bravura inspiration and humor to the humdrum...Ultimately, we’re waiting for a thematic crescendo that never arrives...Thanks to the ensemble, the journey never feels like too much of a slog...Director Neugebauer ably keeps the material alive...'The Antipodes,' echoing its own plot, is essentially an Annie Baker spitball session. And she’s built enough trust to throw an experiment our way, even if it doesn’t stick to the wall."
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"Baker moves beyond the easy target of the entertainment industry to satirize the cultural mystification surrounding the art of storytelling...The play, filled with eccentric touches from the start, gets stranger as it goes along...'The Antipodes' feels like a transitional play...The dramatic journey, delightful in its micro moments, keeps doubling back on itself in a way that is ultimately more intellectually intriguing than theatrically satisfying."
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