The Antipodes
Closed 1h 55m
The Antipodes
72

The Antipodes NYC Reviews and Tickets

72%
(169 Ratings)
Positive
63%
Mixed
24%
Negative
13%
Members say
Great acting, Disappointing, Thought-provoking, Ambitious, Indulgent

About the Show

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker returns for the second production of her Signature Theatre residency with this world premiere play, directed by Lila Neugebauer.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (169)

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133 Reviews | 44 Followers
85
Clever, Delightful, Entertaining, Intelligent, Funny

See it if If you like sci-fi, if you are in the corporate business, if you like intelligent writing.

Don't see it if If you expect stories with happy endings, romance or drama

112 Reviews | 36 Followers
85
Confusing, Great writing, Absorbing

See it if You're a fan of Annie Baker, hypernaturalism, or the way in which we create stories

Don't see it if You want a play full of plot twists, lots of climax or conflict, or if you hate plays where people do a lot of talking

719 Reviews | 253 Followers
85
Great acting, Great writing, Funny, Thought-provoking, Quirky

See it if You love quirky, dark comedies that have stories that are open to interpretation.

Don't see it if You prefer more traditional, straightforward plays with linear plots, character development, and endings that are easily understood.

63 Reviews | 15 Followers
85
Absorbing, Confusing, Dizzying, Great acting, Entertaining

See it if you don't mind thinking, if you like storytelling or are a writer.

Don't see it if you need things spelled out, if you can't sit for two hours or if you don't like graphic sex stories. Read more

688 Reviews | 116 Followers
85
Ambitious, Confusing, Great acting, Great staging, Quirky

See it if Cryptic yet fascinating drama about a showrunner & his minions Classic Baker format - simplicity writ large Expert direction by Neugebauer

Don't see it if Even Baker fans (myself) will find play a bit opaque Could lose 20 mins & still retain message Superb cast carries us through rough patches

144 Reviews | 29 Followers
83
Great acting, Entertaining, Hilarious, Intelligent, Thought-provoking

See it if you want a funny, intellectually stimulating modern play with a surprisingly moving ending

Don't see it if you want a traditional linear plot or care about "answers" to questions

104 Reviews | 15 Followers
83
Ambitious, Absorbing, Enchanting, Hilarious

See it if You enjoy peeling back layers and layers of meaning and just holding onto them awkwardly.

Don't see it if You like traditional narratives

414 Reviews | 70 Followers
82
Absorbing, Funny, Intelligent, Great writing, Thought-provoking

See it if about a brainstorming session in a conference room where the characters tell a variety of stories - true, fantastical or mythological

Don't see it if you need everything to be explained (never told exactly what the stories are for), need action, don't like wordy, quirky plays Read more

Critic Reviews (36)

This Week in New York
May 11th, 2017

"A carefully crafted existential take on everyday existence, on the things humans do to get by, from eating and drinking to having sex, from going to work and communicating with others to dealing with life’s little problems...Director Lila Neugebauer makes every movement count, never allowing the narrative flow to drag...'The Antipodes' is another exceptional play from one of the theater’s finest minds, a writer who is never afraid of going for the revolutionary in her work."
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Financial Times (UK)
April 24th, 2017

"Though the action unfolds gnomically under Lila Neugebauer’s Pinteresque direction, the underlying point of these motley exchanges seems clear. Whereas work used to be about making or doing things, now the most valuable commodity we have to offer is ourselves...The results can be a test of theatrical endurance, particularly when the characters themselves begin to nod off on stage. But that willfully soporific episode is also consistent with the play’s deadpan humour."
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scribicide
April 23rd, 2017

"'The Antipodes' is among the stronger of these plays, rather modestly suggesting amidst all its grandeur that art, and in particular mythology, exists simply to make sense for the subject of its relation to others and to the world around it."
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NJ.com
April 25th, 2017

"Alternately brilliant and boring; quietly touching and madly self-indulgent...For awhile, 'The Antipodes,' unfolds as a sharp, if obvious satire of corporate culture...But as the drama unfolds...the play becomes a cryptic meditation on—well, therein lies the problem...Make no mistake, there are moments of startling beauty here...But what of it? When a work is this deliberately vague and open-ended—when it can mean anything—it eventually comes to feel like a whole lot of nothing."
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Village Voice
April 25th, 2017

“It's a paradoxical, puzzling, compellingly hypnotic work…Baker doesn't explicate; she lets her characters speak their piece and leaves us to parse the results…The incessant feeling of an impending cataclysm seems impossible to shake off. Neugebauer's actors all catch the play's eerie dualistic quality with perfect pitch. Despite their flesh-and-blood tangibility, I can't escape the persistent feeling that I dreamt the whole thing.”
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Z
April 25th, 2017

“Lots of questions, not a whole lot of answers. Actually, no answers at all...There’s a compelling ‘round-the-campfire feel…It would all be fine—especially since every performance is terrific and the stories are often alarmingly compelling—except eventually all that waiting starts to wear. Yes, we tell each other stories to make sense of life...But unlike life—where we never really get to see how it all turns out—I want my theater to be a bit clearer. There are tons of plots here, but no plot."
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Let's Talk Off-Broadway
June 3rd, 2017

"'The Antipodes' is a distasteful play...This is banal, pretentious theater...Any of these stories could be profound/exciting/illuminating in the hands of a fine writer...But there are no fine writers here and that’s not how these stories are meant to be told...There’s some implication that civilization is at a dead end, and there are no more stories. There are always stories—just looks like Baker couldn’t think of one."
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Magical MissTari Tour
May 3rd, 2017

“I enjoyed myself immensely and appreciated the world and characters created, but I was ready for the play to be over when it ended…There was so much truth and humor in the interaction between the writers…The cast was also spectacular, working as a unit, yet each taking their moment in the spotlight and running with it. Baker is so expert at creating realistic people with just a few brush strokes, and these actors build on those brush strokes beautifully.”
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