The Death of the Last Black Man in the Entire World
Closed 1h 15m
The Death of the Last Black Man in the Entire World
67

The Death of the Last Black Man in the Entire World NYC Reviews and Tickets

67%
(86 Ratings)
Positive
50%
Mixed
40%
Negative
10%
Members say
Confusing, Ambitious, Great acting, Thought-provoking, Disappointing

About the Show

Signature Theatre presents Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks' satirical exploration of how race and stereotype figure throughout history and literature.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (86)

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261 Reviews | 70 Followers
69
Clever, Great acting, Great staging, Relevant, Resonant

See it if You want to see an early Suzan-Lori Parks play that is abstract,dreamlike and non-linear exploring black oppression over time

Don't see it if You hate non-linear plays that don't follow a narrative arc and feels like a dream. Very repetitive speech patterns that is hard to follow

77 Reviews | 36 Followers
68
Ambitious, Intense, Thought-provoking, Confusing, Whaaa?

See it if You like expressionistic theater and absorbing impressions via symbolic characters, dialect, music, dance, shapes, poetry, you get the idea.

Don't see it if You value plot and coherence over impressions. Not sure how much is accessible to non-black audience members.

205 Reviews | 13 Followers
68
Great acting, Relevant, Ambitious, Edgy, Intense

See it if You like long epic poems, stark commentary on race in America, good acting, intense and rhythmic dialogue with frequent repitition.

Don't see it if If you like strong plots, linear action, and dialogue.

461 Reviews | 97 Followers
65
Ambitious, Clever, Confusing, Dizzying, Edgy

See it if You enjoy experimental/eclectic theater. An interesting story told through cliches. A very visual story.

Don't see it if You are easily confused or need a linear story. This is not a linear story but a story told through visuals and repetition.

284 Reviews | 85 Followers
65
Thought-provoking, Intense, Great acting, Great staging, Intelligent

See it if You want to be entranced by a strong ensemble of actors creating an unending syncopation through word & movement. Beautiful poetry.

Don't see it if You are not listening to each word, being drawn into each step / each gesture. The beauty is in the language of the play. Intense & solid.

56 Reviews | 26 Followers
65
Ambitious, Great acting, Great staging, Disappointing, Confusing

See it if you are interested in performance art.

Don't see it if you expect to see a coherent play.

134 Reviews | 35 Followers
65
Disappointing, Great acting, Confusing

See it if Good acting, good design and poetic language is enough for you.

Don't see it if You want a coherent, revealing and non-pretentious point of view. I left the theater perplexed at what the author was trying to say.

184 Reviews | 17 Followers
60
Ambitious, Cliched, Well performed, Great staging, Too profound

See it if you'd like to discuss ideas about race and Black stereotypes.

Don't see it if you'd like a plot-driven drama. This has ideas but little plot.

Critic Reviews (29)

Financial Times (UK)
November 14th, 2016

"Feels like a bad dream. Frequently it’s difficult to make out quite what is going on...Centuries of crime and pain are here distilled into 75 minutes of harrowing yet sublime performance...Under Lileana Blain-Cruz’s precise direction, the 11 performers bring that dark vision to haunting life, marrying exquisitely restrained movement to the rich poetry of Parks’s language...This revival offers a powerful tonic at a time when America’s divisions seem starker than ever."
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scribicide
November 18th, 2016

"Still, I must confess to finding 'The Death of the Last Black Man' largely impenetrable and frustrating. It is a play that reads better than it stages, that requires close attention to language that is impossible when it washes over you like it does in performance-even in a pitch-perfect production like this one."
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W
November 20th, 2016

"'Last Black Man' isn't a polemical riff on the headlines...As directed by Blain-Cruz, it has a timeless quality, more like a dance piece or a symphony than a traditional narrative story...But now, the last black man's series of highly-stylized deaths...all also read as a blistering condemnation of society's physical brutality to African-American bodies and a paean to the Black Lives Matter movement. Few works have ever seemed more relevant in our political moment—or as worth seeing."
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Village Voice
November 16th, 2016

"A surreal, poetic meditation on the linked histories of slavery and colonialism…The play riffs on language and remixes racial stereotypes with boldness and grace, creating an experience that is both revelatory and irresistibly watchable…In beautiful choral interludes, the ensemble chants Parks's poetic refrains, which link colonialism to racism and underline the role of language in perpetuating it…These histories are bleak, but watching Parks's play is not."
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Edge New York
November 16th, 2016

"This rarely produced political work has maintained its razor-sharp ferociousness while highlighting Parks' adverse fearlessness as an artist. Delphic, opaque, speculative, mystifying and oracular, the ensemble show is at once fundamentally perplexing and emotionally overpowering…Enigmatic and even stupefying at bouts one thing is certain...Signature's latest revival of ‘The Death of the Last Black Man' is a cathartic fever dream of transgressive art."
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