The Far Country NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsShow-Score Member Reviews (180)
See it if Like to get more insight into the Chinese exclusion act
Don't see it if Don’t like to think about Americas racist history
See it if you want to enjoy an absorbing, creative, and intense immigrant history
Don't see it if the energy of act one didn't last till act two
See it if you want to open your eyes and heart to what Chinese immigrants faced as they were interrogated to prove or request citizenship in the 1900s
Don't see it if You don't care for historical plays that shine a light on racism throughout the immigrant experience. The interrogation scenes are lengthy. Read more
See it if you want to take a walk down the history lane of Asian-American immigration. Understand the multi-faceted nature of immigration.
Don't see it if It is quite serious and fast-tempo. Might not be great if you are looking for a lazy afternoon with warm and fuzzy feelings.
See it if you want to see the human impact of the Chinese exclusion act and contextualize what it meant in American history.
Don't see it if TW: family & generational trauma
See it if Incisive plotting,a crucial story,top notch directing/acting/production,aplay worthy of Arthur Miller at his best.
Don't see it if You think you know the minority/immigrant experience and don't want to see the reality.
See it if Well thought-out characters and plot, and highly inventive stagecraft.
Don't see it if The last scene feels a little too long, and there's nothing "period" about it.
See it if You want to see stories of the Chinese immigrant experience. This is a poetic and lyrical play that can become an epic saga miniseries.
Don't see it if You prefer happy plays or musicals. Read more
Critic Reviews (13)
“ 'The Far Country' meditates on ethnicity and identity...There is so much more history to recover. More love. More promise. More pain."
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"In just over two hours, Suh succinctly and humorously covers 21 years, two continents, two interrogations and two obscenely expensive trans-Pacific crossings from Taishan to San Francisco."
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"One of Suh’s strengths is his ability to mix realism and poetic elements. He uses that here as he shines a light on a dark slice of American history and builds a play around it."
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"Suh’s strengths is his ability to mix realism and poetic elements. He uses that here as he shines a light on a dark slice of American history and builds a play around it."
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"As a history lesson, 'The Far Country' is enlightening, sobering, even at times enraging. As drama, Suh's play is on shakier ground."
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This is Suh's second pass (at least) at dealing with the Chinese Exclusion Act…It was an unjust law that resonates discomfortingly in today's America, and all praise to the playwright for bringing it forward. But if Suh could find a strongly dramatic matrix to further illuminate this dark chapter of our history, his arguments might pack a true knockout punch. In The Far Country, they land, but sometimes too glancingly.
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"If you want to get something out of the experience, they seem to be telling us, you'd better be paying careful attention. Our 'intimate epic' offers up a significant piece of history that you probably know next to nothing about. Listen, learn, and digest it all later."
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If "The Far Country" has a shortcoming, it's that the second half feels like a sequel to what came before rather than a continuation of the same play, despite the sensitive efforts of director Eric Ting to emotionally stitch everything together. In part, that's because characters disappear entirely after Suh's story resumes, though the more salient cause is the relatively late introduction of Yuen (Shannon Tyo), a desperate, but still strong-willed, young woman to whom Gyet proposes marriage after returning to China with his U.S. citizenship, essentially replicating Gee's offer to him with an even more intimate bond.
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