The Fears NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (239)
See it if you like an emotional very well written and acted drama. funny parts too
Don't see it if want a musical
See it if you can.
Don't see it if you need plays to be 2.5 hours long and insufferably esoteric.
See it if You want to experience a show that will resonate with you and might change your life
Don't see it if You are a jaded and closed person who can’t think outside their box. Read more
See it if you like strong characters, disparate people trying to come together--sort of. It's humorous, upsetting, and smart. Good theatre!
Don't see it if You are easily triggered by discussions of trauma or don't like work that challenges people's belief systems. Zen devotees may take offense?
See it if you want to be entertained by an interesting play.
Don't see it if you don't like plays that are concerned with people's problems.
See it if dark comedy about bhudaism, sharing and caring is your thing
Don't see it if you are uncomfortable with revealing immobilizing secrets in a therapeutic setting
See it if you enjoy intensely deep psychological dramas with a lot of funny moments as well. The acting is excellent and the performance absorbed me.
Don't see it if you may be triggered by some very difficult life situations as there is some very heavy stuff in here along with the humor. Read more
See it if Youd like to watch people reclaim their lives after tragedy. Insight into the deep trauma many humans walk around & battle w/. Paths to over
Don't see it if The frustrating lack of conclusion/answers to characters lives which we've spent the play following. Im fine w/the unresolved, but when the
Critic Reviews (14)
" 'The Fears' opts for a pat ending, and never makes a clear judgment on whether these broken souls can save one another or whether they are ultimately on their own. "
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"...'The Fears' struggles to locate its center, both in its writing and in Dan Algrant’s direction, which pushes the performers toward breathless jokiness."
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"There’s a fine line between support group and cult, as Emma Sheanshang hilariously demonstrates in 'The Fears'... this laugh-out-loud comedy occupies the space between ideals and reality — which is where the most interesting human behavior is found."
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"Playwright Emma Sheanshang -- who, it's safe to say, has studied the works of Tracy Letts very, very closely -- wants us to see this menagerie as equally laughable and pitiable, but she double-crosses herself by rendering the characters so skimpily that they barely seem to exist."
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"'The Fears' requires some patience from audiences. The production falters at first in its difficulty to establish a consistent tone."
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"...while the details of 'The Fears' are distinct, they aren’t sufficiently eye-opening – not to say mind-blowing — to render Sheanshang’s version much more than mildly intriguing."
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" 'The Fears' seem afraid to commit to either making satirical fun of its characters or fully exploring the psychological damage afflicting them. It’s a play that could have used a bit more mindfulness."
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The world premiere of Emma Sheanshang’s "The Fears" is a hilarious and poignant satire on self-help groups and the sort of people who take their emotional temperature all day long – literally. It is the latest in a new genre of plays in which the humor comes from something that may be painful but it is still possible to laugh at. Smoothly and astutely directed by Dan Algrant who has mainly worked in film, the ensemble of seven actors are entirely convincing as a group of damaged people who meet once a week at a Buddhist center in New York City to deal with early traumas that are keeping them from moving on in their lives. While the play fails to make a bigger statement, it remains entertaining and engrossing throughout.
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