See it if you are patient with a work-in-progress that has potential unfulfilled, fine acting with a weak script, horror-story narrative.
Don't see it if you expect more refined and polished work from this fine company,
See it if You like offbeat shows
Don't see it if You like musicals
See it if you love the Bronte Sisters and Monty Python equally.
Don't see it if you need everything in a play to add up.
See it if You want to check out a young playwright that's got a unique voice and an interesting one, just in desperate need of an editor.
Don't see it if You can't sit through an hour and forty minutes for a great forty-five minute play.
See it if you like gothic tales with dark, twisted characters. I didn't feel that this production held together-audience more enthusiastic than I was.
Don't see it if You don't like edgy and want more trad storytelling. You are fog-smoke sensitive-LOTS of it. Some of the story interests, but it's bizarre. Read more
See it if an original play with very good acting; a strange off the wall original story
Don't see it if you can't sit for 1:45 with no intermission; want a straight forward plot
See it if you're interested in strong female characters, exciting design, and the potential for something great. Unfortunately, The Moors falls flat.
Don't see it if you can't stand overwritten plays. The characters and the plot took too long to go anywhere. Also, if you don't like fog, this isn't for you
See it if you like absurd, allegorical stories that don't deal seriously with character or emotion and are philosophical only for the sake of being so
Don't see it if you prefer character-driven, emotive work and a well-done, atmospheric production with interesting metaphors doesn't make up for that lack
"An alternately intriguing and irritating production...Questions tease and tickle throughout 'The Moors,' which as you may have gathered has a high whimsy quotient. But they never acquire much momentum in Mike Donahue’s production...'The Moors' may sometimes feel sloppy, but it’s smart. Watching it is a bit like having a conversation with an ardent and intelligent Brontë devotee, whose passion almost matches that of the pen-wielding sisters who inspired it."
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"Jen Silverman's misfire 'The Moors' does, in truth, take aim at an interesting target...But the play keeps sabotaging itself. When it tries to be mystical, its jokiness undoes it; when it tries to be warm and silly, the story's fog of cruelty chills the air. The play's lowest moments are—as is often the case these days—forced injections of magic realism...Despite some truly great actors in the cast, the tonally confused performances move at a crawl."
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"Erodes the viewer’s patience for whimsy long before it can effectively make an argument or illuminate anything real...The play keeps undermining itself with falseness on the one hand and weak attempts at humor on the other...You can’t really blame the four actors playing humans for not finding a tone that works, nor even the director, Mike Donahue...The fault is in the conception of the story, which wants to have its camp and eat it too."
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"Jen Silverman's laugh-out-loud dark comedy gently spoofs the Brontë sisters while treating us to a humorous (and brutal) take on the instability of gender roles...Silverman and director Mike Donahue have created an atmosphere in 'The Moors' that is at once mysterious, menacing, and savagely funny...Despite a few drowsy moments and an odd fantasy sequence near the end, 'The Moors' delights with its insightful and subversive edginess."
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“Silverman's flat, uninflected voice provides no pleasure whatsoever. It's rather like listening to a humorless academic analyzing a text…Still, the production has a look and sound that establish an effectively creepy mood…‘The Moors’ offers satire without any real verve or wit; Silverman neither suggests what is alluring about the Gothic romance genre nor does she provide a particularly trenchant critique of it....Her depiction of it lacks affection and fresh insight.”
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"The reviews of the Yale production suggest that another mode of both direction and design might have made a difference. As it stands, The Playwrights Realm's staging of 'The Moors' is a failure that might have been avoided, though the play does not go as far as it ought in trying to be a satire of the 19th century novels as written by the great Victorian women authors."
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“A surprising and entertaining play...Silverman’s script mines the comic potential in the Victorian novel’s standard motifs…Director Mike Donahue keeps the action moving at a crisp pace…His cast, without exception, rises to the challenge of playing this bizarre drama…’The Moors’ seems at first like a trifle...But as it progresses, it goes deeper. Ultimately, this wildly entertaining play also manages to say something profound about human nature, social change, and, yes, the power of writing."
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"Some will appreciate Silverman's take on depression, loneliness, longing, literary aspiration, and female bonding, not to mention sibling rivalry and murder on the Victorian moors. On the other hand, despite its excellent ensemble—Birgit Huppuch is especially noteworthy—others will, like me, find it an overlong, cerebral exercise lacking in emotional warmth and consistent interest. I'd suggest that less of 'The Moors'—perhaps 20 minutes less—would be a vast improvement."
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