The Mountains Look Different
Closed 2h 0m
The Mountains Look Different
80

The Mountains Look Different NYC Reviews and Tickets

80%
(93 Ratings)
Positive
93%
Mixed
6%
Negative
1%
Members say
Great acting, Absorbing, Thought-provoking, Great staging, Intense

About the Show

The Mint presents a new staging of Micheál mac Liammóir's 1948 Irish drama, which tells the story of Bairbre’s return home to Ireland, after a dozen hard years in London working the streets.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (93)

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290 Reviews | 92 Followers
92
Great writing, Great staging, Great acting, Edgy, Absorbing

See it if You like a great story with fabulous actors that keeps you guessing til the end.

Don't see it if You like lighthearted easy-going comedies. This is a bit of a tension filled story.

86 Reviews | 10 Followers
90
Resonant, Intelligent, Absorbing

See it if You are interested in how traditional people respond to cultural change; are interested in rural Ireland; you are interested in gender issu

Don't see it if You want lighter fare. This ends sadly. Although it treats prostitutes sympathetically it ultimately stands for traditional morality Read more

don
506 Reviews | 1005 Followers
90
Great acting, Thought-provoking, Resonant, Refreshing, Absorbing

See it if Mint,maybe 40-50 productions has always come" thru" (one loser in all of those years The goal to produce some shows of yore is a success

Don't see it if We need more Mint works Read more

276 Reviews | 47 Followers
90
Absorbing, Riveting, Profound, Great writing, Great acting

See it if You enjoy excellent acting in an excellent play about how your past can doom your present and destroy your future.

Don't see it if You want a lighthearted evening or if your ear is not fine tuned for accents or if you cannot pay attention.

94 Reviews | 9 Followers
90
Good acting, Thought-provoking, Absorbing

See it if you want to see a well-acted production of a 70-year old play with interesting if not lovable characters

Don't see it if you will be upset with intra-family conflict that goes beyond arguments

370 Reviews | 80 Followers
84
Great acting, Great writing, Riveting, Intense, Absorbing

See it if you'll enjoy a dark Irish drama, first performed in 1948.The acting in this is truly excellent.

Don't see it if you don't like dark, tragic plays & prefer comedies or musicals.

MJK
677 Reviews | 192 Followers
83
Great staging, Melodramatic, Absorbing, Great acting

See it if u want to see Mint inventively mount another forgotten drama, this time about an archetypal fallen woman's bid for salvation in 40s Ireland.

Don't see it if u expect to discover a lost classic. [Mac Liammoir's play is a bit creaky, histrionic & predictable w/a number of plot holes.] Read more

460 Reviews | 188 Followers
83
Eerily relevant to today’s times, Slow-build to a fiery finish, Thought-provoking, Inventive set-design, Old-fashioned melodrama

See it if an Ireland-set, 70-year-old play about family bonds and secrets, gender stereotypes, sexuality, superstition, and mental illness appeals,

Don't see it if you struggle with datedness, dislike Mint Theater Company or "fusty" works, and/or struggle to understand Irish and/or British accents. Read more

Critic Reviews (17)

The New York Times
June 20th, 2019

"The Mint Theater, which specializes in excavating forgotten gems, has found a solid one in 'The Mountains Look Different,' a 1948 drama by Micheál Mac Liammóir that the director Aidan Redmond has polished to a becoming shimmer at Theater Row...It is not, truth be told, a visually splendid production...What’s alluring here is the storytelling, by both Mac Liammóir and the actors, whose across-the-board restraint roots the characters in reality throughout."
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New York Theatre Guide
June 21st, 2019

“This unsettling tale of isolation and mystery walks softly and carries a big secret...The biggest problem is that the play peaks too early...For much of Act II Meaney finds herself on a rescue mission to keep the energy going through the end of the play. As she carries the show, Meaney operates on a completely different level from the rest of the cast...She would outclass any but the fiercest of actors...'The Mountains Look Different’ is worthy, at times gripping theater.”
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Theatermania
June 20th, 2019

"If the Mint Theater's American premiere of 'The Mountains Look Different,' 71 years after its initial debut, proves anything, it's that melodrama doesn't always get better with age — and this one is particularly creaky...There's no escaping the judgmental nature of mac Liammóir's text, which seems to suggest that women are in constant need of rescuing, and if they try to operate on their own, bad things will happen. Fortunately, Meaney is terrific and keeps her head up."
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Lighting & Sound America
July 8th, 2019

"A golden opportunity to get acquainted with two names you should know: Micheál Mac Liammóir and Brenda Meaney…[Meaney] masterfully lays bare the fear behind Bairbre's determinedly ingratiating manner…[the play] benefits from a golden tongue, a kind of back-country poetry that lingers in the mind."
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Talkin' Broadway
June 20th, 2019

"In the Mint Theater Company's current, eminently satisfying production of this obscure but extraordinary work, Brenda Meaney gives a wondrous performance...The play has some flaws of construction...'The Mountains Look Different' is worthy of this stellar revival, for which heartfelt thanks are due to director Aidan Redmond and the invaluable Mint Theater Company."
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New York Stage Review
June 20th, 2019

"As mac Líammóir unpacks his overreaching but still hard to resist work, he had to have concluded that the kind of future an Anna Christie sister-under-the-skin might have would be no picnic on the West Ireland mountains...Director Aidan Redmond has gathered the right cast to cover the above-mentioned bases—and Andrea Varga has dressed them well for the occasions."
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New York Stage Review
June 20th, 2019

"It is, at best, a fragile work that demands some fine acting and especially atmospheric staging to strengthen or at least camouflage its dramaturgical weaknesses...Apparently this production marks Redmond’s first time as a director and, boy, does it ever look that way...Unfortunately, the patchy acting is mostly indifferent to the point of appearing under-rehearsed. The hasty physical staging is awkward."
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TheaterScene.net
June 23rd, 2019

"A mash-up of Eugene O'Neill's 'Anna Christie' (set in Manhattan and off the coasts of Provincetown and Boston) and 'Desire under the Elms' (with a rural New England setting), the play is set on a farm in the West of Ireland. With its fallen woman theme, this play could have been written any time since 1880. First time director Aidan Redmond has staged the play by the numbers and has given his actors little help. Some of the character interpretations undercut the play."
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