See it if Enjoy shows that are as comfortable with silence as with speech, for a tour de force dinner date and sly stagecraft, the overwhelming set
Don't see it if You're a neat freak, you can't stand or sit on backless stools for 2 hours, you want a proscenium house with clean sightlines
See it if you want to experience a poignant, evocative & reflective show that uses magic in startling & haunting ways
Don't see it if you need legible narrative; if you sitting on a box isn't your thing
See it if You want to experience a very unusual " performance ". Some people might find it banal and self centered, I found it very poetic
Don't see it if You go to the theater just to be " entertained " and no to be " provoked " and " surprised ". Lovers of traditional theater better stay away
See it if You enjoy magic and immersive theatre! It's a great show with a great leading man bringing a very wonderful project to NYTW!
Don't see it if You mind sitting on a box, and have to move about a space. Your focus constantly changes, but you really see a man and his link to objects!
See it if you have an open mind, a sense of whimsy, and are prepared for a couple of aha! moments
Don't see it if you expect a traditional play with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
See it if you're interested in shows of an alternative flavor and making, discombobulated, narrative and gesture theatre.
Don't see it if you prefer stories that have action driven plot lines, easy to understand situations and a clear performance/audience space distinction. Read more
See it if you want to be reminded that we are here for only a brief moment and we don't need all this stuff.
Don't see it if you are claustrophobic and have closets to clean out.
See it if Still wrapping my head around it, but I enjoyed it.
Don't see it if You are looking for narrative, structure, or character. The seating is tough on the back.
"It’s worth its weight in gold...At first slow, tentative, and pensive, then increasingly fast, and finally frenetic, Sobelle takes us through a sequence of impeccably timed, perceptive, and witty remembrances and reenactments related to the seemingly endless array of possessions he pulls out...Funny and magical, affecting and poignant, like life itself, so go and savor every second of it before its limited run is over."
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"Brilliant and strange...Love, and its loss, seems to be the linking theme...In the play’s final stretch, Sobelle distills the story of a life from an apparently bottomless box...This segment is the most cohesive, and your pleasure in the play will be dictated by how patient you are with the lack of a coherent story...Here, laid out for us, are his character’s memories, and the genius of 'The Object Lesson' is how skillfully he vividly brings them to life to tweak our own memories."
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"Sobelle is inclined to ponder the weight and meaning of the possessions that come into our lives and how they form some unifying thread that helps define us...We're left with a sense of how our stuff interplays with our spiritual lives, the meanings we impart on inanimate objects. Phone conversations are little wisps that vanish into the ether, out of our grasp. But plastic lobsters are forever."
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"Sobelle extracts what he tells us are mementos...It’s amusing if not very compelling. But things become somewhat more coherent as a tale of romance takes shape...The sequence wins Sobelle a bounty of audience good will, enough to carry him through to the end of an overly extended finale...Even as the piece has us contemplate the meaning of the ephemera that life and living make us collect, it also impresses as performance art and installation."
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"The actor clearly wants the audience to have a communal experience with him...What the character fails to see is that personal memories don’t always translate well when people haven’t been through the same events...This quibble aside, 'Object Lesson' is quite enjoyable and refreshingly different from anything else on the NY theatrical scene this season. Sobelle turns in a tour-de-force performance as he keeps the audience guessing throughout a not always linear but often insightful journey."
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"There is only a vague reference to what I understand is the message behind the play - memories, keeping things, packing them up and where they end up. The entire evening seems to be a metaphor for the concept. The only thing is - nobody bothered to tell us...If that were not bad enough, we all sat on wooden/cardboard boxes for 100 minutes of this torture."
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"The scenic installation may be the best part of the show as audience members are encouraged to go early to roam the setting and sift through the debris...The highlight and most inventive is when Sobelle in ice skates prepares dinner for an audience member...Part clown, part magician and highly athletic Sobelle cuts an entertaining figure, however for my taste the show is too long. Give me old fashioned theater with real dramatic impact."
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“This cluttered and confusing performance art/installation piece did not inspire anxiety in me. Instead, I merely felt bored…Sobelle appears, and the show presumably begins. I say ‘presumably’ because the show is so confusing and unstructured that I’m not even sure it was a show...There is no narrative thread connecting these vignettes, nor is there an underlying theme or message to be found, resulting in an unsatisfying and extremely frustrating experience.”
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