The Penitent NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (113)
See it if You enjoy shows that do a lot of talking. Each character is a familiar-predictable type. Rationalization for action taken is chilling.
Don't see it if You don't prefer David Mamet style of theater. This one is like Oleanna. That should say enough.
See it if Intelligent but talky Mamet about duplicity in law, medicine and journalism. Some intense dialogue about religion and ethics.
Don't see it if could be a snooze for some. i found it stimulating most of the time, but the dialogue between the doctor and his wife was annoying Read more
See it if you enjoy great writing, other Mamet plays, and interesting dialogue.
Don't see it if you need big sets and fast-paced action.
See it if you like gritty, off center, edgy plays that don't always stay on target but deliver a punch and a great live experience
Don't see it if you are uncomfortable with topics of racism and sexual crimes and corruption, or if you want a lighthearted night at the theater
See it if you want to see some good acting overall & are prepared for a halting Mamet-esque style and writing. If you go, stay for Act II.
Don't see it if you aren't prepared to be puzzled and unsure thru much of the piece. Or want to see HAMILTON.
See it if you want a play about difficult moral dilemmas. Some of the scenes have good dialog. Ending is a bit of a surprise.
Don't see it if you want action. The first act is a bit annoying with a lot of repetitive dialog. Second act is a bit better.
See it if You enjoy Mamet's plays. Interesting subject matter and themes involving mental health,law,religion, and press. Excellent cast.
Don't see it if Play is better suited for professionals in aforementioned fields than the general public. Mamet appears to have major issues with psychiatry
See it if You like small, short, thought-provoking plays. You like Mamet. You're a fan of Chris Bauer or Lawrence Gilliard Jr. They were great.
Don't see it if You get bored easily. You want humor.
Critic Reviews (34)
"Director Neil Pepe has a tough job with characters that begin at a not too far away distance from where they end. It must be difficult to guide a cast whose job it is to act as a thin veil for Mamet’s temper. The dialogue -- that famous Mamet Speak that interrupts and overlaps and pauses at brief, measured counts -- comes to life only hastily, in particular during the one scene in which Gilliard Jr. and Bauer appear together, but from Pidgeon’s mouth, it may as well be Morse Code."
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"It’s a bitter trip into a dark psyche...The play is 90 minutes long, and far too much of that time is spent rearranging Tim Mackabee’s sparse set for reasons that never quite pay off...What remains is a series of linguistic back and forths whose solutions are elusive and insufficiently intriguing...Ultimately, audiences may feel that rather than going on a journey with Mamet, they’ve merely gone around in circles."
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"Mamet has structured 'The Penitent' so that information is parceled out in stingy pieces. Some of this is surely for dramatic effect, particularly a revelation at the end that is undoubtedly meant to knock us out. But this approach winds up undercutting his thematic explorations...And that ending (which I won’t reveal) is not only implausible to the point of self-parody; it negates or at least clouds all the intellectual debate that’s gone before it."
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"'The Penitent' isn’t so much a play as an argument. Mamet watchers are used to that. What makes 'The Penitent' not only thinner but also phony is the final scene where a character lets go with two bomblets that pretty much negate the previous 70 minutes...Not that 'The Penitent' is ever riveting...Under Neil Pepe’s direction, the actors move the chairs and table every which way in the relative darkness...It is amazing how many ways there are to arrange two chairs and one table."
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“While it’s by no means Mamet’s worst, it falls far short of his best work...The stilted opening scene really gets things off to a bad start…The second act begins energetically with a scene between Charles and an attorney (the fine Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) deposing him…The press, the legal system, psychiatry, religion, marriage and friendship all take a beating. There are no winners here, including the audience.”
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“It seems to go round and round at times in repeating the issues laid out for us. Although one can be absorbed, there is thinness in this Mamet play, which lacks the bite of his better works. My main enjoyment came from watching Pidgeon…Her performance gives the play a consistent edge. Neil Pepe’s direction unfolds the succession of intimate scenes effectively, but there is nothing that he can do to whitewash the fact that the play itself, although always interesting, is Mamet light.”
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"Mamet's new straw-man polemic takes less than 90 minutes to pile simplistic criticism onto the legal system, journalism, psychiatry, love, religion and the ethical culpability of those involved with any of the above...Conversations come in short scenes and dialogue interruptions—familiar Mamet techniques used for far better effect in so many earlier works. The generalizations are banal and, even when Mamet intentionally infuriates, these are not interesting minds with which to argue."
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"In Mamet’s best plays, offbeat speech patterns often give a charge to what’s being said; here, even under the direction of long-time Mamet collaborator Neil Pepe, the exchanges are dry, dramatically parched...'The Penitent' is better than Mamet’s last Broadway play, the unfortunate 'China Doll.' But it’s a long distance from the work that made him one of America’s most significant playwrights."
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