The Treasurer NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (129)
See it if You want a foretaste of your parents' dementia. Many of us have seen it firsthand, and this pay adds nothing.
Don't see it if You want an interesting story. Although the acting is good, it is not enough to sustain the play.
See it if you've ever been financially strained by a member of your family. Apparently, you're not alone. This was one of the best plays I've seen.
Don't see it if you want instant gratification. This play takes its time but pays off in the end.
See it if you want to see some masterful use of doubling and other creative theatrical elements.
Don't see it if you are expecting a less abstract play.
See it if a real success; i'll be thinking about this one for a long time
Don't see it if n/a
See it if You are interested in parent/adult children relationships that are complicated by dementia. Liked the frankness of the story.
Don't see it if Dementia or issues aging parents disturb you. I felt a lot of honest feelings were expressed- life is not always a picture perfect movie.
See it if You want a new depiction of long-distance and strained relationships
Don't see it if You want 100% realism
See it if Interesting play about adult child and aging parent relationship
Don't see it if You like a lot of action.
See it if Cautionary tale about not being able to forgive and be kind after circumstances have changed. Ironically, treasurer: one who treasures.
Don't see it if You don’t want to watch someone suffer because they are so weighed down with emotional baggage that they cannot love a demented old woman.
Critic Reviews (32)
"An emotionally dense play...Mr. Posner’s writing is often effectively double-edged, an amalgam of 21st-century casualness and cadenced lyricism. He is blessed in his director, Mr. Cromer...and his cast. Mr. Friedman is marvelous in evoking a rational man being steadily consumed by a cancerous guilt, while Ms. Dunagan’s shrewd performance fully justifies his jagged ambivalence...Mr. Posner...has a sharp and original ear for the tension between what is spoken and what is not."
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"'The Treasurer' ultimately feels emotional and personal, balancing the inevitability of Ida’s decline with unexpected swerves in the Son’s complex reactions. David Cromer’s precise, unsentimental staging gives the play the room it needs to breathe and the actors fill the space he gives them. I will not soon forget watching Friedman, a performer of uncanny ease, evoke the private hell of the Son’s devising, where his wounds are licked by gentle flames."
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"A quiet revelation...It makes boundaries porous, creates a space that blends the mundane and the mystic, that slips between the life of the moment and the life of the mind, even obscures the border between life and whatever comes after...A ravishing slow burn, with layers that quietly unpeel as the piece goes on...Deanna Dunagan gives an adjective-defying performance. She made my chest hurt."
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"When all is said and done, Max Posner has written a thoughtful, fairly straight-up family story—one that nods openly to 'The Glass Menagerie.' But between its fragmented structure and repetitive scenes and sometimes quirky direction by David Cromer (hey, let’s obstruct the view of these audience members) the production can confound. It can also, on occasion, delight."
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"Featuring superb performances by Friedman and Dunagan, 'Treasurer' tackles its difficult subject matter with sensitivity and flights of lyricism. Unfortunately, the play doesn't live up to its considerable ambitions. Diffuse and unfocused, it provokes as much impatience as feeling...Cromer's staging feels unduly fussy and the pacing is sluggish...Problematic but affecting, 'Treasurer' reveals a playwright with promise who needs some seasoning to bring his ideas to more successful fruition."
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"Posner dramatizes this all-too-common scenario with style and sensitivity, leading us to think about our own lives with uncommon clarity...Cromer's production is full of such subtle yet confident visual storytelling...We would be inclined to hate The Son were it not for Friedman's remarkably sympathetic performance...Posner has created a clear-eyed portrait of the tension between perception and reality that has harrowing implications for the way we age in America."
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"As directed by David Cromer, the relationship between the reunited mother and son, beautifully played by the two fine actors, is decidedly unsentimental...Like much of the 95-minute piece, the moment is understated, which is what makes 'The Treasurer' so fascinating. The tragedy and pathos that emerges sprouts from the self-judgement one feels when one simply doesn't feel.”
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"A production that benefits from two of the most unsparing performances to be seen this season...This strange, sad dance of expired love is given vivid life by Friedman and Dunagan, under the exacting, pointillist direction of Cromer...A singular piece of writing, sometimes totally naturalistic, sometimes informed by quirky fantasy...At times, the play feels stranded between styles...Still, by the final scenes, it's easy to feel that Posner has known all along where he is headed."
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