The Treasurer NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (129)
See it if you want to see two wonderful actors—the always reliable Peter Friedman and Deanna Dunagan at the top of their game.
Don't see it if you don't like plays about family relationships or plays dealing with Alzheimer's.
See it if you are interested in productions that make you question family & what that means in modern life; you enjoy hearing well-acted monologues
Don't see it if thinking about dark family dynamics makes you uncomfortable; you are not interested in a show without a character change or resolution
See it if you want to see some wonderful performances. Deanna Dunagan is amazing.
Don't see it if you are currently the caregiver of an aging parent.
See it if you're interested in a difficult family drama involving financial dependence of a senior in decline.
Don't see it if you're looking for a play dealing with dementia and its impact on a family. This doesn't quite fill that bill.
See it if You want to see a well written play by a young, emerging playwright whose writing shows great promise.
Don't see it if Dealing with aging and dementia issues are not your thing.
See it if you want to see masterful performances by Friedman and Dunagan. They really are great as mother and son dealing with dementia.
Don't see it if you are looking for a finished, well written script. The structure of the play doesn't really work and the end is weak. Staging isn't great.
See it if you relish superb acting in an original story. Peter Friedman's monologues were especially fine.
Don't see it if you find plays about aging depressing.
See it if You want to see great acting by all. Very impressive in that respect. Peter Friedman is always compelling. Others were excellent too.
Don't see it if You want to see something light. This is intense. It is about a parent descending into dementia. Hard to watch at times.
Critic Reviews (32)
"Posner’s deeply felt, sharply observed play about dementia and care-giving...Friedman manages to balance Jacob’s resentfulness with the suggestion of an unseen reservoir of pain...Cromer has directed expertly, blending humor and anger and sadness into a cohesive whole...It’s a marvelous introduction to a young writer with the astonishing talent to convey truths that apply more forcefully to a generation he doesn’t belong to—his ability to empathize so vividly is no small achievement."
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"'The Treasurer' breaks a taboo by portraying Ida and her son as mutually indifferent. They both have plenty of charm and compassion, just not for one another...The un-Oedipal story unfolds sluggishly under David Cromer’s direction. Such ponderousness is clearly supposed to replicate the tedium of real life. But, while there are several lively comic interludes involving various supporting characters, the tone of Ida and her son’s exchanges remains too consistently dismal."
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"May not be one of the fastest moving plays around, but it is certainly one of the most honest, timely, and sapient works that subtly paints a complex portrait of relationships between a mother and her children...Director David Cromer guides the production with sensitivity. He is isn’t afraid of the awkward pauses and contemplation that his actors so wisely give to this material."
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"It can take a while to realize that there is very little there there...It distances itself from truly engaging the audience by having few face-to-face encounters, by using a cold and unattractive set, and by failing to establish the characters' personalities...Dunagan and Friedman do much to provide complexity and humanity, but the play limits their ability to draw truly human characters...'The Treasurer' relies on a sense of its own importance, and little more."
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“With a central character who refuses to change, and an antagonist who refuses to give up on her, ‘The Treasurer’s’ situation hits a dramatic impasse. It seems much longer than its ninety minutes because it can’t do anything but get worse, and it can only end, as it does, with death. Nor is there much to empathize with along its frustrating way, though Friedman, convincing and articulate as always, conveys The Son’s inner pain without any extra pleadings for pity.”
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"This is the fragmented story of a fragmented family coping with the familiar concern of an aging parent...We never learn what makes Ida tick—other than the compulsion to spend more than she has, thus the need for Son to play her treasurer. Hers is a life in decline, and Dunagan gives a layered, marvelously prickly performance...There is such generalized, alienated distance from the emotional core of anyone’s feelings—save Ida’s need for her Son to say that he loves her."
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“A provocative, worthwhile study of a middle-aged man who becomes the designated primary guardian of his mother’s affairs...As directed by the redoubtable David Cromer, and possibly as indicated by the script, the proceedings move at a steady, slow, contemplative pace, with a lot of air for silent tension, and sometimes just for tacitly communicating the visceral sensation of time in suspension...Peter Friedman in one of his best performances ever.”
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"'Treasurer' won me over. And moved me in ways that a lesser play would not. It is wonderful...On the surface, this is a by-the-numbers issue play...But there's a great deal more here, including funny and poignant ruminations...Like many virtuosos, Friedman makes it look easy...Dunagan plays a less complicated character. But plays her with a combination of charm and ferocity...Cromer has created a deceptively simple but powerful production. There are no flourishes, just haunting revelations."
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