This Land Was Made NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (29)
See it if you like well-acted plays that make you laugh and think.
Don't see it if you don't like shows that highlight not so great, racial history of the US.
See it if See if u did or didn't live through the late 60's-early 70's. infiltrated by the Black Panthers the life of a family is forever changed.
Don't see it if Can't think of a reason not to see it. Funny, disturbing, interesting, wonderful acting, lighting & sets. Family shows a gamut of emotions
See it if A well-performed,directed&designed play,set in a fam owned bar in OK CA in 1967,is abt racial justice&beg of Black Panthers w focus on Huey*
Don't see it if An intense scene on how violence triggers violence.Umay not like humor mixed w very severe matter;here humor is used as a survival strategy. Read more
See it if A tell all of what might've happened at Huey Newton's (Black Panther founder) case w a police death. Shock waves & ripples in the community.
Don't see it if Revisionist history, modern re-telling, Black power, guns/shooting, police aren't your thing. 2 hours 10 minutes; 1 intermission. Read more
See it if You are curious about that period of history and Huey P Newton. It made me think about the rise of black power.
Don't see it if If the 60's and history isn't your thing.
See it if you like plays that reimagine a historic time with rich characters, storytelling, humor, and inspiration. Great writing.
Don't see it if you don't like combining some fiction with an actual true story from the recent past. There are a few plot holes.
See it if you want a close-knit and human story dealing with historical racial justice.
Don't see it if you don't want to see a historical based play--& I'm hearing it's more historical fiction (but I don't know how true that is).
See it if You love a lot of narration. Great setting/topic for a play.
Don't see it if Frustrating, slow. The main character is inactive, so keeps telling us things. The story, as told, is Troy's. Where is her story?
Critic Reviews (8)
"History and folklore can certainly find compatibility onstage, but 'This Land Was Made' is still roaming and rambling in search of the right alchemy."
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"Sampson has fashioned a provocative speculative drama, combining fictional characters with historical figures to capture the temper of a city ready to explode with racial tensions and revolutionary fervor."
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“The truth may be elusive in ‘This Land Was Made,’ but there are flashes of brilliance in the delivery. And that may be enough to make one sit up and listen.”
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In its earliest scenes--as a Marvin Gaye record spins on the turntable, Adam Honoré's lighting design pairs naturalistically with Wilson Chin's meticulous set, and Dominique Fawn Hill and DeShon Elem's beautifully redolent costumes delight our eyes with vibrant patterns--"This Land Was Made" achieves an authenticity that makes you want to sit at the bar and order some lunch, too. Ironically, it's when Newton (Julian Elijah Martinez) and his comrade Gene (Curtis Morlaye) enter the story that the play's verisimilitude begins to come undone. Abandoning realism for audacious dramatic license, "This Land Was Made" turns into an intellectual showdown between Newton and Troy, with the latter becoming entangled in the fatal incident that led to Newton's imprisonment.
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This Land Was Made—a title lifted from Woody Guthrie, perhaps as an ironic commentary on who exactly it was made for—has its heart in the right place but, apart from giving some of Huey Newton’s thoughts a platform, leaves much to be desired.
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"...it’s about a family and a neighborhood and the people doing the living and dying...this story illustrates that truth as great events play out on the everyday people in her play."
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Playwright Tori Sampson richly delineates her appealing characters, the dialogue is eloquently earthy, plot threads are compelling, and a sense of history is ever present. Ms. Sampson offers an imaginary scenario where Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton is a central character, and his 1967 confrontation with law enforcement where a police officer was killed, is searingly depicted during her absorbing Oakland bar-set memory play.
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“Tori Sampson’s ‘This Land Was Made’ is a steamy gumbo of history, humor, and imagination...Sampson’s play, though it has some shortfalls, manages to show that, regardless of one’s skin color, much is to be learned from these forerunners of today’s Black Power movement.”
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