Tony Award-winning playwright and director Richard Nelson returns to the Public Theater with the final chapter his new three-play cycle about the Gabriels of Rhinebeck, New York.
See it if you want to be a part of an intelligent conversation. All great performances that make you feel deeply.
Don't see it if you want extravaganza and escape. The first play rang true, the second hit hard, the third broke my heart.
See it if You enjoy thoughtful, intelligent works. This is an amazingly realist drama. You can literally smell the food cooking throughout the play!
Don't see it if You don't like intimate dramas (with humor). Best if seen after the two previous plays in the trilogy although this could stand alone.
See it if You like small finely wrought gems in which kitchen table story telling opens up worlds of art, history, politics, personal and universal.
Don't see it if You don't like plays in which small matters with large implications are discussed in conversational tones forcing you to actively listen . Read more
See it if you've seen the first two installments of this trilogy-this one brings all the threads together in a powerful, emotionally shattering finale
Don't see it if good people's quiet desperation not something you want to experience at the theater; if u have disliked previous Nelson plays in this style
See it if You love a day in the theater watching three great plays with wonderful writing,staging and acting. Doesn't get better than this!
Don't see it if You think..." I have enough problems in my own family. I don't want to care about any others." But you'd be making a mistake.
See it if If you like plays that invite you into a close intimate night of theater. You know these people...and you feel for them and with them.
Don't see it if If you want to see a that's more traditional.
See it if you want to see great performers rendering great writing, or political theater for everyday people.
Don't see it if you're looking for an escape or a distraction from life. Read more
See it if You like great writing with smartly drawn characters and prefer intelligent theater addressing timely yet universal themes.
Don't see it if The only reason not to see this show is if you cannot afford or obtain a ticket.
"The Gabriels are the tenderly wrought creations of the playwright Richard Nelson...As we listen to its members talk, even on trivial subjects like the decoration of cookies, we feel the far-reaching tremors of a scared country that has come down with a rattling case of identity crisis...Before you know it, this modest play has indirectly addressed matters both of the utmost immediate relevance—the election, the economy, the medical industry—and of cosmic implications."
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"Certain notes of hubris in the project, like much self-referential preening about art, were already jarring on election night. Imagine them now. Some people find reassurance in the cast’s palpable warmth; some find Nelson’s Chekhovian languor a balm. But I’m troubled at how 'The Gabriels' assumes a sameness; it’s nearly two hours of self-perpetuating agreement...It’s relentlessly plaintive and, we now know, utterly beside the point."
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"Even if it weren’t so despairing about some of the largest issues we face today, the astonishingly full and fine-grained performances of the six-person cast, under Nelson’s direction, are almost too much to handle...Despite that drollness, and the frequent laughs, the tone of 'Women of a Certain Age' is not only grimmer but angrier...Already, watching the play, I felt that the anarchic spirit of Trumpism had somewhat overwhelmed Nelson’s playwriting levees."
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"These exquisitely intimate plays and these engaged audiences long ago began to feel like family, and 'Women of a Certain Age,' which left me in tears at the end, comforted me later on...As with Nelson’s model Chekhov, the big picture is in the details. It’s the accumulation of them in these mostly quiet moments that make 'Women of a Certain Age' so rich an exploration of identity...Nelson again is the masterful conductor of these amazing actors."
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"The final chapter in writer and director Richard Nelson’s trilogy leaves the titular family where we met them — in angst-riddled limbo...Everyone in the family, played by the finest ensemble in town, hopes for something brighter. Knowing the results of the race for the White House deepens the play’s dark streaks."
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"The playwright’s own intensely personal direction, at Off Broadway’s Public Theater, is brilliantly sustained by a tight ensemble of actors who have been with the project since the beginning...Mary Gabriel, Thomas’s third wife and now widow, quietly rules this roost, as does the sublime actress Maryann Plunkett, who steps back into the role she now owns...Cast in Nelson’s ultra-naturalistic style, the voices are measured, thoughtful, comfortable — and comforting."
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"It's an interlude swollen near to bursting with sorrow and comfort, with losses absorbed and yet-to-come, with crushing disappointments but also with stubborn strains of humor and humanity...Although the Gabriel plays are inextricably political, they are also profoundly human and personal. Not one character on the stage feels inessential to the drama and not a single actor fails to bring a lifetime of intimate knowledge to his or her fully inhabited portrayal."
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"A play that deals with election results cannot help but resonate differently with audiences before votes are tallied and after...The blending of the play's world so intimately with our own makes for vitally naturalistic theater. Naturalism has always been the specialty of Nelson's play cycles, which he directs with great subtlety...It's a shame to say goodbye to characters who so expertly capture our anxieties, as well as to the magnificent actors who take on these roles with full devotion."
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