You Never Touched the Dirt

See it if Dislocated city & country dwellers experience culture clash & loss of meaning in their lives. Great staging w hilarious animal scenes.

Don't see it if You are not interested in Chinese issues, parents feeling separated from their children, & class differences making people feel inadequate.

See it if you have any interest at all in new ways of constructing drama.

Don't see it if you are looking for the old-fashioned virtues of the well-made play.

Also Smart, innovative, engaging plays like “YOU NEVER TOUCHED THE DIRT” have made Clubbed Thumb the premier institution in NYC for nurturing & producing theater pieces unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, yet still recognizably plays, with identifiable characters & dramatic situations that feel somehow like analogs to the stuff we go through in our everyday lives. Zhu Yi’s play also breaks ground in the material it presents a US audience: Class warfare in the classless society of China today. Here a very rich couple lives on land that peasants once tilled for themselves & now manicure for the rich. But this isn’t a thesis play. Animals talk, an Earth God pushes real estate & the rich folks’ house is a miniature. I was delighted, beguiled & informed throughout. The only flaw is one shared with many new plays: Lots of very short scenes necessitate as many scenic transitions: How prevent the dissipation of theatrical energy, even when the transitions (as here) are handled inventively?... Read more Read less

See it if Chinese socio-political observation interests you. Characters from different classes interact in a newly developed Shanghai suburb.

Don't see it if consistency matters to you. The performance is a mix of naturalistic acting, didactic commentary, ritual & some styles that don't have names

See it if Modern Chinese issues very cleverly staged by Clubbed Thumb. Charming set used by talented cast with the excellent Daniel K. Isaac.

Don't see it if Appropriated land, class and inequality. Hilarious use of dolls as animals, including a fight between a dog and a goose. Meaningful and fun

Also Wait till you see how they cut down a tree on stage!

See it if You appreciate fresh and interesting story-telling. You are interested in modern Chinese history, politics, and economics.

Don't see it if You require naturalistic and sophisticated settings and production values.

Also Good performances and sound design. Runs 85-90 minutes and could benefit from losing 10-15 minutes....then again, the pace may quicken with more time (this was the first preview performance).... Read more Read less

See it if Visually stunning, presents a host of class warfare, local earth gods, and the lingering ghosts of the land in a now-capitalist China.

Don't see it if For all of the fantastic choices throughout, much of the play's speech (often allegorical) has a dulling effect on the action and atmosphere

See it if You want to see something truly original and want to see Daniel K Isaacs in a small play.

Don't see it if You don't like quirky vignettes within a one-act narrative.

Also I had a blast at this show. I went in not knowing much beyond the basic premise: wealthy Chinese couple in conflict with farmers/those who work on the land. Reading the program on the way home, I learned that Clubbed Thumb (whose shows take place in the fanciest East Village theater I've ever been) was a producer of What The Constitution Means To Me for the Broadway transfer.
The pedigree of all the actors in this production is impressive.
The set is like a dollhouse, except it's a wealthy planned community in the suburbs of Shanghai. The mostly Asian cast explores class, the meaning of land, and family in a truly original and consistently funny series of extremely short scenes. (They gradually length as the play progresses).

Daniel K Isaacs' turn as "local Earth god" is the show's highlight. Just what off-off Broadway should be, though this is linked to Playwright's Horizons. So it's Broadway/TV/film folks trying new works. Fun!... Read more Read less

See it if you want to support Asian voice and actors - this play brought history and present together in an interesting staging

Don't see it if you want your shows to be cut to right size already - it was interesting and well staged, just a bit too long in some parts

See it if like expansive funny/tragic stories told in theatrical ways. The play is about land repossession in China, but it's a transformative journey

Don't see it if want a classical narrative or traditional storytelling.

See it if You want to have an enjoyable time and feel the complexity of human interactions

Don't see it if You are looking for an answer to social problems