17 Border Crossings NYC Reviews and Tickets

81%

(22 Ratings)

Positive

82%

Mixed

14%

Negative

Members say

Absorbing, Clever, Great staging, Entertaining, Ambitious

About the Show

Part of the 2015 Next Wave Festival, this solo show features director, designer and raconteur Thaddeus Phillips as he takes a trip around the world through story, armed with a chair, a table, and a bar of lights.

The itinerary: a worse-for-wear Communist-era train traveling from Prague to Belgrade; the wheel well of a transatlantic jet to Heathrow; and 15 other border crossings recreated by theater director, designer, and raconteur Thaddeus Phillips. A chair, table, and bar of lights become the imagined settings for invasive body searches at Charles de Gaulle, ayahuasca experiments in the Amazon, KFC-smuggling in Palestine, and run-ins with Ace of Base on Croatian ferries in this engrossing look at the perplexing ins and outs of our fragile right of passage.

Show-Score Member Reviews (22)

Profound, Great staging, Exquisite, Ambitious, Absorbing

See it if even if you don't like one man shows. simple concept, exsquisite realization, profound relevance. The reviews don't do it justice.

Don't see it if you aren't prepared to listen.

Boss and floss cross

See it if A dizzying world tour in ninety minutes.

Don't see it if You hate the minimalism of one man shows and their sets. Read more

Refreshing, Funny, Clever

See it if you like to travel and have some experiences of it.

Don't see it if you don't like travel or one-man shows Read more

Refreshing, Quirky, Intelligent, Great acting, Entertaining

See it if You like great storytelling with a bit of political edge. NYTW has another winner

Don't see it if You are expecting a big stage production

Educational, eye opening, entertaining, Absorbing

See it if you like thinking about the world and what happens to those who are singled out.

Don't see it if you don't like one person shows.

Delightful, Entertaining, Clever

See it if You like a different evening in the theatre, expert staging and compelling storytelling and acting. it's out of the box.

Don't see it if You like traditional theatre with a plot.

Relevant, Absorbing

See it if You Enjoy a Solo performance built on personal interviews with disenfranchised members of society

Don't see it if You want a lighthearted theatrical experience

Edgy, Ambitious, Great acting, Entertaining, Absorbing

See it if intriguing approach to the meaning of border crossings, meaning not limited by space and time, hitting hot spots

Don't see it if you want a plot with character development or a musical or comedy

Critic Reviews (5)

"The set is deceptively simple: just a table, a chair, a lamp. But the director, Tatiana Mallarino, has an agreeably inventive approach to staging. Those items are repurposed in a dozen different ways. If the staging compels, as do several of the tales, the text itself doesn’t. The storytelling is efficient, but prosaic. And while Mr. Phillips, who has an air of both seriousness and mischief, is a likable performer, he isn’t so scintillating as to enliven the prose fully."
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For a previous production

"We armchair travelers participate in the discoveries that virtual travel affords. Even as Phillips’s fancy footwork throughout his rich space-and-time travel extravaganza entertains, we may learn something too, beyond the abuses of officialdom and the acquisition of some foreign words."
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For a previous production

"Thaddeus Phillips's brilliant piece, '17 Border Crossings,' is a series of monologues based on his own extensive travels. Some of these stories last only a few seconds and some are longer; some are funny, others frightening or sad. They carry implications that go to the heart of what it means to be a human being living among other humans."
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For a previous production

"There are plenty of poetic moments...Phillips is a compassionate, gifted storyteller with a very fine ear for how people speak their truths. A riff by a Mexican immigrant on why he likes the world 'alien' is a thing of simple beauty."
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For a previous production

"This multi-talented theater wizard renders his own international travel as the subject of this work. By framing his monologues on border crossings, he assembles a mix of experiences from which he can draw humor and as well as make his political critiques. Although his humor and political critique don't always sustain interest, many segments do."
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Trailer

Creative team