887 NYC Reviews and Tickets

88%
(18 Ratings)
Positive
94%
Mixed
6%
Negative
0%
Members say
Great staging, Absorbing, Clever, Enchanting, Thought-provoking

About the Show

BAM presents Ex Machina's high-tech solo show created by and starring renowned director Robert Lepage about his childhood at 887 Murray Avenue, Quebec City, Canada.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (18)

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139 Reviews | 19 Followers
100
Must see, Intelligent, Great staging, Thought-provoking, Refreshing

See it if you want a clever, wonderful, thought-provoking piece with humor. it's one of a kind.

Don't see it if No reason not to see it.

73 Reviews | 25 Followers
97
Absorbing, Clever, Delightful, Enchanting, Thought-provoking

See it if you want to see the work of a genius. Lepage is a master of stage-craft and story telling. Very moving and beautiful.

Don't see it if If you prefer traditional plays with a linear plot you might hate this. If you are not patient.

140 Reviews | 33 Followers
95
Absorbing, Intelligent, Relevant, Thought-provoking, Ambitious

See it if You appreciate great storytelling, human and personal stories in greater context, inventive staging, and/or interested in Canadian history

Don't see it if You don't like one person theater- though it's much more than that

208 Reviews | 39 Followers
92
Great writing, Great staging, Clever, Delightful, Enchanting

See it if You want to enjoy a masterful solo performance that, with a very clever staging, recreates the author's childhood memories.

Don't see it if You don't like minimalistic solo performances. This show is basically a " memoir " that might look slow at times. It is partially in French

64 Reviews | 49 Followers
92
Exquisite theater, unmissable, gets even better upon reflection

See it if you want to see something you've never seen before. The stagecraft is magic.

Don't see it if you have poor vision and are in the back row. Some of what's on view is very small! Read more

416 Reviews | 190 Followers
88
Entertaining, Great staging, Edgy, Great writing, Riveting

See it if You know who Robert Lepage is and enjoy his avant-garde works. He uses his skills to tell the story of his childhood in Quebec.

Don't see it if You do not like solo performances. This is not in the form of a dramatic play with many characters. You dislike a few foreign words. Read more

Mad
52 Reviews | 11 Followers
85
Clever, Delightful, Enchanting, Great acting, Masterful

See it if you want to immerse yourself in a black box of magic, become enchanted by Robert Lepage's magnificent sort of sleight of hand.

Don't see it if you want a straight, "normal" plot, you get bored by magical sets and transitions, you are deeply bothered by reading occasional subtitles. Read more

137 Reviews | 24 Followers
85
Absorbing, Clever, Delightful, Entertaining, Great staging

See it if you like a tale well told, with bits of humor, lots of charm and a clever set constantly morphing.

Don't see it if you don't like one-man shows, no matter how good

Critic Reviews (13)

The New York Times
March 17th, 2017

“A shabby apartment building becomes a cabinet of wonders in Ex Machina’s glittering ‘887’…The show’s beginning is seductive, brazen…The play has its excessively tangential moments and some indulgent ones, too…Its best moments share a childlike simplicity…There are many technological marvels but they’re humanely scaled and rarely deployed for their own sake. Raw emotional force builds from the accretion of slight moments of remembrance and discovery.”
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Time Out New York
March 17th, 2017

“In the heart-stoppingly gorgeous ‘887,’ the auteur is deft and perfect again, meshing reminiscence and images together with a watchmaker's care…The gentle memory show combusts into a political cri de coeur. Details from earlier in the play explode like timed charges…You leave, at least partially knowing how he felt. A day later, I can still feel the show smoldering its way through my synapses—searing its way into being unforgettable.”
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Exeunt Magazine
March 22nd, 2017

“An intensely personal revisiting of his childhood in Quebec...If '887’ is essentially the story of a memory exercise, it is all the more authentic as the presentation of life as it is lived, without much time to connect the dots. What makes the show memorable is its artistry. ‘887’ is theater on a grand scale...It is storytelling as great performance, with Lepage moving seamlessly through childhood and adulthood...Proof again of Lepage’s unparalleled powers of observation and creative genius."
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Variety
August 14th, 2015
For a previous production

"There’s a theme bubbling beneath the surface about class and opportunity, and the suggestion that the great movements of history were determined by injustice and inequality. Lepage continues to develop his work beyond opening night and he may yet find more mileage in the story of his grandmother, whose memory loss chimes with the themes of '887' but doesn’t fully connect. That, though, is a minor niggle in a work that delights, mesmerizes and provokes."
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The Telegraph (UK)
August 14th, 2015
For a previous production

"Lepage proves he needs to consistently push the boundaries and nowhere is that more evident than in his technical wizardry...Lepage is an artist who is constantly striving for intellectual inquiry and he adds new layers to the piece by questioning the act of remembering itself...The foundations of the show, then, are simple, personal; the ramifications complex, far-reaching. The tone is wistful but not without insouciant wit and self-irony."
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WhatsOnStage
August 14th, 2015
For a previous production

"'887' glides smoothly through time and place, artfully constructing a cloud of associations as it goes...Lepage never ties everything together, preferring that cloud to anything more concrete...Even if you don't come away with fresh understanding of history and memory, it's a beguiling show, full of ultra-pleasing theatricality...Only afterwards do you realise how little it leaves behind, as ephemeral as a memory. But then, maybe, that's the point."
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The London Evening Standard
August 17th, 2015
For a previous production

"A deeply autobiographical examination of memory and belonging...Lepage’s father — a taxi driver working all hours to provide for his wife, four children and an aging mother — is the hero of the piece, while Lepage accounts himself honestly as sometimes brittle and egotistical, with several jokes at his own expense. There are slightly awkward 'conversations' with invisible characters on stage, but two hours, with no interval, of often ingenious storytelling never pales."
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The Guardian (UK)
August 23rd, 2015
For a previous production

"How to remember? He tries an ancient method – the memory palace: think of a place you know well, assign to areas within it those things you want to recall. This subtly develops into an exploration of what makes a life worthwhile, a society worth living in...Lepage dazzlingly creates shifting perspectives to conjure his unique private-public memoryscape...This unostentatious, meticulously crafted two-hour performance is touching, intimate, powerful."
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