A Human Being Died That Night NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (4)
Critic Reviews (30)
"Jonathan Munby’s electrifying production begins in classic horror territory, our devil in orange jumpsuit shackled to the floor – until de Kock himself references Silence Of The Lambs with wry irony...It’s a searingly intelligent study of a society struggling to heal, placing collective responsibility and reciprocal clemency against an endless cycle of recrimination. Yet Gobodo-Madikizela is adamant that “forgiveness is not forgetting.”"
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"There's not one iota of sensationalism in this profoundly searching duologue about guilt and forgiveness expertly adapted by Nicholas Wright from the penetrating book of the same name...Raising complex, painful questions about responsibility and reconciliation, this 80-minute piece is unmissable."
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"Wright's play, which gets scorching, vivid performances, cleverly excavates the natural drama of the situation, in which a white Afrikaner man and a black African woman face each other across a table...It's hard to watch, not least because in our hearts we all know, as Gobodo-Madikizela knows, that there are no monsters in this world, only other human beings just like us."
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"Wright wants to expose familiar notions of blame and resentment to fresh scrutiny. As he explores this psychologically rich terrain, he certainly isn’t constructing a case for de Kock’s defence. But he does present him as a complex man and an unlikely villain...This nuanced picture of the couple’s encounters makes for an intimate and intense experience."
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"By the end of this two-hander in which we learn much about both characters as well as the country that engendered these crimes and brought the pair together, it is possible to feel simultaneous hatred and sympathy for Eugene De Kock at the same time as great admiration for Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela."
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"As an exploration of forgiveness, and an unveiling of the disturbing ease with which humanity can commit terrible acts of cruelty ‘A Human Being Died…’ is riveting. It brings the hell of apartheid sharply into focus. The play is weaker where Wright confuses the subtleties of Gobodo-Madikizela’s and De Kock’s relationship: though it’s clear there’s an understanding between interviewer and interviewee, the suggestion that there’s a hint of friendship doesn’t really work."
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"Stunningly real; they go through painful changes...It is as if this 85-minute experience distills and condenses that extraordinary process of South African reconciliation, with all its anger and all its hope. When de Kock ends his final anecdote with a blurted, choking “A human being died that night” you feel, with a shock, that one was born, too."
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"The tight focus of the play, just two prison visits between the pair are covered albeit across a period of six years, means that there is the occasional lull where similar ground is retrodden and the pace slips a little...The sharp intelligence of the text, the genuinely thought-provoking nature of the subject matter and its brave ambiguity in place of easy moral judgement makes it a mesmerising watch and a privileged opportunity to watch such great acting up close."
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