Animal NYC Reviews and Tickets

“The role of Rachel is the kind of part actresses dream of and Hall's bravura performance is a thing of wonder…It's a beautifully realized production with deft direction by Gene Taylor Upchurch...Despite the cast's riveting performances, it must be said that ‘Animal’ may not be everyone's cup of tea. It is relentlessly grim and deeply unsettling...Serious theatregoers will appreciate the craft but it left this writer wondering for whom ‘Animal’ is specifically intended.”
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“Is it the enigmatic contours and dramatic contrivances, or the in-your-face honesty and coherence of this fine play that keep one riveted to the action?...Hall gives a brilliantly unnerving but essentially convincing performance…Splendidly staged by director Gaye Taylor Upchurch to emphasize the play's need for minimalism…‘Animal’ may be providing a heavy dose of the psychotic. But who will complain when it's being doled out by the terrific Rebecca Hall?”
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“‘Animal' moves. Its action is thrilling. Its stakes, though deeply wrapped up in Rachel’s inner self, are made real in her relationships. It’s also funny…The acting is superb…Gaye Taylor Upchurch’s direction offers an intuitive map for us to navigate this tricky territory…The play seems to waltz through a minefield of overwrought material, which is a testament to the specificity and originality that Lizzimore brings to her writing, and the simplicity the cast brings to their performances.”
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“Hall’s performance in Lizzimore’s drama is a force of nature...What’s most amazing about Hall’s performance (fueled by Lizzimore’s stinging dialogue) is the seemingly infinite variety she displays…Playwright and actress, guided by the sure hand of director Upchurch, collaborate to reveal a deeply troubled woman…One doesn’t necessarily expect the roller-coaster ride that is 'Animal' to come to a conclusion, no less one that is neat. But it does...Viscerally it’s ever so slightly anticlimactic."
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"Lizzimore is betting that the audience will buy in to 90 minutes of analysis and hallucination before learning what has gotten Rachel here in the first place. And thanks to a talented cast, crisp direction by Upchurch and some poetic touches by the playwright, the gambit mostly pays off. Still, it is hard not to feel a little cheated by the play’s outcome. The reason for Rachel’s trauma, which I will not give away, is so utterly unpredictable it diffuses the angst that precedes its discovery."
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“Hall, partnered with her real-life husband, the wonderful Morgan Spector playing her onstage husband, pulls us deep inside the mind of Rachel, a woman who is suffering from some mental complexity…Struggling against some dark cloud that hangs overhead is what Hall is most effective at in ‘Animal’…It’s hard to know what is real in this finely crafted story…The climax eventually comes, crashing in all around her in a moment of eye opening clarity, but is it too easy a pill to take?”
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"The cast do well at coloring in the various shades of the play’s imaginatively inside-out progress through a stricken mind. However, 'Animal' ultimately struggles to ground its swirl of ideas in a specific person with a particular story, as Rachel suffers from double duty as both focal point and a mystery...For most of the play, she is an effective mouthpiece for a potent social critique, but strangely nebulous as a character...Watching it is ultimately a detached experience."
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“To spend an entire 90 minutes on stage portraying a woman who is losing – or lost – her mind takes a special kind of talent. Luckily, it’s one that is possessed by the mesmerizing, fearless Rebecca Hall, who delivers an indelible take on such a woman in Lizzimore’s fascinating British import under Upchurch’s savvy direction…The play’s fascination lies primarily in watching Hall as she goes through a shocking gamut of emotions and behaviors."
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