Assembled Identity NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (24)
See it if You want to go to another dimension of theatre. Although you might not get it all, it's worth a try. Tour-de-force of choreographed acting
Don't see it if Uncharted territory... not your usual evening of theatre. Ingenious, enigmatic.
See it if Saw this because I'm an identical twin. Promising subject matter and multimedia.
Don't see it if Delivered on the multimedia, but not on the content.
See it if you like multimedia and science fiction pieces, are interested in technology/cloning and thinking about the future
Don't see it if you want a straight-forward, easy to follow performance, you don't like a couple of actors playing a number of characters
See it if you're bored watching American Idol
Don't see it if You can't tolerate slow and dull production
See it if you are into hi-tech sci-fi drama that deals with important themes in a somewhat confusing way. I got lost in the process.
Don't see it if want a linear play with well-drawn characters and themes. This is more of a techno drama in search of identities.
See it if dreamlike, dance staging, with 2 very appealing actors, that uses media in fascinating ways would make you want to explore issue of cloning
Don't see it if 2 hander with twins [not really] with subtitles for foreign language sequences, using music & dance & exploring issues would drive u crazy
See it if you’re annoyed by ancestry.com/23me ads; understand how code is analogous to dna; have liked works at HERE, LaMama, other incubator clubs b4
Don't see it if you dislike any “experimental” trappings (sparse set, cascading ideas, twinning, random bursts of song) even if the concept is well-realized Read more
See it if You like sci-fi or multi media shows dealing with futuristic ideas. Really great staging adds a lot to this thought provoking timely story.
Don't see it if If you don’t want to face some dark questions & quite possibly some very real possibilities of the near future concerning genetics/cloning.
Critic Reviews (5)
"It's a production that gets a lot of individual elements right, including short dances whose charm lies in their unexpectedness and tangible physicality...The dialogue slips in and out of multiple languages, but the scrolling supertitles are clunky...More troublesome is that the characters are thinly drawn, and what the show is getting at remains elusive. A busy, 60-minute performance, it seems longer because it doesn't invite curiosity or sympathy."
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"Though the piece doesn't consistently cohere as a narrative, it does raise provocative questions about what identity is and how scientific advances might potentially shape an individual's sense of self in alarming ways...Newhard and Shah adroitly portray the twins...Both actors also occasionally break out into songs and dances that comment chorus-like on the action, but these Greek-tragedy-style interludes seem distractingly out of place."
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"The story has some plot holes, but doesn't demand more suspension of disbelief than comparable stories...It's an engaging plot, but not groundbreaking...The show earns its place at HERE by using the story as a vehicle for broader philosophical exploration...Idiosyncratic breakout moments of song, dance, and interaction with recorded voices do feel out of place, but the production is strong enough to support the momentum of the story through these philosophical, aria-like pauses."
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"'Assembled Identity' is a marvelous piece of craft, using all the tools of modern theater in supple and inventive ways...Director/co-creator Kristin Marting integrates found text with original story smoothly, and has done strong work with the actors...But while the ideas underlying the piece are intriguing and important, I often found myself wishing the complexity and richness of the text and the characters lived up to the excellence of the production."
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"The breathtaking and thoughtfully devised mixed-media, genre-bending work is a progenitor of a subject-genre of theatre that doesn’t yet exist...Where the show shines, however, beyond the effortlessly capable performances, is in those moments in the book where what is trying to be communicated is easily understood and feels settled into the moment. A mammoth accomplishment for a production whose literary landscape and expository scope could take days to explain."
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