Flight (Vox Motus) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (18)
See it if Beautiful yet depressing story told with exquisite models in a personal environment
Don't see it if Want live acting? Then this is not for you.
See it if You are open to a new theater experience combining physical art and word in a unique nontheater setting. Headset, diorama, dark room & you.
Don't see it if You do not like experimental theater or are irritated by cliche-ridden texts. Story itself far less well done than how it is presented
See it if you like the visual arts—i.e., considering how materials/techniques achieve associations bigger than the tangible piece.
Don't see it if uninterested in theater pros other than actors telling stories; you rely on the absence of production elements to signal quality. Read more
See it if you're ok with theater taking all forms, and not necessarily being a live, or even communal, experience.
Don't see it if you don't like small, dark, tight spaces - you don't want to be on your own for the hour of "seeing" the show.
See it if You want to see an installation piece. It definitely is not "theatre" as one would call it, more so an art piece. Beautiful set models.
Don't see it if You are expecting live action, or are bothered by wearing headphones.
See it if you are prepared for a solitary viewing experience, with audio delivered through headphones, of a moving series of intricate dioramas
Don't see it if you believe theatre needs to be a collective experience; the isolation is no doubt part of the experience, but communality is essential Read more
See it if You are OK with different definitions of "theatre". This is not actors on a stage or around you. You need to let your imagination guide yo.
Don't see it if You don't want to sit isolated for 45 minutes with headphones on. Read more
See it if You want something different and inactive.
Don't see it if You expect to leave with a new outlook on life.
Critic Reviews (16)
"Intricately designed yet with no live performers, it is arguably not even theater. But it is pulse-pounding, immersive storytelling, strange and exquisite and intensely affecting...The richly colored, minutely detailed visuals are the wonder of 'Flight'...There are many shows that you leave feeling lucky you’ve seen them. 'Flight' is a show you leave feeling lucky to be in this city, in this country, safe — if you are safe — instead of on the run."
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"An unusual and daring way of telling a story, and, in truth, it is more effective in conveying the sweep of the brothers' tale than in elucidating individual moments...Some of this may be due to the storytelling method, which militates against a certain level of gritty detail. Still, 'Flight' is often affecting, and it concludes on a haunting note...If you have a theatre-loving young person in your household, I endorse 'Flight' without reservation."
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"The complexity of the issue doesn't always mesh nicely with a form of storytelling that relies on distilling moments to still images. The story proceeds as a series of beats to hit, rather than fully formed episodes, and the characters feel undeveloped below the surface level. Where the story feels simplified, the presentation hardly is...Purists may shy away, but for those who enjoy something different, the experience at least offers an interesting provocation if not an outright revelation. "
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“The narrative…has frequent ellipses that fail to explain transitional gaps…, and we have to fill these in ourselves…However well-done 'Flight' is, it's easier to become absorbed in its artfulness than to become as deeply invested in it emotionally as would be the case were it…a movie…'Flight,' directed with theatrical imagination and delicate sensitivity,…is, on its own terms, an impressively original articulation of the plight of innocent refugees fleeing the world's disaster areas.”
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"The breathtakingly detailed models, presented from a variety of perspectives with a layered soundscape, give 'Flight' a cinematic feel...I found myself more impressed with 'Flight's' artistry than emotionally intoxicated...But I’ll never forget it. In fact, many of the images are seared into my brain...Whether it strikes you as an art installation or a 3-D graphic novel or a twist on the old zoetrope, it’s a captivating, one-of-a-kind experience."
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"A very different, much more settled kind of presentation that melds art, theater, and literature into something wholly new...I highly recommend it for fans of experimental, unusual methods of storytelling...A timely look at what so many refugees must do to escape their violent country and find a new home...It’s a harrowing journey that is intelligently depicted by Vox Motus, avoiding treacly sentimentality and instead focusing on a simple narrative and the genuine peril the boys."
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"It is a marvel of effort and engineering, and stunningly pretty – almost distractingly so...As a piece of theatre it perhaps works better at conveying the scale of the boys’ journey than its rigours...I suppose ultimately the extraordinariness of the form and the extraordinariness of the journey feel like they are in competition, and inevitably it's the form that emerges as the most memorable bit...But that’s not take away from the sweeping sense of journey, or the force of its tearjerker final scene."
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"But, for all the brilliance of a team of model-makers...I had some reservations. Adaptor Oliver Emanuel adopts a studiously non-political tone and never sets the story in the wider context of the global refugee crisis...Since theatre is a public event, there is also something odd about sitting in a private booth for 50 minutes watching the saga unfold...I was impressed by this production’s exquisite detail...and its experimental daring, while still yearning for the presence of living actors."
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