Fulfillment NYC Reviews and Tickets

"Those who have been in any doubt about what Mr. Bradshaw has been trying to say in his earlier works are likely to have a firmer grasp on the matter after seeing 'Fulfillment.' This isn’t electrifying theater, not the kind that makes jaws drop. But it provides a sharply legible index to the mind and method of an original playwright who refuses to embrace easy or consoling answers to the puzzles called human beings."
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"Bradshaw’s playwriting approach is fairly well established: cheerful but wooden dialogue, characters acting on their worst impulses, schematic plots and a refusal to judge. The plays are usually bracing and funny, and Bradshaw truly has his own style. Sometimes the transgression coincides with substance. But more often, it’s a formula: human ids unleashed for cringe comedy and cheap thrills. 'Fulfillment' is basically an urban dramedy slathered in Bradshaw sauce."
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"'Fulfillment' is one of the playwright’s most accessible and entertaining works — a pretty funny comedy, but with full frontal. What hasn’t changed is Bradshaw’s concern with race, gender and power...The show, well-directed by Ethan McSweeny, is funniest when the situations become increasingly heated while the tone remains matter-of-fact...We find ourselves in these characters’ heads — which is actually more interesting than finding ourselves almost in their beds."
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"Bradshaw's mélange of race, power, and ambition will leave more than a few audience members feeling queasy...Ethan McSweeny's unrelenting production churns forward as Bradshaw's short, cruel scenes cut from one to the next...We're not dispassionately observing this urban jungle from a distance; we're living in it, and it is terrifying."
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"Director Ethan McSweeney's production seems to intentionally lack emotion. Perhaps the point is that the characters are so set on seeking fulfillment with possessions and recognition that they forget to relate to other people. 'Fulfillment' is certainly more interesting than Bradshaw's past work but the characters still seem undercooked."
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"The playwright makes no secret of his disdain for the niceties of conventional drama, but he has little to offer in place of them. His plays are basically adult comic books. The plots are jerry-rigged, the characters are flat. There are plentiful references to hot-button topics (racism, miscarriage, pedophilia), and of course all those sexual encounters. Strikingly absent are wit, irony, or a sense of how the real world works."
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"Bradshaw is not a careful constructor of plays, and he tends to incorporate too many tangential plot elements, but with 'Fulfillment' he is on to something significant by presenting us with both a serious theme and complicated characters whose ids and superegos are in constant battle...'Fulfillment' has a lot going for it, including its excellent ensemble of actors under Ethan McSweeny’s direction."
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"The Flea Theater’s production, directed to emphasize its undercurrents of eroticism and anger by Ethan McSweeny, is both shocking and sad...The acting throughout was outstanding, so much so that it was often difficult to watch the action without wincing and turning away."
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