Ghost Stories: The Shawl & Prairie Du Chien NYC Reviews and Tickets

"They come across as minor works from a major dramatist...'Ghost Stories' should appeal both to audiences who like to hear a good tale on a drowsy summer’s day and to theatergoers interested in dissecting Mr. Mamet’s way with words, in identifying the method behind the verbal magic."
Read more

"Although far from Mamet at his best, these short plays provide some decent chills...'The Shawl' is an intriguing, atmospheric piece...The curtain-raiser 'Prairie du Chien' is a far less substantial affair."
Read more

"Perhaps because of its length, 'The Shawl' is the more memorable of the two, but both pieces, true to their collective title, are haunting works—superbly acted, and skillfully staged without artifice or extraneous ornamentation by director Scott Zigler. Vividly evocative of that queasy feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you hear an unsettling tale, 'Ghost Stories' is eerily good theater. "
Read more

"'Ghost Stories' is neither earth-shatteringly good nor mind-numbingly terrible — it just is...There's an inherent problem with billing these two plays as Ghost Stories, in that neither of them is particularly scary...The best they can muster up here is a shrug."
Read more

"Neither 'Prairie du Chien' nor 'The Shawl' is new. Nor is either life-changing. For that matter, these works aren't profoundly terrifying...Still, they're not easy to scrub from your mind, and that gives them an imposing nature that their subject matter may not warrant at first blush."
Read more

"Although there is a gunshot warning when you enter the theater, these ghost stories are much more talk than action...The tale is somewhat disappointing as far as ghost stories go, but the way he tells it is hypnotic...The second play, 'The Shawl', is a bit more entertaining, even though it's the first one that has a gunshot."
Read more

'Prairie du Chien' is the first of two early David Mamet one-act plays that comprise 'Ghost Stories.' It is the slighter of the two, both in length and dramatic impact. Its conceit and staging are striking but ultimately don’t add up to much...'The Shawl' is considerably more engaging...Zigler orchestrates the two narratives so that they complement each other yet keep their own space."
Read more

"A substantial, four-scene piece called 'The Shawl' and a curtain-raiser, 'Prairie du Chien'...Both contain the kind of dialogue one anticipates in Mamet's early work: it's elliptical, often cryptic, sometimes fragmentary, trailing off in vague phrases or into silence...The performances in 'Ghost Stories' are as stellar as one might hope to find. In 'Prairie du Chien', the tension builds, ebbs, and builds again to an explosion of violence that jangles playgoers' nerves as effectively as the climax of a Hitchcock film or a short story by Poe."
Read more