High Noon NYC Reviews and Tickets

“A far reaching adaptation of the very familiar 1952 western...Tension filled...the characters are dressed in black and dark grays immediately creating a sense of foreboding...and it can’t be good...The somber cast moves in tandem some of the time, as pocket watches open and close, as they stare in one direction; severe deadpan delivery provides the emotional buttress to a constant feeling of suspicion and waiting, waiting for something to happen.”
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“Hollywood Western meets ‘Waiting for Godot’...An intriguing, at times unsettling evening of theater...Foreman dared to veer in the direction of truth, devising a realistic, nuanced narrative...Sharp has dug into Foremans’ screenplay, dissecting its emotional complexity...A truly ensemble piece. The uniformly excellent cast often moves as one...Unaffected choreography keeps the action moving despite the abstract, bare bones presentation.”
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"The script, presumably cobbled together by the whole company, sticks fairly close to Foreman’s original, but with some odd digressions and odder directorial touches...Beyond the adjustments in plot and characterization, and there are several, director Randy Sharp has reconceived the material as something of an existentialist nightmare...Makes a reasonable case for reinvestigating and reinterpreting beloved old movies. But be advised, it’s missing a couple of reels."
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"A famous Academy Award-winning Western film is reinterpreted for the stage. The tension created is riveting...The actors are on stage for the entire performance which lasts a little more than an hour. There is continual movement in which the characters ebb and flow into their scenes. The dialogue is crisp and appropriately clipped and melodramatic for the western genre...The impact is stylized, true to the spirit of a western yet somehow a dreamscape...This troupe has great style."
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"Every performance is unnervingly suspicious...Presented as one long scene with no clear breaks, Sharp's dark vision feels like an inescapable nightmare...Despite its occasionally soporific tone, 'High Noon' couldn't be timelier as we reexamine political authority and who has the legitimacy to wield it. While the original film presented a black and white tale of duty, Axis admirably paints in shades of gray."
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"A triumph of superior production design and physical staging, this 60-minute theatrical adaptation of the classic 1952 film 'High Noon' conceived by Axis Company is emotionally uninvolving...Director Randy Sharp has the cast of 10 on view and in motion for the entire time. They’re precisely and variably positioned all over the space and this yields numerous aesthetic stage pictures and tableaus. Some of which are gratuitous embellishments."
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"Samuel Beckett’s 'Waiting for Godot' meets Clint Eastwood’s 'High Plains Drifter' in Sharp’s involving staging. All of the actors are onstage through the entire production as if trapped; their words move the tale from the hotel and the depot to the court and the prairie...'High Noon' is famous for, among other things, the building tension leading to the action-packed finale, but Sharp chooses another path there as well, providing a surprising, subtle twist."
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"The intimacy of this 'High Noon' is as palpable as the storyline...In this town without pity or spine...neighbors, lovers, and business partners are interchangeable and the color scheme is film noir. The feeling was also vintage celluloid; French New Wave, to be precise. This haunting theatre piece—a simmering 75 minutes, no intermission—is a true ensemble performance with every actor connected and showcased."
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