Key Change NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (26)
See it if you want to see magnificent acting. Unexpected loads talent in a simple yet, deeply thoughtful play. One the best I've seen in a while
Don't see it if you don't like original, unique works in black box settings
See it if you enjoy something a bit avant garde and edgy. . . . you couldn't stop watching Orange Is the New Black.
Don't see it if you are a fan of musical comedy
See it if brilliantly written, acted and staged. Moving and gripping story. Touching, real and insightful. Sad and funny. MUST SEE!
Don't see it if no excuses. Get it while supplies last!
See it if you like original, devised, British performances that explore dark and realistic issues that affect female prisoners.
Don't see it if you don't like Fringe festival works, are offended by profanity, or would be uncomfortable with depictions of domestic abuse.
See it if You are moved by the plight of women who wind up in prison due to misfortunes outside their control, who must struggle to make their way
Don't see it if You need a dose of comedy, a la Orange is the New Black, to take the edge of the bleak reality imprisoned women face
See it if you want a theater experience that opens your eyes to the lives of people society too often ignores or writes off as lesser.
Don't see it if you don't have an hour to spare to open your mind.
See it if You want to experience these women in their prison experience. Excellent Engish cast. Actress's are very nautural and real.
Don't see it if You are not into thought provoking theater pieces
See it if You like well written and masterfully acted theater or like stories of women in prison. All of the women give powerful powerformes
Don't see it if You don't like minimalist staging or don't want to actively listen in order to follow the story.
Critic Reviews (18)
"A moving, intimate and superbly acted drama about women’s lives in a British prison...The production is aptly spare and simple...The dialogue is crisp, minimal and overlapping...Among its other virtues, 'Key Change' resists sentimentality, although there are some touching passages."
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"There are many striking moments; you could say that 'Key Change' is constructed of nothing but...'Key Change' also powerfully delineates the grim facts of life behind bars...In the end, however, 'Key Change' remains a piece that, for all its harrowingly rendered observations, exists mostly as a kind of tract, an argument designed to enlighten others. It certainly performs that task, even as one leaves the theatre wishing one had seen a real play."
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"A moving and highly theatrical kaleidoscopic factual drama that makes a great impact in one hour. Playwright Catrina McHugh has crafted a richly detailed confessional examination of four women’s lives that are told with fierce candor and biting humor...The pace is fast and vibrantly conveys the emotions of the characters’ situations...With its strong writing, masterful presentation and intense performances, 'Key Change' is an excellent work of social consciousness theater."
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"These powerful performers understand the value of detailed, fearless acting...If it's the carefully woven fabric of voices and stories that makes this a punch-strong show or if it is the fact that it is delivered carefully through equally powerful moments of comedy, completely earned lyricism and precise timing—applause here again to Lindow—that makes 'Key Change' a much needed piece of theatre, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that this exists...A must-see play."
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"All of the performances are rough, bloody and believable...Within the cast, amid poetic form, physical theater, considerable comedy and the rasp of straight talking, real tears are shed. A statement of 'It's my last time' by a repeat offender is as funny as it is tragic. The notion of a happy ending sends itself up, but crucially, it is not without hope. Throughout, 'Key Change' is a well-crafted, sensitively directed and impressively performed piece of theater."
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"Emotionally powerful and often deeply moving, the piece perhaps succeeds better at its educational, and undoubtedly more important, task. The urgency of these women’s stories, and the common threads that underlie the paths they took to prison shine through...In front of a New York audience, some of the stories don’t quite pack the punch of recognition they might in the UK; the unfamiliar slang, not to mention the fact that all the inmates are white, adds a definite distance. "
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"It felt like an hour-long series of theater games and exercises...Some of them work fine, taken individually...But all the noodling around, especially a pile-on of staccato group dialogue and quick little scenes undermines our ability to discern the individuality of the main characters. The result overall is a feeling that the professional theater makers devised this play, and the women in prison were not given control over their own stories."
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"There’s no single story or character to latch onto...and, despite its brevity, ‘Key Change’ finds it hard to sustain the kind of interest in what comes next that might have prevented the boredom that ultimately ensues...‘Key Change’ is an example of talented artists engaged in the theatre of good intentions, confronting an important social issue and hitting lots of worthy buttons but lacking the dramatic structure necessary to free it from its self-imposed confinement."
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