Latter Days NYC Reviews and Tickets

51%

(28 Reviews)

Positive

25%

Mixed

43%

Negative

32%

Members say

Slow, Confusing, Disappointing, Excruciating, Great acting

About the Show

Dutch Kills Theater presents the world premiere of a drama about a demented (or possibly visionary) "King" and his sole loyal subject, awaiting the apocalypse together.

In a forgotten basement beneath the streets of some godforsaken metropolis, a self-described King of Heaven and his long-suffering servant Dead Bill are waiting for the world to end. For 11 years they have shared, with no one but each other, the strange rituals of their secret faith in the coming rapture. Now, at last, the apocalypse is at hand. And when the time comes, nothing will be the same.

Member Reviews (28)

Disappointing, Indulgent, Slow, It did make me think about trump--unfortunately.

See it if Video gamer style mythmaking of the most banal kind is your thing.

Don't see it if A cheesy bargain basement knockoff of a Beckett type theater of the absurd play would send you running for the exit.

Entertaining, Great acting, Quirky, Hilarious

See it if you enjoy intimate settings with two captivating actors who carry the show start to finish.

Don't see it if you want a profound show and a clear ending.

Critic Reviews (4)

"Ben Beckley's 'Latter Days' feels like an early draft of a Samuel Beckett play...It's not easy to avoid the masters when you're trying to craft something short and sharp...'Latter Days' is well performed, but Beckley's play is too much of-a-piece with the works it emulates—at its worst, it can feel derivative...The garbage-royalty motif is reminiscent of Alfred Jarry's 'Ubu Roi,' and we've seen these little rituals and abuses between Beckett's all-too-similar Hamm and Clov."
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"An absurdist play that is strong on form but less so on substance…There is no faulting the excellent performances of the two actors, or of Jess Chayes's direction...Yet 'Latter Days' feels sketchy, like an academic exercise in dramatic writing that combines Elizabethan phrasing with the theatrically absurd planes of existence of Beckett and Ionesco. There simply isn't enough context to sustain what is essentially an allegorical tale about the fanatically obsessed leading the gullible."
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“The trademark Beckettian rhythm and language is at play here, eliciting the same kind of laughter that feels wrong when it happens. Chayes directs and her simplicity and precision shines…It’s far too reminiscent of the Beckett world without being different enough to warrant its necessity. Although its themes of grand delusion and co-dependent power relationships couldn’t feel truer.”
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“An inventive take on the apocalyptic genre…It takes a bit of time to get into this play, but once you accept its given circumstances, the drama between the two men is utterly gripping…’Latter Days’ would never succeed without an immensely talented and committed pair of performers, and there is no doubt that Tony Torn's fragile dignity and Will Dagger's utter earnestness sell the piece entirely. But what really makes this production stand out is its impeccable design.”
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