Latter Days NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (28)
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.
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.
See it if you are a skeptic, enjoy willing suspension of disbelief in order to think, are okay with a slow pace
Don't see it if you are not patient for slow pacing, are easily religiously offended, or are looking for something light.
See it if You would enjoy a thoughtful, entertaining look at faith, cults, and rituals.
Don't see it if You prefer big productions.
See it if You like quiet but apocalyptic shows investigating faith in a leader.
Don't see it if You dislike flowery language and monologues. It's mainly interesting dialogue between "servant" and "king."
See it if you are interested in oddball religious cults, esp doomsday cults. It'll make you think, but only if you care about the topic to begin with.
Don't see it if you're looking for a varied and exciting plot. You know within the first 15 minutes how the show is going to end, and it moves predictably.
See it if The biblical, Shakespearean, densely poetic language was very compelling, but I saw the end coming within the first 5 mins.
Don't see it if Thank goodness the bodily fluids only looked realistic vs smelling so, because I was in the front row and that was bad enough. Read more
See it if If you want to see some experimental theaters. The acting was good, and the actors are brave to take such roles.
Don't see it if You don't want to be disgusted: there are urinations during the show. The scenes are also repetitive and don't make sense to me at times.
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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