Phalaris's Bull: Solving the Riddle of the Great Big World NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (5)
See it if you enjoy an interesting set and hearing an interesting life story narrated by a single person
Don't see it if you don't like narrator spouting mindless aphorisms wrapped up in philosophical language or self-promoting story that is actually sad
Critic Reviews (7)
"Friedman seeks to mix philosophical musings and autobiographical vignettes into a brainy, insightful theater. He succeeds only intermittently...It’s annoying, and the other details that he shares are pretty generic, so latching onto him as a sympathetic character is difficult. Also not helping Mr. Friedman’s likability is that he’s a wooden performer, awkward in the style of bad community theater...Mr. Friedman ultimately does have something to say, even if it’s said awkwardly."
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"The production is big on visual and aural distractions designed to enliven the windy generalities of Friedman's text...Whether you take Friedman as a genuinely deep mind, a classic American eccentric in the Bronson Alcott mode, or a skilled purveyor of snake oil, 'Phalaris' Bull' is a one-of-a-kind experience. For all the rampant egoism on display, it's possible to feel a little sad for him."
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"The 80-minute evening is as close as you're likely to ever come to receiving an exclusive tour of something that could be considered a great mind...Director David Schweizer has done nothing to tone down the evening's pretensions and elicit Friedman's underlying humanity. If anything, Friedman's listless, directionless movement across, behind, through, and even up the asymmetrical mindscape set makes it more difficult, not less, to follow him (figuratively and literally)."
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"This solo show is as alien to the universe of professional theater as Chewbacca would be in Scranton. That stage set, with its array of windows, nooks, compartments, and sliding panels, is far and away the most memorable thing about 'Phalaris's Bull'…From the moment the play begins, the design team is on overdrive, doing its best to distract attention from all that's dull and vainglorious about the script."
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"'Phalaris’s Bull' Worst Play of 2015...This one-man show is written and performed by the narcissistic Friedman who can neither act, nor mime the direction he has been given. I actually pity this director who must have been pulling his hair out. With grandiose gestures and condescending vocals, this is a vanity piece about this ignoramus’s life."
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"'Phalaris’s Bull' claims to be 'solving the riddle of the great big world.' In the process of trying to understand what he’s saying, that may, or may not happen. And you may, or may not, stay awake through the 80 nonstop minutes of his dazzling tour de talk...Not everybody’s cup of tea, that kind of thinky-thinky talk. If you don’t want to stretch your mind, then 'Phalaris’s Bull' is not for you. If you do, it can be deeply rewarding, provoking lots of thought."
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"There are more answers than questions in Steven Friedman's one-man show...The most personal moments come when he talks about the dissolution of his marriage, but even then it feels like he's figured it out, and we never see the struggle that's at the heart of good theater...he never makes himself sufficiently vulnerable to let us witness that transformation. Instead we get hollow aphorisms."
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