Real NYC Reviews and Tickets

70%

(33 Reviews)

Positive

64%

Mixed

30%

Negative

Members say

Ambitious, Great acting, Absorbing, Slow, Thought-provoking

About the Show

The Tank's world premiere drama explores issues of race and gender through its story about a woman and a man living in New York, 85 years apart.

New York, 2019. Dominique, a 40-year-old married white woman, is a successful working mother who decides to take up an instrument she used to play when she was young. New York, 1934. Dominic, a 20-year-old gay immigrant, and a promising composer. After having a dream, he starts writing a fugue, and feels like he is supposed to live someone else's life. Their two stories become intertwined to a point where the viewer can't discern which one is which - neither can Dominic and Dominique.

Member Reviews (33)

Intelligent, Confusing, Edgy, Intense, Thought-provoking

See it if you enjoy somewhat avant garde theater with a non-linear plot and a lot of philosophical rants about role and gender in society,

Don't see it if you prefer easy to understand plays with linear plots and a bit more action than ranting.

Banal, Disappointing, Insipid, Excruciating, Fluffy

See it if Boring script

Don't see it if Boring script Read more

Great acting, Slow, Quirky, Entertaining, Great staging

See it if You like different plays

Don't see it if You enjoy musicals

Good idea, Good acting, Interesting, Surreal, Slow in the beginning

See it if you are a fan of actors playing multiple roles well and in a script that draws connections between time periods and people

Don't see it if you need to understand everything or want a more satisfying ending to a play. It's unclear what's happening or what is the point being drawn

Confusing, Disappointing, Ambitious, Relevant, Great design

See it if theme trumps story for you. Some good acting from Gabriela Garcia and Darwin del Fabro. You want to support a latinx writer.

Don't see it if the lack of heart and human connection and a hit over the head direction would drive you up the wall. Read more

Ambitious, Confusing, Solid enunciation

See it if you want a script that would be better off on screen than on a stage. The cast does it best with a half-baked play about a half-baked fugue.

Don't see it if you're a pal of director Ortman and u want to still like him. His helming is ponderous, the play lacks wit, & seesaws between time queasily.

Ambitious

See it if you don’t mind a script that needs a lot of work but has potential.

Don't see it if you like a well thought out, easy to follow story. Read more

Slow, Pretentious, self-indulgent, boring,

See it if You would enjoy it if you want to support experimental theater whether or not it is successful in what is attempted.

Don't see it if You don't want to be bored for even an hour and a quarter or if you don't want to see a play that doesn't really work.

Critic Reviews (3)

"The supernatural scenario is a little like something one might find on an eerie episode of Alfred Hitchcock's old TV anthology. Unfortunately, it all comes off as fairly stilted and heavy-handed. This is due in part to some of the flowery language that Nogueira uses ('I have the strength of a river to drown my sobbing heart with a loving rage'). But it also has to do with Ortman's direction, which eschews realism in favor of a highly self-conscious theatricality."
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"The spooky and melodramatic aspects of the plot, and the two characters’ surreal pile-up of connections, are less engaging than the astute social observations the playwright threads throughout the piece...Nogueira, a playwright of some renown in Brazil who’s a newcomer to New York, still manages to land some astute and amusing comments about living in New York."
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“Is one story real and one imagined? Are both real?...If one does not come away with an answer, 'Real' at least shows Nogueira’s gift for poetic lyricism, and the questions he raises linger. It’s not a straightforward piece of theater, but it’s often fascinating, and it’s refreshing to find a theatrical voice as iconoclastic as Nogueira’s."
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