"While it returns to themes and situations Howe has movingly explored in other works, this sometimes absurdist play about a family in crisis splashes and thrashes under Kreith’s direction. It goes under almost from the get-go...Some of the performances feel tentative, almost apologetic, while others feel overly emphatic, suggesting that the actors may not believe in these worlds either. Part of that blame lies with Howe’s script...These characters don’t make much sense."
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"There are worse things than a play going wrong—of course there are. But that perspective may be hard to remember during 'Singing Beach'...The often great Tina Howe has written a heartbroken work about aging...But heartbroken isn’t the same as heartbreaking. Awkward icebergs of exposition slam through the dialogue...Ari Laura Kreith’s fumbling production offers no help. Let the summer tide rise and fall, and may it take this 'Beach' out with it."
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"If there's much of value in Howe’s new drama of weathered people on a weathered planet, ‘Singing Beach,’ it's overwhelmed by director Ari Laura Kreith's sluggish production…While ‘Singing Beach’s’ message is an urgent one, the slow-moving production rarely displays an emotional backbone, and requiring a child actor to carry the weight of the drama is a risk that, through no fault of Morss, doesn't pay off.”
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"Director Ari Laura Kreith, artistic director of Theater 167 which has produced the play's world premiere, has not been able to help the actors with their thinly written roles and many of them come across as simply labels. At 75 minutes, the play is probably too short to deliver its messages on the dangers of climate change, dealing with the elderly, and the power of the imagination."
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"It's admirable and timely that Howe addresses several extremely relevant issues of modern life, including her own. However, the timeliness is also the most dominant flaw of both the script and the director's staging. The plot's realistic pivotal points and the fairy tale detours somehow don't mesh, nor are they easy to follow. It's hard to put the blame squarely on the script or the dedicated but uneven performances...It's more disappointing than exhilarating."
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"Howe...does the best she can with this gauzy, windblown capriccio on climate change and dementia. If only she had good direction, or the juvenile roles had been taken by adults...When a script lurches between poles as disparate as domestic naturalism and child’s fantasy, transitions are everything...It’s in these moments where director Kreith’s tin-eared, unhandsome production comes up short...The actors likewise flail...This damp staging smacks too much of kids playing dress-up."
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“This Theatre 167 presentation features seven appealing actors…The production, however, has an earnest quality that undermines the magical realism of Howe’s writing, and the pace of the performances is too lackadaisical to be compelling. These weaknesses are most egregious in the conclusion…Kreith and her sound designer Nick Straniere manage only an anemic hum to set the pace for Piper and her posse on their apocalyptic way. Piper and her playwright deserve more than that.”
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"Directed by Ari Laura Kreith, the acting is capable but the play's lack of cohesion is apparent and the book is flimsy, even with plenty of references to poetry, religion and culture. The family problems lack depth as does the dramatic impact of what our culture has neglected."
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