Strange Interlude NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (39)
See it if Amazing virtuoso performance. Poetic language full of witty psychological insight. Family drama + Greek tragedy + black comedy. Unique.
Don't see it if Dated elements: Freudian sexuality, gender stereotypes, and a nontraditional family suffering due to its secrets. Clever but not moving.
See it if Greenspan's epic, solo tour-de-force adapt of O'Neill's 6hr soap opera Playing all 8 characters w/both spoken & interior dialogue he's *****
Don't see it if O'Neill's wordy pop psychology can be a tough slog esp moving into last hrs Constant moving via action grows tedious but Greenspan shines!
Critic Reviews (10)
"Greenspan's performance is such a feat of daring that merely getting through it would have been an accomplishment. Yet he is masterful...This production is storytelling at its purest. At once faithful and irreverent, it’s an illuminating interpretation that is alert to the script’s inadvertent comedy and delighted to mine it...Sound is a stubborn obstacle to this delicately modulated performance...Still, his performance is astonishing in its clarity, nuance, and endurance."
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"Greenspan makes a nearly impossible play work...By pouring all of 'Interlude' through the filter of a single performer, he strains out the largest flaws...The production recovers the delights of melodrama and becomes a play about the complex way our own fluid identities, and others’ perceptions of us, flow together and alchemize...No one should be able to perform solo for six straight hours with such technical precision, but Greenspan is a freight train."
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"Is it exhausting? Yes. Is it also utterly hypnotic, intermittently brilliant, and both a proof of O’Neill’s genius and a fascinating framing of his ideological shortcomings? Also, yes. The mad test of endurance that Greenspan has set for himself is no mere gimmick. In fact, it cracks open this unwieldy, expansive, impossible piece in ways that convinced me I never really need to see eight actors performing it."
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"The theatrical equivalent of an extreme sport, but those willing to brave the butt-busting experience will have bragging rights to what must be one of the most unforgettable acting tours de force in New York's theatrical history...The play's occasionally soap-operatic language is not lost on Greenspan, who treats the material lovingly but knows when to let loose a campy flourish...A masterful production...A unique and remarkable theatrical event."
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“An extra-large helping of melodrama, heavily sauced with Freudian theory...Greenspan doesn't so much play the text as attack it with all the energy and brio at his command...Greenspan's performance is a technical marvel, but it still leaves one faintly baffled at the woman at the center of the action...One of those eccentric theatrical ventures that will prove irresistible to fans of O'Neill as well as anyone curious about a play...Greenspan certainly puts on a show."
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“Martha Graham called her dancers ‘athletes of God.’ Watching David Greenspan perform all the roles in a six-hour marathon performance of Eugene O'Neill's 1928 melodrama, ‘Strange Interlude,’ caused me to wonder what I might call David Greenspan. Would ‘Son of Thalia’ (the Greek goddess of theater) do? ‘Olympian of O'Neill’? Forget it! David Greenspan is simply a one-of-a-kind theatrical creature who has molded a very special career.”
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“There are moments of astonishing work throughout. But they erupt and, no matter how badly you wish them to stay, quickly dissipate back into a repetitious rhythm...It’s frustrating because Mr. Greenspan is such an immensely talented artist...The play is not perfect and neither is the production. At times 'Strange Interlude' is frustrating and even boring. But the flashes of truth from Mr. Greenspan stay with you. It reminds you of theatre’s potential and the capabilities of a dedicated creative spirit.”
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"The things that draw and hold one's attention are Greenspan's facial expressions, which change as though by magic, and his remarkably flexible voice, with its variety of tonal colors...As the performance proceeds, the individual dramatis personae take on impressive intricacy...Greenspan, with his knack for integrating the inner monologues and the rest of the play, may have found the secret for making O'Neill's exercise in Freudian excess palatable to playgoers."
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“Greenspan’s solo rendition is at once a remarkable feat of human endurance and wonderful theater. Together with director Cummings III, Greenspan has fully realized each of O’Neill’s complex characters and successfully gives them all deep, rich renderings. Enormously long though the show certainly is, the evening proves rapturous...The melodramatic play is overfull of swings, a roller coaster that Greenspan conducts confidently and masterfully.”
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“Who would have imagined that this 1928 whale of a play could be acted as a one-man show to riveting effect? Greenspan is extraordinary, and he brings to life an extraordinary play...Directed with verve and invention by Jack Cummings III, ‘Strange Interlude’ is staged on the spare sets of three performance spaces at the Irondale Theater...Given the length of the evening, this works well...Long as it is, this enthralling production is not to be missed.”
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