The Father (TFANA) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (32)
See it if you love great drama, wonderful acting and Strindberg
Don't see it if you want something uplifting and not an intense psychological drama
See it if For the majestic John Douglas Thompson, coming apart at the seams at the hands of his tactically superior wife. The dark humor is a joy.
Don't see it if You don't care for an epic battle of the sexes circa 1887. It seems like yesterday. It feigns a sexism we see today, though we hide it now.
See it if you like shows about marital strife. This one is evocative of both "Gaslight" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf".
Don't see it if you dislike bare sets (this one isn't completely bare, but it comes close) or if you can't handle one or two overly long monologues.
See it if you are a fan of John Douglas Thompson, who gives yet one more great performance in a challenging role!
Don't see it if you don't like really intense tragedy.
See it if you know someone who's loosing their mental powers. It may help you understand them better. You will be confused - like the main character.
Don't see it if you're expecting a showy performance or a story told in a clear manner. It's a small show about a heartbreaking topic.
See it if love great acting and Strindberg. Excellent new translation. Tight, taught and fast moving production.
Don't see it if Don't like Nordic School of drama
See it if In a relationship, got a partner, want to understand your parents? See this superb production. Sorry, you only have one more day, till 6/12.
Don't see it if You might have a tough time getting in, but try. I see no reason not to see this battle of the sexes play. Getting hitched? Think twice.
See it if you want to see a great performance (by John Douglas Thompson), you like Strindberg or interested in his response to A Doll's House
Don't see it if you're in the mood for something light and fluffy. There are moments of humor, but this play is delivered in a dramatic, serious way
Critic Reviews (18)
"What really awakens the senses here is the feeling of suffocation that pervades the domestic battlefield…Ms. Arbus’s interpretation and Ms. Lacey’s performance help insure that the argument here is by no means one-sided. If Laura is compelled to destroy her husband, it’s because she has effectively been his prisoner for so long…Mr. Thompson’s Captain is, in a word, brilliant, an exact and devastating portrait of one man’s inevitable collapse."
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“Turgid doesn’t begin to describe the dialectic embedded in August Strindberg’s melodramatic battle of wills, and yet adapter David Greig manages to winkle out humor and insight...Though Strindberg was clearly on the side of his hog-tied title character, a grudging respect is surely due such a resourceful virago.”
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"The battle of the sexes comes served two ways in Theatre for a New Audience’s sturdy and ever-accessible double bill of classics...Maggie Lacey plays against her girl-next-door looks. In 'The Father,' she’s a wife who drives her husband crazy by undermining his trust...John Douglas Thompson brings depth as her spouse in each show."
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“As played by Thompson, the Captain comes across like an innocuous nut job...By contrast, Lacey's Laura is calculating in her malice, ‘I've yet to meet the man I can't defeat,’ she tells her husband, her icy gaze freezing him in his tracks. Such melodramatic lines pervade the text, and this fabulous cast knocks them all out of the park. Strindberg's darkness, his pseudo-adolescent gloom, registers here as high camp and we love every second of it.”
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"A taut, tension-filled psychological battle…Thompson charts the Captain's breakdown, step by harrowing step...His total surrender is both disturbing and impossible to turn away from, climaxing in a kind of fit that also works as a physical expression of total despair. Next to his tour de force, Lacey, as Laura, plays a kind of dramatic rope-a-dope, cannily circling her prey and inserting new stabs of doubt and fear into his head...Arbus gets exceptional work from her cast."
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"These inspired revivals using the Thornton Wilder adaptation of 'A Doll’s House' and Scottish playwright David Greig’s new English language version of 'The Father' feature a company of actors led by the magnificent John Douglas Thompson and Maggie Lacey, all of whom appear in both plays. With the audience sitting on opposite sides of a narrow playing area with two walls removed that puts the viewers ring side, these productions are dazzling theater whether seen in tandem or seen separately."
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"The plays feel more accessible and tailored to a wider audience than ever, thanks to dual outstanding lead performances in both pieces by John Douglas Thompson and Maggie Lacey. Under the capable direction of Arin Arbus, Thompson and Lacey storm through both masterworks with an intensity and passion that elevate them far above all other elements of the productions."
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"Insightfully directed…A terrific repertory ensemble...Thompson gives full reign to the high-octane dramatic chops that have earned him a reputation as one of the contemporary theater's best and most vivid Shakespearean actors…I've always found 'The Father' something of a yawn, hopelessly dated and excessively melodramatic. But seeing it in this context didn't have a boring moment, it's full of unforgettable moments."
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