The Good Earth
Closed 1h 20m
The Good Earth
75

The Good Earth NYC Reviews and Tickets

75%
(82 Ratings)
Positive
73%
Mixed
22%
Negative
5%
Members say
Great acting, Great singing, Absorbing, Ambitious, Thought-provoking

About the Show

Direct from its hit run in the U.K. comes Motherlode Theatre's drama about a Welsh community torn apart by its council, big business, and, eventually, its people.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (82)

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254 Reviews | 138 Followers
97
Absorbing, Exquisite, Great acting, Profound, Great singing

See it if You want to be invested in a small town issue that has global implications. You will live with these people and care what happens to them.

Don't see it if You need to have things spelled out for you and fully explained. Authentic Welsh is spoken and sung at times with no translation.

286 Reviews | 23 Followers
90
Enchanting, Great acting, Profound

See it if you like good theater

Don't see it if you like comfortable chairs

WH
448 Reviews | 88 Followers
89
Ambitious, Entertaining, Great acting, Intelligent, Educative

See it if Have a commitment to the environment and community.

Don't see it if Dislike non-traditional presentation.

NS
273 Reviews | 200 Followers
89
Ambitious, Great acting, Intense

See it if Actors on a basically bare stage, multiple roles w/o costume change. Talented cast, small town, harsh measures, how to fight the system.

Don't see it if You like bright, big production shows. This is all about performance and story.

TT
146 Reviews | 28 Followers
86
Clever, Ambitious, Great staging, Resonant, Refreshing

See it if You like to learn about history thru storytelling with a tight ensemble with strong voices and points of view. With lovely welsh melodies.

Don't see it if You don't want to learn how strong community is. Or have trouble hearing welsh accents.

538 Reviews | 80 Followers
85
Ambitious, Masterful, Original, Resonant, Great acting

See it if if you like great things in small packages.

Don't see it if you have trouble with heavy dialects.

267 Reviews | 52 Followers
85
Clever, Touching, Absorbing, Great singing

See it if You like complicated stories about communities and the lives of the participants.

Don't see it if You prefer your musicals fully staged, casts with minimal accents, and fully explained plot points.

154 Reviews | 20 Followers
82
Clever, Enchanting, Great acting, Refreshing, Great singing

See it if you would enjoy a great ensemble cast with gorgeous Welsh voices, "working class" plays, & a brilliant performance by Gwenllian Higginson.

Don't see it if you have trouble with accents, do not like to use your imagination to help create the scenes, and prefer straightforward plays.

Critic Reviews (14)

The New York Times
August 24th, 2016

"A wonderfully acted new play by the Welsh company Motherlode, whose gorgeous, often solemn a cappella soundscape breathes the villagers’ very heritage into the air…The precise nature of the conflict in the play is not as clear as it could be…Without that clarity, the ending lacks the power it needs. Even so, this 80-minute play flies by. Comic and celebratory, melodic and mournful, it’s an elegy for a place that’s not dead yet."
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Lighting & Sound America
August 29th, 2016

"It's a rich situation, but it suffers in the presentation…The company's acting style is broadly stylized…Clearly, Motherlode is a collective of enterprising artists, and there is real vigor and more than a little talent onstage. There is, however, a fundamental disconnect between story and storytelling here…A fascinating situation is flattened out, purposely rendered in two-dimensional terms. Time and again, we get glimpses of intriguing details that nobody seems interested in illuminating."
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Talkin' Broadway
August 24th, 2016

"An energetic but rocky play…Of complexity, there isn't much…And although there doesn't necessarily need to be, a little might temper what is otherwise an overly brash and bombastic evening…The roundly broad and often shouty performances do not match the specifically inward-looking nature of the writing…Worse, certain key concepts that might better support this are not developed as fully as they could be."
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TheaterScene.net
August 30th, 2016

"Boulton directed the production and her work in that regard is perfection. Visually it’s a small-scale spectacle and a great display of physical theater yielding precise and vivid imagery. The actors forcefully conjure up so much with only their voices and bodies. Their characterizations are all uniformly vibrant, bold and emotional. Narrative momentum slows in the second half, but 'The Good Earth's' superior stagecraft carries it through to its moving conclusion."
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Theatre is Easy
August 25th, 2016

"A brilliant endeavor...For Boulton, contributing as actor and director can be an enormous challenge, but she excels in both roles…The cast of five actors give strong performances which highlight their mastery of comic physical storytelling and robust vocal abilities...Overall, 'The Good Earth' is an expertly devised physical theater piece that is as humorous as it is heartbreaking; and a confirmation that inspired storytelling can activate and move its listeners."
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Theater Pizzazz
August 25th, 2016

"This production balletically utilizes the furniture to raise tension (it does) and embody upheaval…Sound is clear, crisp and hauntingly arranged. Musical direction by Max Mackintosh is splendid...Stylization works for the piece, except perhaps in the portrayal of Jackie, who appears a spastic caricature...The company all have fine voices and move with precision and energy. Facial expressions are priceless…Mike Humphreys is a wonderful James: proud, tender, imaginative, and manly."
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Stage Buddy
August 30th, 2016

"A thought-provoking, gripping play about physical vs. spiritual survival…Directed with style by Rachael Boulton, the show makes for a compelling experience…The show presents us with endless opportunities for empathy, both in the intimate scale, but also on a collective one...We can’t help but feel a moral obligation to leave the theater and demand that governmental institutions help fulfill our needs, which makes 'The Good Earth,' rousing political theatre of the best kind."
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Blog Critics
August 24th, 2016

"The play doesn’t infuse the drama with stakes that seem high enough to account for those extremes of feeling which culminate in James’s defiant, climactic speech to the Council...But despite its flaws, this collaboratively written play is very well worth seeing for the marvelous performances; for the sheer, stripped grandeur of the clever minimalist staging; for the troupe’s mastery of meta-theatricality to create a livid, vivid world; and for its overall emotional punch."
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