The Invention of Tragedy NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
This absurdist work about a chorus of students trying trying like the devil to tell a simple story offers an examination of the post-9/11 world. Part of the Flea's "Mac Wellman: Perfect Catastrophes" series.
Read more Show lessShow-Score Member Reviews (15)
See it if you're into Wellman and making your own meaning. This is brilliantly directed. Really gets you thinking about conforming v. speaking out.
Don't see it if you want easily followable narrative. This is hilarious with great acting and great sets but very quirky and strange. Not for just anyone.
See it if Nonsense poetry conveyed with strong feelings & expressions. Remarkable acting & directing. Uniquely creative experience.
Don't see it if You don't like weird absurdist plays. You need to make sense out of the spoken words. Delightfully playful, but meanders, w/o much plot. Read more
See it if You like being puzzled as to what is going on.
Don't see it if You prefer straightforward plots.
See it if you want to see simple spectacle on stage but not really understand it. It's out there! But moments are interesting and funny.
Don't see it if you want to understand what you are seeing. Some things resonate, other things- who knows???
See it if you have patience, because by the end you'll appreciate its message. See it if you love seeing up & coming actors...Major bravos to Susan Ly
Don't see it if you do not like a message very well hidden in this absurdist plot. Read more
See it if You are bored by traditional theatre and want to enter a netherworld that will put you in a trance, then move you beyond imagination.
Don't see it if You like your stories tied up neatly, your plot line to make sense, and your characters to have names.
See it if You love experimental forms of theatre! Also has a great run time (approx 60 min).
Don't see it if You are looking for a coherent, normative throughline of plot. It is a play based in emotion and action less than it is about words.
See it if you're a Mac Wellman fan (and everyone should be, really), i.e., you know what you're getting into. Confusing but powerful, great production
Don't see it if you expect to come out with a well formulated idea of what you've seen. Read more
Critic Reviews (6)
"In ‘Invention of Tragedy,’ Wordplay Over Plotlines: Mac Wellman’s ode to theater does away with character and basic grammar. Here, language baffles and delights."
Read more
"Mac Wellman's mini-masterpiece 'THE INVENTION OF TRAGEDY' at The Flea Theater"
Read more
"Seeing 'The Invention of Tragedy,' certain names went through my head, such as John Ashbery and Edith Sitwell, poets who preferred the sounds of words over their meanings; it's certainly an approach, although whether it really works in a theatrical setting is debatable."
Read more
"On a school auditorium’s stage, young adults portray children as they perform Mac Wellman’s abstract fantasia with slight political overtones. Devotees of his idiosyncratic style may be enchanted while anyone else could be baffled. Brevity, playfulness and presentational polish are its virtues."
Read more
"The piece, at first, dives head first into the idea of group dynamics, when the whole follows aggressively behind the central talking-head, like a pack of nervous dogs repeating Fox News talking points."
Read more
"There are three ways of looking at 'The Invention of Tragedy' that offer some satisfactions - as a political parable, as a metaphor for Western theater, or as entertaining nonsense full of such surface pleasures as colorful design, pleasing music and an appealing cast."
Read more