Underground Railroad Game NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (122)
See it if You're interested in an abstract take on race relations that's as funny as it is jaw dropping
Don't see it if You're offended by profanity, sexual content, nudity, or if you're looking for something not so heavy
See it if You like edgy dialogue, political theatre, smart staging, absorbing story telling and insightful thought provoking reflections on race
Don't see it if You are easily offended, want simple theatre or don't want to deal with the issues of race.
See it if you're looking for an original production that takes you out of your comfort zone & challenges the way we view race and look back at history
Don't see it if you can't handle 5 minutes of exposed breasts, another 10 min of full frontal male nudity, aggressive confrontations, and offensive language
See it if Stunning, radical & provocative-just a few adjectives to summons 'Railroad' A school educational game moves into uncharted racial territory
Don't see it if Not for the squeamish or sexually threatened Starts out concerning slavery but slowly moves into how its aftermath poisons sexual relations
See it if you're the kind of person who keeps banging his head against the wall trying to figure out race relations
Don't see it if you're squeamish about language, nudity, sexual situations, uncomfortable audience situations -- all, I would argu, in service of the piece.
See it if you want to be made to feel uncomfortable and to confront unconscious racism today or if you want.
Don't see it if you want a light and fluffy theatre experience.
See it if You're interested in a discussion of race in relationships and modern day society. You playing with various levels of fantasy vs reality
Don't see it if You're uncomfortable with nudity or staging of sexual acts.
See it if Racism is not just a history lesson and this play is more that you’d expect;all senses engaged.Plenty of questions posed left unanswered.
Don't see it if Raw and exposed
Critic Reviews (24)
"The actors play sexual attraction with a light touch, but the script is uncompromising in its depiction of fantasies and prejudices...Magar keeps the actors moving at high velocity through the script's vibrant absurdism...The writer/performers are hardpressed to achieve a dramatically satisfying conclusion. But with issues as thorny and urgent as those addressed, it's hardly reasonable to ask for a denouement that's satisfying in any traditional sense of the word."
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“‘Underground Railroad Game’ is Neo-Burlesque at its most outrageous – a balancing act of satire, irony and comedic bedlam concerning race and romance. Underground Railroad Game is a ‘R-rated, kaleidoscopic, fearless comedy,’ where the playwrights, Jennifer Kidwell and Scott Sheppard, cross their own Mason-Dixon line with their provocative approach to what a contemporary Underground Railroad ‘game’ might offer.”
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"It is indeed a feast of various styles of storytelling, keeping audience members on the edge of their seats as the play snaps between its different aspects like a well-conducted orchestra, all the while challenging you to look into the depth of our nation’s history...It takes courage to create a play like 'Underground Railroad Game.' The 'Inception'-like layers of the plot do not sacrifice clarity, as the message of the play is relevant to all."
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"They have used the theater to do exactly what it is best suited to do: Take a thorny topic and explore, question, reflect, and reveal the human condition with intelligence, compassion, humor, bravery, no bias and no easy answers...This R-rated play tackles the very topical subjects of race, power and sex...There is an incredible level of trust between the two performers and creators of this piece...There are no neat answers, just raw, honest questions."
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"They are really sifting through the speech we use, black and white, to talk about ourselves and each other. And they are using all the languages we humans have at our disposal: physical, intellectual, rational, emotional...The writing is consistently, searingly funny, especially when it reveals exactly what the characters most want to hide...A+ for ideas, effort and for making us laugh, cathartically, all the better to reflect and learn."
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"I don’t especially favor some of the methods Kidwell and Sheppard employ...but it can’t be denied that they’ve found a provocatively original way to bring their subject to the table...‘Underground Railroad Game’ is filled with artistic and intellectual conundrums; you may even leave the theatre asking, “Now what was that all about?” But, while watching, its preoccupations, even if not easy to articulate, are likely to seep into your consciousness and stay with you after you get home."
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"Kidwell and Sheppard make their overall engagé point. They make it with such vigor and conviction that it occurred to me some audience members might be thinking how brilliant the folderol was...I believe there's a thin line between commenting on vulgarity and being straightforwardly vulgar. In the instance of 'Underground Railroad Game,' I'm convinced the line has been crossed from comment-on to example-of."
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"It is crass and tasteless for the purpose of shock. I wasn’t shocked just sickened that this is now theatre...It's hard to talk about the direction by Taibi Magar and the acting by Jennifer Kidwell and Scott Sheppard because I honestly do not understand what I was truly supposed to be seeing...I honestly cannot believe how anyone gave this a rave review, but they did. Maybe I still believe that you can catch more flies with honey and the Emperor has NO clothes!"
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