A Life NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (136)
See it if you're looking to be surprised, see something new, or if you're interested in the meaning of life and don't mind gentle pacing.
Don't see it if you're looking for something light or something action-packed. Read more
See it if You can allow a seemingly banal but brilliantly delivered monologue jolt you into consideration of our common existential plight. DHP rocks
Don't see it if You resist being set up and led into territory that many would prefer to avoid, you won't appreciate the meditative pace, the great staging. Read more
See it if you want an evening with David Hyde Pierce discussing life, death & the meaningful/meaninglessness of both. Pathos, humor, charm, delight.
Don't see it if you done live unconventional storytelling, sing the inner workings of a morgue, albeit delivered in a light & funny tone.
See it if You can see the big picture in the mundane
Don't see it if You expect titilation
See it if you like quirky shows that really move you, touch you in a subtle quiet way that is beautiful and a little unsettling at the same time.
Don't see it if you need a straightforward plot. At one point I was lightly crying because I was so moved and I heard the person behind say "This is weird".
See it if stark & droll, abrasive & tender. An experimental tear-jerker in the vein of Our Town about connecting, building meaning, and letting go.
Don't see it if it's an elliptical play that's by turns ingratiating and alienating. Come with an open mind and a willingness to get onboard.
See it if you enjoy slow plays that give you time to think about (and savor) what's happening.
Don't see it if you dislike plays with minimal action, even if the scarcity of action is critical to the play's theme.
See it if You like plays that don't follow a classic structure and tell you what to think; great acting and writing; great sound & set design.
Don't see it if You're impatient and don't like sudden shifts in plot and tone.
Critic Reviews (38)
"Am I boring you? Sorry, but don’t blame me, I’m just trying to be an honest reporter...Mr. Pierce is usually good company, even when his material is less than first rate. But here’s he’s just…company...The play has been directed with minimal fuss by Ms. Kauffman, a specialist in adventurous theater, but it falls between the schools of realism and what might be called theatrical existentialism...While you can scan the play’s surface for larger meanings, watching it isn’t particularly rewarding."
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"The play is exquisite in detail but cosmic in theme; it has a Thornton Wilder soul...Directed by Anne Kauffman with a superb ear for naturalism. Sympathetic and unsentimental, the play offers a wise, quietly devastating perspective on the stuff we carry and leave behind. You may find yourself trembling as you stumble out of Playwrights Horizons and into the night, where life goes on and has been going on without you."
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"It’s hard to imagine anyone who could put this material over better than Pierce; he works every self-cancelling half-sentence and errant thought pattern into a stage naturalism so airtight it approaches the surreal...Bock’s dialogue captures the uncanny and sometimes hilarious weirdness of real speech..Balancing such disparate and volatile elements asks a lot of a director, and Anne Kauffman, in staging 'A Life,' demonstrates nerves of steel."
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"There’s nothing strained about Bock’s new play...David Hyde Pierce, giving one of those performances that take you over, moment by sensitively explicated moment...The director, Anne Kauffman, doesn’t try to make the script more than it is; she helps to reveal the subtleties and the weirdness at its heart. Hyde Pierce and the rest of the cast are ideal collaborators for what Bock and Kauffman want to convey."
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"David Hyde Pierce gives an amusing and endearing performance as gay, middle-aged Nate, who’s still trying to get his bearings after a breakup in Adam Brock’s engaging and sometimes unnerving new drama. The modest work goes places that you probably won’t see coming. The same goes for the seemingly everyday set in Anne Kauffman’s staging."
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"David Hyde Pierce is giving a quietly devastating performance in 'A Life,' Adam Bock’s meditative one-act play about the meaning and implicit value of a human life...Bock is scrupulous in the language he uses to reveal Nate’s indecisive character...Director Kauffman stages those events that intrude on his placid existence with a sense of high drama and implacable finality. For his part, Pierce keeps his distance and lets her do what has to be done. It’s a rewarding collaboration all around."
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"To reveal anything more would be to spoil the heartrending surprises of this deeply unsettling drama, which will linger long in your mind...Some will find it profoundly moving, others gimmicky...Director Anne Kaufman doesn't shy away from the play's daunting aspects...'A Life' is a little rough-hewn, both in the writing, which sometimes feels underdeveloped, and its technical aspects...But these are mere quibbles about a drama whose simple truths will leave you ineffably shattered."
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"Bock leans heavily on the element of surprise, which director Kauffman successfully exploits to the fullest. She lulls us into a false sense of complacency before completely blindsiding us...Pierce gives one of the most physically committed performances I've ever witnessed onstage...Bock's commitment to soul-shaking naturalism is reminiscent of Émile Zola at his darkest, conveying a vision of life that is so frightening precisely because we know it to be completely truthful."
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