The Designated Mourner
The original New York performance of The Designated Mourner in 2000 is one of those productions that audiences speak about with reverence, awe, and superlatives. For example, it was “One of the most unforgettable experiences we’ve ever had” and “Easily in the top 3 best theater experiences I’ve ever had.“
This first New York revival presented by The Public Theater and Theatre for a New Audience reunites the actors from the original production, including Wallace Shawn (actor and playwright, in this case).
The actors address the audience directly in a series of monologues. They’re telling a story sprinkled with platitudes about the decline of civilization and interpersonal strife.
The first act is one hour and forty minutes followed by an intermission and hour-long second act. The afternoon Maxamoo attended a solid block of the audience didn’t return after intermission. Reviews for this production are rife with strong contradictions, variously calling it the MOST: significant (TimeOut), overrated (New York Post), unnerving (Newsday), and complex (New York Times). It’s not meant for the feeble of mind or body.
LOCATION
Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street
RUNNING TIME
2 hours 45 minutes, one 15 minutes intermission
TICKETS
$86.50 (click for tickets (limited availability), for information on rush tickets click here)
DATES
Performances through August 25
REVIEWS
New York Times
In filleting oneself, remove backbone first
TimeOut
Mourner is a densely shadowed maze laced with shocks and gags. It’s no irony that this ambiguous elegy for a class of art lovers is itself great art.
New York Magazine
The Designated Mourner Review: Epitaph for the Intellectual
New York Post
Wallace Shawn’s The Designated Mourner may be among the most overrated plays ever
New York Daily News
Wallace Shawn’s slow but often vivid play takes aim at the intellectuals of the world
Newsday
Serene and subversive theater
The Record
The Designated Mourner… is a well-written, very, very long play — sort of play, actually — that is often funny, sometimes haunting and entirely demanding your patience
Curtain Up
At the end, this is a show about the imponderables, and yet we leave it with much — some would say too much — to ponder.
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written by Wallace Shawn
Directed by André Gregory
Featuring Deborah Eisenberg, Larry Pine, and Wallace Shawn
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
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