In PASS OVER, Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s "powerful and provocative" (Arifa Akbar, The Guardian) new play, Moses and Kitch talk smack, pass the time, and hope that maybe today will be different. As they dream of their promised land, a stranger wanders into their space and disrupts their plans. Evoking heartbreak, hope, and joy over its 85 minutes, PASS OVER crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, illuminating the unquestionable human spirit of young men looking for a way out.
Jesse Green of The New York Times calls this Critic's Pick "blazingly theatrical and thrillingly tense." Time Out cheers, “FOUR STARS! It's ingenious, poetic and unsettling." And The Hollywood Reporter raves, “PASS OVER is a powerfully imaginative drama that will shake up audiences, instantly tagging the playwright as a significant new voice.”
Danya Taymor's production is well acted by all three cast members; Smallwood in particular achieves some truly haunting moments late in the play. Still, you're often left wondering how real these characters are intended to be. It's tough to perform symbols and the show struggles with specificity, especially in the difficult scenes with the cop. The show in general could do to trust more that its message is coming through loud and clear.
The three actors, repeating their Lincoln Center performances, couldn't be better. Hill and Smallwood expertly play off each in the manner of seasoned vaudevillians, while Ebert delivers a tour-de-force turn, infused with comic physicality and an undercurrent of danger, that keeps us on edge even as we're laughing.
2018 | Off-Broadway |
LCT3 Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
2021 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Scenic Design for a Play | Wilson Chin |
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