Wet Brain at Playwrights Horrizons

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 5/20/23 at 3:20pm

Saw the first preview last night.  Wow what a wonderful and absurd play.  It ran 2 hours and 20 minutes, no intermission.  It's in previews the next two weeks, and opens June 5.  Let's discuss.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 5/20/23 at 3:42pm

I caught it last night as well. Wonderful and absurd is exactly how I would describe it. Trauma! Addiction! Aliens! Weirdness!

Ceci Fernández and Julio Monge were stand outs for me. By the end, people around me were getting a bit restless, 2 hours and 20 minutes is a looooong time without intermission. Other than that, really enjoyed myself, I hope it's successful. 

 

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 5/20/23 at 3:49pm

I was starting to fall asleep in the beginning because it was slow and dark, but I started to really enjoy it when Angelina and Ricky started to eat pizza and drink, and it only took off from there.  Lovely set.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 5/20/23 at 3:55pm

Really lovely set. I am often underwhelmed with Broadway sets yet some of these off Broadway houses have wonderful, rich looking set designs. Interesting. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 5/20/23 at 6:29pm

Playwrights always has such kick ass set design even in their smaller spaces. This sounds cool!

[HelenofTroyNY]

Posted: 5/21/23 at 10:30am

I saw the show last night (2nd preview I think) and was  entranced the whole way through. There were gasps in the audience on two separate occasions, which is refreshing to hear in a theater. Design was impeccable. A little dark, hope they’ll add more light. Running time: The show was definitely under 2 hours last night - I was out before 10pm (show started at 8)

[yyys]

Posted: 5/21/23 at 6:11pm

any idea of best seats and seats to avoid? I noticed some are being sold as partial view.

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 5/21/23 at 6:34pm

When were people gasping?

[Theater3232]

Posted: 5/22/23 at 11:34am

(Spoiler): Gasping due to a really gory scene.  A 2 hour slog/nap.  Not recommended.  The whole back of the theater was empty when I saw it.  Also bizarre how several brand-new Show-score reviewers gave it a score of 90 or above.  Out of the hundreds of shows they could review, they all just happened to join Show-score at the same time to rave about this show.  Amazing.

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 5/22/23 at 1:10pm

I've heard "liked it" and "hated it" for this.  

 

[yyys]

Posted: 5/28/23 at 4:51pm

It played for 90 min today.

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 5/29/23 at 2:07pm

Wow they've cut a lot or sped it up.  What did you think?

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 6/7/23 at 6:05pm

I saw it over the weekend and was a little mixed about this.  I don't think it's a spoiler to say that his play dips into sci-fi, and that does add a level of intrigue in the first half of the show, but I found the more grounded parts of the show the most interesting: the siblings' relationships with each other and with their father and how they each approached familial obligations.  I was sitting in the second row and there's a significant part of the show that takes place on the roof of the house, and while I don't think I missed anything important, it did feel a little uncomfortable being slightly obstructed, so if people are looking for seat recommendations, I'd recommend sitting around halfway back in the theater.

I'm really unsure what to make of the sci-fi parts of this, and would love to hear others' thoughts

 

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I felt like there was never a full payoff to all the hints leading up to the family room scene.  So Joe and Mona are aliens (or at least Joe believes so) who have come to inhabit Earth, and while Mona had died on Earth, she still remains elsewhere (possibly referenced by her return as Crystal).  I'm assuming that Joe's alcoholism/dementia are partially because of him trying to reconnect with Mona again, or maybe the result of living somewhere he's not native to?  I was trying really hard to assign meaning to things, but there were just so many things that happened that I can't even remember them all (I think Mona mentioned she never wanted to be a mother and that's why she hung herself?)