Is God Is @Soho Rep

[Relevance81491]

Posted: 2/5/18 at 11:01pm

There is some significant buzz around this new play that begins previews this week

"Is God Is is a modern myth about twin sisters who sojourn from the Dirty South to the California desert to exact righteous revenge.

Winner of the 2016 Relentless Award, Aleshea Harris collides the ancient, the modern, the tragic, the Spaghetti Western, and Afropunk in this darkly funny and unapologetic world premiere."

 

Early reports are appreciated as always

[cjmclaughlin10]

Posted: 2/9/18 at 11:06pm

Anyone????

[SchuylWERKsister]

Posted: 2/10/18 at 2:24pm

It’s a very strange play, but it’s very good. There are some amazing performances, but overall it’s poorly directed. The play is so strange and so poorly directed that I fear that people will walk away from it thinking that the play itself is bad, it’s not. This production is a misfire. It’s not a play that just anyone can direct no matter how skilled the director may be. It requires a very particular sense of humor and understanding of the community represented in the text. If you go, go to enjoy a few good performances and to hear the strength of this deliciously weird play. Try to separate the writing from the production. I hope that this production doesn’t short change the life of the play.

Updated On: 2/10/18 at 02:24 PM

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 2/10/18 at 3:59pm

Having not seen this production, I can attest to the fact that it is a very weird play. It was published in book form, and the way the author stylized the text with font, punctuation, and size really brought a sense of emotion to the act of reading the piece. I was really wondering how they could translate that to the stage when he audience is not reading the text, but seeing it. It makes me sad to hear the production is poorly directed, becaue I think we need these new forms in contemporary theatre.

[Relevance81491]

Posted: 2/18/18 at 11:20pm

The raves are pouring in 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/theater/is-god-is-review.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftheater

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/is-god-is

CONGRADULATIONS SOHO REP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BakerWilliams]

Posted: 2/20/18 at 3:38pm

I'm not seeing this for a few weeks, but it's very obvious from the published text that SoHo Rep is simply far too small a space to stage this play properly. I would imagine it needs something like the Vivian Beaumont to really allow for the epic-ness that the text is going for.

[Synecdoche2]

Posted: 3/22/18 at 5:02pm

An improper mash-up of writer/director prevents this from really taking off, but it's funny and dark and very different from the rest of theatre around nowadays. 

Nehassaiu deGannes is fantastic, as is Jessica Frances Dukes. The rest of the cast ranges from decent to mixed. The set is a very cool idea but the cramped physical space prevents the play from really breathing for a very long time.