| Share your thoughts on THE OVERWHELMING
by Chelsea Keenan on 4/30/2009 03:01:00 PM
The Overhwhelming is playing to sold-out houses and we're hearing feedback from many of you about this powerful play.
Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune called this " one of the very best shows in the 28-year history of Nex" and Hedy Weiss of the Sun-Times hailed the show as "a volcanic Chicago premiere" and a "brilliantly realized production."
What did you take away from this production? Share your comments below with us and with each other.
Be aware - some SPOILERS below!
Labels: Critics, The Overwhelming
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I moved here from Boston after having lived just outside of NYC for several years. Boston was/is a wasteland, but Chicago makes up for my time in the hicksville wilderness after NYC.
NYC may have Boradway, but Chicago has a strong vibrant theater scene.
Nowhere has that been more obvious than in being able to see a play the quality of "The Overwhelming." With great actors, great pacing, great nuanced story, minimliat staging, and a relentness sub-surface tension, it was better than we had a right to expect.
Bravo.
JHL
THE OVERWHELMING is the first show I've seen at the Next Theatre. At first my mind was reeling back to 1994, putting the pieces of the inevitable catastrophe in Rwanda back in my head. As the characters were introduced and the panels slid to reveal a new location, I sat there, tense in my seat, knowing this whole landscape was about to explode. I suppose Clinton knew that too.
I thoroughly enjoyed the play. The performances were sharp and the direction and design were truly inspired. That second act comes firing at you almost cinematically. Bravo.
-Laura Lynn MacDonald
The play is very well done, engaging, and horrifying. A grand reminder of American innocence, naivete, and arrogance. We enjoyed it but did find the noise level to be way too high, especially before the performance and during intermission. That was not necessary to create the effect; it actually caused me pain.
BDW.
Unfortunately, my party of four was disappointed in the play. The view
was that the message was dated and
superficial. Perhaps this play has a
message for those who are not familiar with the issues described in the play. But we'll be back for
others!huffeckprepoksdoszoi
The Overwhelming was captivating, entertaining, and a joy to watch. The sets were great, the actors were outstanding, and the story was complex yet an adrenaline rush. I highly recommend this play to anyone.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, I was hesitant to stay inside and watch a play, but had heard such good things about "The Overwhelming" that I didn't want to miss it. And I'm glad I didn't! The play was phenomenal. The acting, dialogue, direction, everything. I have recommended it to any one who will listen and am still thinking about all the issues and thoughts it brought to mind. Truly a wonderful performance.
We saw the "The Overwhelming" on Saturday night, awesome! What stays with me the most was how emotionally intense the play was from start to finish. The feeling of menace was woven in all of the scenes between the visiting family and the locals. All that stuff going on between the lines. I wanted to scream at the Exleys “Can’t you see what’s going on?!!?” but well then, that is the point. Nobody did.
Political, timely, and just damn good theatre. Bravo to the playwright, actors, director thanks for another great piece!
I thought that the Next Theatre did a brilliant job with the play, but I have to find fault with the playwright for the final scene. In that scene, the Rawanda guys burst in to the Americans' rooms and demand they give up the doctor who is standing there in plain sight. The playwright makes it seem like the Americans betray the doctor by "giving him up" or laying a guilt trip on the Americans. That's silly. The Rawanda men don't even need their weapons to overpower the Americans and just grab the doctor. I suppose the playwright wanted it to be so dramatic, but it doesn't make semse. Better, would be if the doctor was hiding in the house when they burst in, and t hey threatened to shoot the boy if they didn't surrender him. Then, the doctor could have appeared and given himelf up. Still dramatic, but believable -- unless the playwright wanted to throw guilt on the Americans. But he can't have it both ways.
The play was outstanding! The cast was outstanding! The first act sets everything up. The second act brings it all together. It is very intense and when it ends you sit there at a loss for words. Excellent production and it can hold its own against anything that is on Broadway! Congrats to all connected with this amazing play!
Carol Garbacz
Tries too hard to imitate the movie. Are we supposed to be shocked about the genocide? Anguished? What?
I didn't like The Overwhelming as much as I expected to after reading Chris Jones' review. But the fault was with the play, not the production. The American characters were naive to a fault, and we learned little about Rwanda except that we don't understand it. By contrast, Lynn Nottage's play "Ruined" (admittedly set in a different African country under siege) gave insight the lives and motivations of those living through horrors. But I will take away from this production a few compelling performances, especially by the young actor who played Gerard. His scenes with "Geoffrey" were the most exciting, unsettling moments in the play.
A phenomenal show with a stellar ensemble cast... the pacing of the show,the transitions from one scene to another are first-rate. This is adult fare for the serious theater-goer. Not to be missed!!
I responded to the issues tackled. One of the more interesting to me and one that I have thought about before is why do we always have to label "blacks" or "African-Americans." Even the professor's wife couldn't figure out herself.
The acting was wonderful, a great melding of multiple parts.
The ending was disappointing. I thought I would get hammered emotionally, but wound up facing a let down. The other posted comment on this was "right on."
I think some of the other plays NEXT produced this year and recent years were better, but just didn't get the raves. It shows how valuable (unfortunately) the critics are.
JAW
The Overwhelming is the first play I've seen at Next in a while, and I'm sorry I stayed away for so long - Next consistently produces interesting works with a very strong social conscience. The Overwhelming was very well-acted and I enjoyed it a lot.
That said, I didn't think it was an incredibly well-written play. Again, the production itself was very good, and I have no doubt the playwrite put huge amounts of research into his writings. But it did feel like a very white, Western perspective trying to pretend it wasn't a very white, Western perspective. That is, having the Americans as sympathetic characters for the (presumably) mostly-American audience makes sense to some extent, but I left with only a superficial idea of what the Rawandans thought of their situation and whether the views they were putting out were truthful or in an attempt to deceive the Americans.
Now, it's entirely possible that this was the whole point - we can't understand another's conflict. But I would have much rather seen something from multiple Rawandan perspectives to get a better idea of how they remember the leadup to genocide.
I had both my wife and a friend from NYC in town and took them to see this play - I'd already seen it.
It was as compelling this time as the first time. Its lack of finality or easy moral answers reinforced its attraction and thoughtfulness.
We live through ongoing episodes of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The world's, not just the US's, generally muted response to genocide beyond hand-wringing should be discomfitting to us all. When we are compelled to act or lobby our nation to act, then we will have made some progress.
Until then, plays such as "The Overwhelming" at least keep the issue front and center.
It's not "42nd Street", but it's engaging.
Thanks again.
The play was every bit as good as the reviews suggested. The moral ambiguities and situational complexities were beautifully dramatized. Unfortunately, the night we were there it was so hot in the theater that fighting wooziness was a full-time job. Work on the HVAC---the play's great!
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