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.”
The dialogue is sharp, funny, and unflinching, and the performances are extraordinary. Hill and Smallwood (in his Broadway debut) are deft and winning, and they imbue their talky parts with a dynamic, nearly acrobatic physicality. Ebert is unctuously oily in his two roles. And director Danya Taymor, together with designers Wilson Chin (scenery), Sarafina Bush (costumes), and Marcus Doshi (lighting), create a world that is bleak and haunting, until it suddenly and unexpectedly turns vibrant and lush.
Nwandu's theatrical idiom - the heartsick poetry of profanity applied to the raging anger of deep existential pain - is its own kind of beautiful. There's something blood-boiling about the men's casual revelations of personal suffering, pointed cruelty and the underlying social injustice of systemic racism. This playwright's voice can be a joy to hear, and her language is often blistering.
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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