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.”
Without spoiling the new ending, Nwandu has concocted a more fantasy-like approach, embracing an Afrofuturistic style and a continuation of the magic realism that has already made sporadic appearances, and while there will be blood, its source might surprise. Even the cop is offered a chance at redemption as the set, designed by Wilson Chin, transforms from the stark urban purgatory - presided over by a streetlamp that looks more like the gallows in a game of Hangman - to something altogether more pastoral, more promised.
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.
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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