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Cock Reviews
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Great Play, Outstanding Actors! Review by: ashley, Aug 20, 2012 |
This is a very special show, I recommend it! The actors are superb. At some point you forget they are actors and just feel like you are watching an actual scene in the charcters' lives. The theater is round and built in a unique and intimate way, which makes you feel like you are part of the scenery.
The actors are so talented. You really feel their deliberations, struggles and feelings. I really recommend this show! It was wonderful. |
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My recommendation:
must see!
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a masterpiece Review by: stan, Aug 10, 2012 |
If I had to choose one word to describe the theatrical reaction form seeing the play it would be "glorious" and secondly its unpredictability. It caught my eye because it won an Olivier award and emanates from the very excellent Royal Court Theatre in London. Two months after seeing it, I am still on air--the play lingers very strongly--and I still rave to friends about seeing it: It is very very witty--laugh out loud witty--yet it will also ... read more reduce you to tears it is so moving. Easily the very best play I have seen in New York in the last ten years.The script is so superb that you hang onto every syllable as if it was a gem. The dialogue is riveting, compelling,. and REAL, unpredictable and you hang on because you really care about each of these characters. Very stagy--could never work as a film--but there is no vulgarity, nudity or gimmickry. Simply superb, the same calibre of acting and direction as the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, or in France the Comedie Francais.
The only other play that equals it in its own way is the current War Horse. Both are entirely original and both reduce you to tears, because the level of excellence commands you to well up.War Horse is spectacular, and this is a tiny intimate experience without sets, lighting, costume of note,It is breathtaking and in my opinion, a masterpiece. |
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I strongly recommend you see it Review by: Tom Bestor, Jun 10, 2012 |
I'd like to say that "Cock" is the story of a headstrong rooster who takes charge in the barnyard in order to thwart the efforts of the farmer to do away with the rooster's best friend, a lovable lamb named Blossom or some such. But even though the cover of the Playbill for this play currently running at The Duke on 42nd Street is a drawing of a rooster, the cock in question is exactly the kind that probably sprang to mind when you first read ... read more the word.
To tell you the truth, I don't actually want "Cock" to be the story of a headstrong rooster - or anything else - because it's an absolutely riveting play.
The story is relatively simple and straightforward: a gay couple has relationship difficulties when one of the pair meets a woman, has a fling with her and can't decide which one he ought to be with. It's not the story that makes "Cock" such a wonderful play - it's the characters and the acting and the staging that lift "Cock" to greatness.
I won't go on about the characters, because that would be revealing too much. What I will say is that every actor (there are four) gives a powerful, nuanced performance. However, I must call out the work of Jason Butler Harner in the role of M. (No, this is not a Bond film.) M is half the gay couple - the cuckolded half, the one who learns that his partner has fallen/is falling (perhaps) for a woman. His performance is both subtle and and outsized - in exactly the right proportion. This allows him to be both forceful and vulnerable when he delivers lines like, "You said we would be together no matter what. And this is what."
The staging is so simple that it's almost not there. The theater has been set up as an amphitheater, with a 12-foot (or so) circle in the center. (NOTE: there are five rows in the amphitheater, but only the top row has a back you can lean against.) There are no props, no set and no costume changes - although some are referred to.
From a thematic standpoint, there is a strong undercurrent of sexuality as a choice. Is John (the character torn between two people) gay? Straight? Bi? How much choice does he really have in the matter? Does choice matter in terms of sexuality? In other words, even if it were a choice, why should that make any difference in the way we treat each other as individuals or as members of a community?
These are questions you will have to answer for yourself - and I strongly recommend you see "Cock" in order to get the conversation started.
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| * Review is an opinion of a BroadwayBox user and not that of BroadwayBox.com and BroadwayBox, Inc. |
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