Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld.
Tony-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath’s THE THIN PLACE is an eerie meditation on grief, regret and the need for closure, though it is undermined by the lack of a satisfying conclusion…
Obie Award- and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning Hnath (“Red Speedo”; “A Doll’s House, Part 2”) carefully delineates each character with precise brushstrokes, and director Abigail Deser allows her performers to breathe into the spaces Hnath leaves. The only drawback is that the ending doesn’t land. There’s no sense of closure for any of the characters and while that may be the point – that there aren’t necessarily answers we can find about the other side – it still leaves one with a sense of dissatisfaction. It needn’t be tied up in a bow, but it would be beneficial to have a sense of an actual ending. Read more…
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw
On the page The Thin Place is a thoughtful drama, offering more than the story of a woman pursuing a ghost. As in The Christians, in which Hnath considers the unwillingness of certain “Christians” to renounce the concept of eternal damnation (even if it dooms a brave and honest boy to hellfire) The Thin Place illustrates how difficult it is for human beings to relinquish deeply embedded ideas…
But the production, directed by Abigail Deser, doesn’t do much for the text. One distraction is the choice to stage the play bleacher style, with the audience positioned on either side of the venue (scenic design by Deser, Amanda Knehans and Penni Auster). This forces attendees to pivot their heads each time characters address each other from opposite ends of the venue; more importantly, it dissipates the drama of their exchanges. At other times the action takes place in the center of the playing space, but we mostly see everyone in profile, which detracts from the dynamic as well. Read more…
Patrick Chavis – LA Theatre Bites
Echo Theater Company Presents: The Thin Place @ Atwater Village Theatre – 8.1 out of 10 – Good Show! LA Theatre Bites Recommended! More…
Terry Morgan – ArtsBeat LA
Plays concerning the supernatural or people attempting to communicate with the departed have been with us for a while, from Noël Coward’s comical Blithe Spirit to Prince Gomolvilas’ excellent recent The Brothers Paranormal. While not quite enough to constitute a subgenre, these shows persist, speaking to the human need for connection to people they have lost. Lucas Hnath, one of the best playwrights currently working, tries his hand in this genre with The Thin Place, but the results are uneven, satisfying neither as drama nor thriller. The Echo Theater Company’s current production features terrific performances and subtle design, but unfortunately it’s not quite enough to overcome the inherent problems with the writing. Read more…
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way
It’s a strange little play that really has no payoff, leaving the audience to determine what it was all about. Playwright Hnath, whose earlier plays Red Speedo, The Christians and A Doll’s House, Part 2 I admire, has let me down with this work. He has written speeches, not dialogue. He has written opinions, not characters. The play is not “spine-tingling” as it is billed. There is not much that the actors can do except go through their paces and deliver his words under Abigail Dreser’s direction. The play is not helped by the tennis-seating scenic design which sets the action in the middle of the space, with audiences staring at each other across the long playing space. They have to turn their heads from side to side as upstage actors serve dialogue to the downstage actors and vice versa. Even though the play is an intermission-less 90 minutes, it feels at least an hour too long. The thinnest space would seem to be Hnath’s script. Read more…