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.”
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.
The magnetic Hill and Smallwood infuse Moses and Kitch with exuberant physicality; though they create distinct characters, the ineffable, mutual dependence they conjure is their chief accomplishment. Ebert applies a freewheeling buffoonery to Mister and, later, an opposite dimension of cruel menace to his other role, a policeman who under stress will undergo a dramatic conversion.
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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