The reviews are in for Aftermath, the first Off-Broadway play by David Zax, a former freelance reporter who has written about a young journalist recovering at his parents’ home in Washington after escaping Taliban captivity. Colton Pometta directs the New York premiere for The InterCircle, which opened on Saturday, October 24, at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres. The critics part company over the script, which most of them find heavy with exposition and strained by its late revelations, but they come close to agreement on the acting: Steven Skybell, as the lobbyist father, is singled out in five of the six notices, while Jill Stern, as the mother, draws the most reservations.
The verdict: six reviews in so far, and none of the six outlets publishes a star rating, though Interludes files it as recommended. The warmest notices come from The New York Sun, which thinks the play gathers force after a slow start, and Interludes, which says it rewards patience; TheaterMania finds it clumsy but more pointed about privilege than the Broadway family drama it is up against. Talkin' Broadway admires the acting more than the storytelling, while New York Theater and Theater Pizzazz both judge the script too flawed to land. Where they come closest to agreement is Steven Skybell’s Allan, praised in five of the six. The New York Times has not reviewed it.
What are critics saying about Aftermath?
TheaterMania
"A Rich Family Confronts Their Privilege in Aftermath"
Reviewer: Kenji Fujishima
Fujishima is the critic most ready to argue for the play’s ideas, rating it well below the starry Broadway revival of Other Desert Cities for craft, yet finding it sharper on money and liberal good intentions, and putting its drift toward soap opera down to overwriting and a surplus of foreshadowing.
"Whenever Skybell is onstage, Zax’s play shows a genuinely provocative edge that transcends its schematic morality-play trappings."
Fujishima also admires Awesta Zarif and Danny Kornfeld, names Stern as the weak link, and finds Pometta’s staging stiff.
The New York Sun
"Privilege Meets Its Reckoning in ‘Aftermath’"
Reviewer: Elysa Gardner
Gardner sees Josh as a new model of the guilt-ridden rich kid and thinks the play grows more absorbing once its secrets begin to surface. Zax is credited with a surer grasp of structure than of dialogue, and the early family scenes are found weighed down by explanation.
"Whatever its imperfections, the play reinforces that message quite powerfully."
The review calls the direction earnest but stiff, is unconvinced by Stern, and praises the depth Skybell brings to the father and the poise of Zarif’s off-Broadway debut.
Talkin' Broadway
Reviewer: Moshe A. Bloxenheim
Bloxenheim calls it a fine production with some wonderful acting, but argues that the way Zax doles out the revelations stretches the play’s credibility and leaves the storytelling messy, even if the twists do draw gasps from the house.
"Even with these issues, the cast of Aftermath does some amazing work."
The review is warmest about Kornfeld, Skybell and Zarif, more divided on Stern, and admires Chen-Wei Liao’s two-level set under Lucrecia Briceño’s lighting, though some of the build-ups to the big confrontations are found slow.
New York Theater
Reviewer: Jonathan Mandell
Mandell measures the play against Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and finds it well short. The review points to convenient exits and other signs of a first-time dramatist, argues that Josh’s quarrels with his father make a seasoned war reporter sound adolescent, and thinks the play makes too little of the kidnapping itself.
"All four of the cast members of “Aftermath” are reliable stage veterans who often transcend the limitations of the script…"
It is the actors, not the writing, that Mandell credits with the evening’s strongest moments.
Theater Pizzazz
"“Aftermath”: A Difficult Family Drama"
Reviewer: Ron Fassler
Fassler is the hardest on the play, finding holes in the plot, an opening scene thick with exposition and a 100-minute evening that feels long, and is critical of Kornfeld and Stern while crediting Zarif with poise. The review ends by setting it against the plays that feel like life rather than theater:
"Aftermath is not one of those plays."
The exception is Skybell, who in Fassler’s view carries the production single-handed; the design, Chen-Wei Liao’s set in particular, also earns praise.
Interludes
"Truth and deception explored in two new Off-Broadway dramas"
Reviewer: Adrian Dimanlig · Recommended
Writing about the play alongside Machine Learning, Dimanlig recommends it. The review finds the first half slow to hand over its information but says the revelations gather real momentum, and places it in the line of Miller’s All My Sons and Donald Margulies’s Time Stands Still.
"As such, Zax’s one-act play rewards patience."
Dimanlig singles out Skybell and Kornfeld, calls Stern and Zarif steady, and the only reservation about the staging is some awkward movement across the two-tier set.
Before opening night we published the first production photos from Aftermath. For more of what the New York critics have been saying, read our roundups for Machine Learning at Manhattan Neighborhood Network and The Bald Soprano at the Sheen Center.
Aftermath runs at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres, 502 West 53rd Street, through Sunday, November 8. The running time is 1 hour 40 minutes without an intermission. Production photos by Marc J. Franklin.
