Review Roundup: OUT OF TIME at the Public Theater

NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company) is presenting the world premiere production of OUT OF TIME at The Public Theater. OUT OF TIME is written by Jaclyn Backhaus, Sam Chanse, Mia Chung, Naomi Iizuka, and Anna Ouyang Moench, Commissioned and Produced by NAATCO, and Conceived and Directed by Les Waters. This world premiere opened just last night and runs through Sunday, March 13.

The seasoned cast of OUT OF TIME includes Mia Katigbak (Ena; NAATCO Co-Founder and Actor-Manager), Glenn Kubota (Taki), Page Leong (Woman), Natsuko Ohama (Leonie), and Rita Wolf (Carla).

The Public and The National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) join forces in presenting OUT OF TIME, a collection of brand-new monologues by five award-winning Asian American Playwrights, performed by an ensemble of actors all over the age of 60. Conceived and directed by Obie Award-winning director Les Waters and commissioned by NAATCO, OUT OF TIME is a theatrical tapestry exploring age, memory, parenthood, and identity in moving new works by writers Jaclyn Backhaus, Sam Chanse, Mia Chung, Naomi Iizuka, and Anna Ouyang Moench.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

---

Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times: The five performers are Asian American actors, all over 60, deep into careers in which their odds of working have been far tougher than for their white contemporaries. In "Out of Time," they step into the frame - figuratively speaking, mostly - to tell wide-ranging stories that touch on grief and heritage and the pandemic, on adult children and cultural cancellation, on making art and pulling off an optical illusion.

David Finkle, New York Stage Review: ...it can be said of Out of Time that five people are only airing problems significant to themselves and, from one perspective, are no more than momentarily involving as their outpourings pass. And I thoroughly enjoyed them as they went by on a modest set that designer DOTS sent out: chairs, a lectern, a screen, and artistically adaptable curtains. "Enjoyed" is probably the wrong verb. The mostly grim speeches were engaging without sticking to the memory as a strong dramatic plot does. Now, however, having refreshed my memory with the script, I know why each monologue, rendered by a person of a certain age, has something worthwhile to impart and why each soloist-as she or he enlivens the authors' observations-is working in top form.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: As a whole, "Out of Time" has admirable aims - to showcase older actors, and tell the stories of Asian-Americans. Each performance is persuasive. Coincidentally or not, each monologue contains at least one extended observation/quirky fact that's humorous, fascinating or profound (or all three.) In theory, the pieces should work at least as well together as the online anthology series that were popular during the pandemic lockdown (such as the Homebound Project, Viral Monologues, and #WhileWeBreathe), uplifting for the artists as much as for the audience. Some of them were organized around a theme, or a prompt, but even these allowed the individual artists to roam wherever they wanted.

Juan A. Ramirez, Theatrely: The five monologues performed in Out of Time benefit from committed performances by talented, world-wise actors. The production's greatest asset is its emphasis on a multiplicity of voices, instead of the usual commercial inclination to make a monolith out of marginalized identities. Time is given, space is held, and attention is earned - an elemental experience of listening and understanding.

Howard Miller, Talkin Broadway: Staged monologues are terribly tricky forms, the theatrical equivalent of short stories. If everything does not fall exactly into place, they risk coming off as self-aggrandizing ego-trips, or perhaps as unrelenting confessionals in which the audience pays for the privilege of being surrogate psychotherapists. To be truly effective, the writing and the performances must be thoroughly gripping, for no matter their length, they are plays after all. Boldly joining this realm is Out of Time, a presentation of the National Asian American Theater Company (NAATCO) opening tonight at The Public Theater as a showcase for not one, not two, but five separate pieces. Each monologue has been written by an Asian American playwright and all five are being performed by Asian American actors, purposely selected from among those over the age of 60.

Juan Michael Porter II, New York Theatre Guide: At two and a half hours long in total, most of these monologues could have benefited from stricter editing, but a?? memento mori: each performer is over 60 years old. Though time is the one thing we cannot replace, after listening to each character speak, I felt that their earned wisdom might spare me future pain. That is the gist of Out of Time. These individual characters all wish to impart lessons as atonement for their failings. With the exception of Sam Chanse's "Disturbance Specialist," they manage to avoid didacticism. Though one can even forgive this faux pas, as she has penned a scorching yet compassionate send-off for once-lauded elders who have tripped into the zeitgeist of cancellation vs. accountability.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

To post a comment, you must register and login.