Praise for The Spoils: A New York Times Critics' Pick Winner of the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation Theatre Visions Fund Award "A worthy ... contribution to the immortal gallery of black-hole masochists that stretches from Dostoevsky's Underground Man to the dubious heroes of Richard Greenberg plays and Noah Baumbach movies... While Ben would surely say The Spoils is all ... Read moreabout Ben, Mr. Eisenberg has seen fit to surround his leading narcissist with characters who live and breathe and react independently ... His clever, frantic dialogue assumes an irresistible authenticity."
Ben Brantley, New York Times (NYT Critics' Pick) "The excellent writer and performer Jesse Eisenberg ... has written his biggest play to date, and his most interesting... Part of the power of this two-act work is that we don't get much of Ben's background... We have to rely on our conflicting feelings during the run of the story to make Ben out. That's the kind of work audiences should enjoy, and have more of."
Hilton Als, New Yorker "Jesse Eisenberg has quietly established himself as an off-Broadway scribe ... The Spoils is equal parts comedy and morality tale."
Wall Street Journal "Rings achingly true for anyone who's grown up in a distorted prism of wealth ... There's a rawness that pulsates through both acts of this tautly constructed play that makes for a thrilling experience ... [A] brutally funny and deeply moving work."
Huffington Post "Jesse Eisenberg's new play is a triumph ... In it he takes his familiar avatar to its logical conclusion, going from oddball to sociopath... It's rewarding to see Eisenberg fully commit to Ben's craziness... We can't wait to see what he'll do next."
New York Post "The Spoils is Eisenberg's best work to date ... A strangely compelling look at young New Yorkers struggling to achieve their professional ambitions and hold on to their personal identities and values."
AM New York "[A] terrific, fast-talking, quick-witted serious comedy ... beautifully written ... Eisenberg writes funny, but he is also a real storyteller
moody and dangerous and even loving."
Newsday "The Spoils isn't just a moral play, it's also a comic one ... crackling dialogue and tete
a
tetes. The banter packs a solid dinner party's worth of wit and poignancy."
EntertainmentWeekly.com "The dialogue sounds absolutely authentic ... with just the kind of running jokes a group of smart friends would have."
Philadelphia Inquirer "The Spoils quickly grabs our interest and sustains it... Eisenberg has created an intriguing and provocatively emotional group of characters."
Huffington Post "Ben is both repellent and riveting. He's a self-dramatizing tragedy: a terror and a pity."
Time Out New York "Eisenberg proves himself an astute chronicler of millennial misery, satisfying a dramatic craving we didn't realize we were having until the lights went down. It's refreshing to see a play that speaks to this generation of young people."
TheaterMania "The perfect balance of humor and heartbreak. Jesse has a very unique set of skills both as a talented writer and a talented actor. Mostly you will have one or the other. He has both."
Kunal Nayyar Praise for The Revisionist: "Strange, wonderful and utterly unmatchable moments ... Eisenberg ... has written a beguilingly layered role."
Ben Brantley, The New York Times "Vanessa Redgrave is offering her costar Jesse Eisenberg an education not even the world's finest drama school could provide... [Eisenberg] is an emerging talent."
Los Angeles Times "It says a lot about Eisenberg
his extreme decency and his extreme neurosis
that the avatars he's created for the stage are sadder and less admirable than the sly, nebbishy parts he's played in movies. But that's always been the fascinating paradox of Eisenberg's life, the source of his strange charisma. He got into acting because it gave him a script at a time when he never knew what to say. Now his growing success only leaves him more exposed, his skin as thin as ever. It's a paradox he should probably explore further, especially now that he's writing scripts of his own."
Boris Kachka, New York Magazine "[Eisenberg] has a wry ear and a knack for unsentimental poignance that keep The Revisionist emotionally compelling. And to his credit, he avoids the tidy, comforting ending that his latest work could have accommodated, opting instead to raise uneasy questions about what Maria and David might have learned
or sacrificed
during their short time together."
USA Today "It's a very extraordinary play. You can tell that straight off, after only two pages... I could see that there were extraordinary histories that had produced these two [characters], who are so unalike... [Eisenberg] reminds me of [the poet] Shelley. I don't know if I can put it into words. A very inquiring mind, interested in everything and everybody. This is quite unusual. A very unique quality as an actor too."
Vanessa Redgrave "A potent consideration of the nature of family ... The Revisionist proves [Eisenberg] to be an imaginative playwright who's not afraid to ask his audience to work."
Backstage "A rewarding account of cultural collision that yields unexpected reflections on the centrality of family in our lives
whether we idealize them or take them for granted... As a playwright, Eisenberg's intentions seem clear. He takes a critical swipe at himself, and by extension, his entitled generation... Stage acting doesn't get much better."
Hollywood Reporter "Eisenberg ... plays an antic, obnoxious young New York author who has come to stay in a city near the Baltic with Redgrave's Maria, a distant Polish cousin, in a vain effort to overcome writer's block. The gulf of experience and language between them provides for comic moments but the theme is isolation."
The Financial Times "Getting to watch Redgrave in a tiny house was a highlight of the season and Eisenberg's plot had a twist that still resonates months later."
Blogcritics.org "It's a pure joy to watch Redgrave and Eisenberg as they spar, tiff and laugh together... This small, unassuming play about large themes
survival, loneliness, family, empathy
offers plenty to think about, thanks to deeply human portrayals of two lost souls who connect, albeit only for a moment."
Broad Street Review "The manner in which this old woman harbors a secret past and deals with the complicated feelings aroused by her selfish young relative has given Redgrave an opportunity to put her full complement of gifts on display. When Maria's patience finally wears thin at David's antic behavior, she explodes in anger."
Play by Play "Most of us are familiar with Jesse Eisenberg for his portrayal as Mark Zuckerberg in the film The Social Network, and some for his first entre as a playwright with last season's Asuncion as part of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. This latest endeavor at the Cherry Lane Theatre puts a new spin on self-absorption and downright nasty behavior."
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