Review Roundup: KRAMER/FAUCI Now Playing at St. Ann’s Warehouse

Daniel Fish's Kramer/Fauci is now playing at St. Ann's Warehouse. In Kramer/Fauci, Will Brill stars opposite Thomas J. Ryan as Dr. Anthony Fauci in a theatrical exploration of the historic confrontation between Fauci and activist Larry Kramer during the AIDS crisis. See what the critics are saying about the production...

Helen Shaw, The New Yorker: It is piercingly relevant, and not just because Fauci, more than 30 years later, has been asked by Congress to defend his work in another plague. (“He is a man, an ordinary man who was being asked to play God, and he is being punished because he cannot be God,” says Kramer, at one point.) But the play also contains some emotional mystery that I can’t figure out. How is it so heartbreaking and so hopeful?

David Finkle, New York Stage Review: The actors do move throughout the hour, sometimes even occasionally leaving their stage. Late in the action, Ryan even grabs a broom in order to sweep up as much as he can of the still-bubbling foam. By the end—remember this is a transcript—no memorable resolutions are reached. On the other hand, a neatly resonant encounter has compellingly taken place.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: Much of the specific conversation in “Kramer/Fauci” is now out-of-date; little more than two years later, the development of protease inhibitors completely hanged the landscape of AIDS treatment. (It would have been useful to have a fact-based note in the program, updating their conversation.) But even the dozen callers into the program, whose comments range from passionate to supportive to ignorant, provide a glimpse into a parallel era of polarization over public health, even while actress Jennifer Seastone recites those comments in that chicken costume, or on roller skates.

Thom Geier, Culture Sauce: For all its verbal combativeness, Kramer/Fauci reminds us of a time when civilized discourse still flourished even among individuals publicly at odds with each other.

Christian Lewis, New York Theatre Guide: Fish deserves praise for conceiving this production and for some ingenious directorial touches. Most notably, mid-show, the actors wheel out a contraption that spits out an ever-expanding cloud of soap bubbles — symbolizing the pervasiveness of the AIDS crisis — as Kramer silently sits in a chair, slowly surrounded.

Sara Holdren, Vulture : As a piece of theater, the dialogue between the two men often lands on the heart like a wry, platonic romance — and the moments in which both take a stand against the bigotry of some of Seastone’s callers are suddenly and acutely poignant.

Stuart Miller, Theater Pizzazz: But this production fails to fully hold your attention, even for an hour in part because they are talking points not fleshed-out characters and in part because Kramer and Fauci repeat the same points and then are forced (as are we) to listen to boring clips played by the moderator (Greig Sargeant) and frustrating questions and comments from callers (Jennifer Seastone). The best twenty minutes of it would have been plenty. The performers are all fine and Ryan’s emotional ups and downs grab you, but they all stumble over lines occasionally and I can’t tell if that’s on purpose because the real people had those hiccups or because they were really botching a few lines.

Average Rating: 71.4%