"All the women describe the holes left in their lives by violence, gaps into which they feel they can still fall at any moment...A society’s imprisoning silence has been torn open for them...The feeling of having being erased keeps coming up as these women speak. In 'Nirbhaya,' it would seem, they are restoring themselves — and the woman of the play’s title — into visibility."
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"The most harrowing theatrical experience currently in New York....One doesn't walk away with the sense that any of these women are victims: They are survivors. 'Nirbhaya' boldly brings their stories out of the shadows, where far too many abuse victims languish. It's a worthwhile journey, if you're willing to take it."
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"The effect of witnessing 'Nirbhaya' unfold can only be marginally described or captured... Each story and connecting every narrative thread, the work tugs, goads, and surges through like dazzling light, even blinding an impassive critic. A poignant song, perfect in its poetry."
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"If you realize that your heart has momentarily stopped beating and you are holding your breath, then you will indisputably be eliciting the appropriately human response. Your fellow audience members are likely joining you in this awestruck silence...It is not hyperbolic to proclaim that this may well be the most important and imperishable pieces I have seen in my twenty plus year history of New York City theater."
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"'Nirbhaya' delivered the emotions that many plays with similarly powerful plots failed to, without sounding like a therapy session...Every single scene...was well thought giving just the right sense of reality without going to the revolting reenactment of it. The play ended beautifully with a powerful portrayal of a martyr that started changes through a groundbreaking work of performing arts."
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"'Nirbhaya' is billed as a play, but a more accurate summation would be that it is a testimonial built upon affirmations...'Nirbhaya' is an outstanding and emotionally devastating work that bellows to urgently promote women’s rights...The stirring created by 'Nirbhaya', both the person and the performance, will hopefully lead to a further cultural awakening."
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"Whilst the piece overall is well-conceived, some of her choices are a little uninspired...Despite its small flaws 'Nirbhaya' is certainly one of the stand-out shows of this year’s festival: timely, urgent and entirely fearless.
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"There is so much emotion surrounding Yael Farber's 'Nirbhaya' that it may be beyond criticism...It is undeniably powerful and unbearably harrowing...It gives us the tools to empathise, but not the tools to take action. In an intimate venue with the opportunity for discussion afterwards, 'Nirbhaya' could start to change the world; playing to hundreds at a time with no audience aftercare, it veers dangerously close to well-meaning theatrical misery memoir."
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