"Putting across so many medical factoids and bits of real stories has the paradoxical effect of diminishing a sense of emotional truth...The shape of the storytelling tends toward the conventional. Yet when uncomfortable scenes are allowed to develop naturally, real comedy, mixed with sadness, emerges...Under Mr. Paris’s sometimes inventive but sometimes awkward direction, there is too much information pressing in from all sides."
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"Tectonic Theater Project’s moving and at times surprisingly funny play about autism. Playwrights Paris-Carter and Paris offer four nonintersecting but mutually resonant stories...Paris’s direction uses multimedia effects to convey the overwhelming sensory onslaught that several of the characters feel...A compassionate and nuanced work that eschews stereotypes, maudlin arcs, and pat resolutions, 'Uncommon Sense' invites us to experience a diverse and vibrant spectrum instead."
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"The acting is strong from top to bottom, but the characters often feel like paper-thin shells...We're invested in the successes and failures of each of the characters who suffer with varying degrees of autism, and can viscerally feel the weight on the shoulders of their loved ones. But the further we travel through their stories, the more 'Uncommon Sense' feels like an academic presentation on the expansive breadth of the autism spectrum. "
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“Paris' cast is nimble, often treating the material with more delicacy than it seems to merit...The elephant in the room at ‘Uncommon’ is ‘Curious Incident’, which so fluently used lighting, sound, and projections to get us inside the head of a kid with autism. Nothing in ‘Uncommon’ is so accomplished...In trying to tell four stories, the authors do justice to none... It's too bad, because there are some hard, compelling truths here; this material deserves nothing less than their very best.”
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"Allows audiences to see a range of behaviors associated with autism...The play is frequently funny, but not at the expense of the characters. And while it shows many victories, it also doesn't wrap everything up nicely or shy away from the problems that people on the spectrum face in romantic and other relationships. But the design elements take a pretty good script and bring it to another level."
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“The…complex, carefully crafted, but easy-to-follow structure allows for telling the stories by interweaving them, creating a mosaic…of experiences encountered by autistic people and their loved ones. The production allows both tears and laughs to flow…Apart from the autism angle, the stories are not particularly surprising. Still, the playwrights…are to be applauded for providing a non-maudlin, entertaining, and accessible approach to informing us about autism and the people it affect.”
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“The…complex, carefully crafted, but easy-to-follow structure allows for telling the stories by interweaving them, creating a mosaic…of experiences encountered by autistic people and their loved ones. The production allows both tears and laughs to flow…Apart from the autism angle, the stories are not particularly surprising. Still, the playwrights…are to be applauded for providing a non-maudlin, entertaining, and accessible approach to informing us about autism and the people it affect.”
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“An exceptional piece of theatrical craft, with strong performances across the board and every element of design working in harmony with Paris’s staging...In paying attention to the differences among the characters with autism and their connections with others, rather than their isolation and difference from neuro typical people, ‘Uncommon Sense’ brings welcome complexity to the dialogue, and does so with elegant theatricality.”
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