"'7 Minutes' is smart. It’s also chilly, as if someone has run the air conditioning at full. And while the documentary framing lends it currency, it can feel familiar...In this production, directed by Mei Ann Teo, ideas dominate, with character consistently subordinated to debate. This is partly a problem of translation...Waterwell’s version uproots it to Connecticut, but without any real feeling of place or circumstance. It could be anywhere...The stronger actors — Marshall-Oliver and Davenport among them — can fill in these blanks, but the weaker ones struggle to flesh out the women and nonbinary workers behind the words."
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"It’s not much of an argument at first—only Linda (Ebony Marshall-Oliver), the committee’s spokesperson, who has relayed this offer, has a problem with the idea initially. What unfolds, however, is less a comment on class struggle than a disquisition on how difficult it is to transmit a small, nagging thought from one mind to the next. Marshall-Oliver, a brilliant, methodical performer, reveals that gentle strain, transcending a sometimes awkward text."
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But even if you think you know where 7 Minutes is headed -- and you don't, thanks to a nifty last-minute twist -- the line of Linda's argument easily reels one in…Indeed, you'll feel the crackle as Linda gradually forces the others to consider the unthinkable, that in agreeing to this small concession they may be unwittingly collaborating in their long-term ruination…the entire cast, consisting of women and gender-nonconforming performers, keeps things simmering until the final vote.
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On one level the play is very much like Reginald Rose’s 12 Angry Men in which a group of disparate people must also make a life or death decision. However, unlike that play, the characters in 7 Minutes are not clearly delineated so that we do not know where many of them stand or who they are. While the production directed by Mei Ann Teo is absorbing for most of its running time placing us in the room where it happens, her staging having the actors move about a great deal makes it difficult to keep most of the 11 women separate from each other.
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"4.25/5...The play’s dialogue is special. You are witnessing real, raw emotion traded by factory walkers who, while they may seem different from one another, share the desire to keep their jobs and pay their bills. Herein lies the genius of this play. Massini captures people’s needs, fears, hopes, and grit, as they perceive a threat to their livelihood with backs against the wall in a timed exercise...It has great potential to migrate to Broadway and beyond, so catch it while you can in this intimate setting."
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