"'Neighborhood 3,' never convincingly inhabits either of its principal settings — the green grassy world of the all-American suburbs or its creepy computer-rendered counterpart…This work still appears to take place on that flat, in-between zone of creativity commonly known as the drawing board…Ms. Haley pursues the idea through a series of vignettes that reiterate this central concept without ever truly developing it."
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"'Neighborhood 3' is cheap-and-cheerful postcollege community theater; Jennifer Haley's script is a bagatelle, a brief and uncomplicated guignol about a video game gone wrong. It also feels long at 70 minutes...Basically, everybody here is learning, which I'd normally celebrate. But then that ticket price sticks in my craw. I guess it comes down to one question: Would you pay big money to watch a noob play Fallout 4? If so, boy, I've got the show for you."
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"Jennifer Haley’s genuinely frightening script is toying with dark ideas about adolescent rage, virtual realities, and American conformity, which only grow more disquieting as the play lingers in the mind. (It’s hard not to make the grim connection between the play’s young killers and the real world’s Internet-indoctrinated teen-age mass murderers.) Joel Schumacher, directs the Flea’s house ensemble with black humor and a bare-bones aesthetic. The performances vary, but the horror is real."
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"A thought-provoking piece undercut by its amateurish presentation...The play's provocative premise is clumsily handled in both the writing and staging. The profusion of characters and short, tenuously connected scenes makes it confusing to follow. What should have been a tautly horrific exercise is instead a rambling affair...Schumacher reveals his theatrical inexperience with this amateurish staging."
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"The sum of the 70-minute evening is a double-edged sword: While Haley's text can be applauded for its ambition (even if it doesn't completely work), Schumacher's greenness stands in the way of its success...'Neighborhood 3' is also very obviously a early play in the career of a still-developing writer...Schumacher's direction gives the show a disjointed, low-stakes feeling...He guides the young cast members to performances that are merely fine."
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"Such a scenario seems ripe for a production that will take full advantage of modern stage technology, but The Flea's mounting is low-budget affair played on a colorful, but static, unit set. Hollywood director Joel Schumacher, who has no theatre credits in his bio, helms a company of fifteen young non-union actors...Lackluster staging makes the actors seem crammed into the play, and the evening comes off looking like a college-level acting showcase."
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"I appreciate that it can be difficult finding suitable scripts for The Bats, the Flea's resident troupe, especially since large-cast shows are needed to give everybody a chance to show their stuff. But it's still hard to understand why the company chose a play that is more or less indistinguishable from one of those cheapie teen-horror films...it isn't lively or funny enough for satire, and, taken on its own terms, is pretty trashy stuff. "
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"As the lines between real life and the game start to blur, the logistics of how things can happen in both realities start to feel muddled...Strong direction might have helped smooth over the weaker elements, but Joel Schumacher isn't up to the task in his New York directing debut. He does seem like a smart choice for this suspenseful and cinematic piece, but it's unclear whether the tone he is going for is campy or serious. Like many of his movies, it could go either way."
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