About the Show

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater presents the world premiere of this communal experience to remember, honor, re-imagine, and celebrate St Vincent’s Hospital.

From the show:

Novenas for a Lost Hospital is a communal experience to remember, honor, re-imagine and celebrate St Vincent’s Hospital. Inspired by the caretakers and patients of St. Vincent's Hospital, and guided by Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, this unique event takes a 60-person audience on a journey from an enclosed garden to Rattlestick’s intimate West Village theater to the NYC AIDS Memorial Park.

Check-in times are at 6:30 and 7:00 at St John's in the Village (218 W 11th St.). Both check-in times will be united for the stage performance of the play; we are staggering our audience entrance times because of the unique nature of our prologue.

Notice: Put on your sneakers (or most comfortable pair of shoes) and leave your heavy bags at home because Novenas for a Lost Hospital is a mobile experience. Your experience will start either at 6:30 or at 7:00 based on your chosen entrance time. We will start at ST. JOHN'S IN THE VILLAGE (below our theater at 218 West 11th Street), then move up the stairs to our theater, then move back downstairs a few blocks away to visit the NYC AIDS Memorial. Due to the traveling nature of this production, we encourage you to let us know if you anticipate having any difficulty traveling with us.

Critic Reviews (12)

"‘Novenas’ Offers Prayers for a Hospital That Died: The epicenter of New York’s AIDS epidemic, St. Vincent’s (1849-2010) is the subject of a memorial service that’s also a play."
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3/5 Stars "There are lovely sequences and forgettable ones; the play's tone alternates between earnest sermonizing and scenes of joy amid the ashes."
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2.5/4 Stars "A roaming elegy for St. Vincent's Hospital"
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"Novenas for a Lost Hospital Exhumes the Legacy of Manhattan's Last Catholic Hospital: Rattlestick Playwrights Theater presents an ambitious eulogy to its departed neighbor."
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"NOVENAS FOR A LOST HOSPITAL is a Moving Tribute to a New York Institution"
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"The unwelcome surprise of 'Novenas for a Lost Hospital' is its essentially anodyne nature…How a story of blood and money; privilege and prejudice; and young men abandoned and ravaged by a plague was transformed into a museum exhibit crossed with a New Age prayer festival is something to ponder, and not necessarily with pleasure."
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"Small miracles bookend Rattlestick Theater's 'Novenas for A Lost Hospital in Greenwich Village.'"
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"Directed by Daniella Topol, the play is both uneven and scattershot in its non-linear format and content. However, it conveys a great deal of information in an entertaining manner and has some affecting scenes of life in the hospital in two eras: the 1849 cholera epidemic and the AIDS crisis."
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Trailer

Creative team

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater