"The back half is the reason to see this show. Freeman has an ear for tense naturalism, putting Helen and Marcus through all the paces of an awkward night out...It makes it all the more frustrating that the first act is bogged down with heavy-handed philosophizing and meandering conversations that start to sound like white noise after a while. Throughout, Stone delivers a magnetic, brittle central performance..,'That Which Isn’t' would be a stronger piece if Freeman hacked off the first act."
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"There's a difference between what lovers mean and what they say. Freeman sees something existentially bleak in that gap…After every exchange is a blackout...It's a risky technique, since in the first act Freeman doesn't sufficiently vary the segments' lengths...In the wrenching second half...the play turns scalpel-sharp. Freeman's collaborator Ancowitz directs a production that hits all its marks, and Stone, playing beautifully against both partners, delivers a dense, prickly performance."
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"Freeman’s script is like a literary iceberg, with much of its context floating dark under the surface and requiring some extrapolation based on his characters’ exchanges...As an audience member invested in understanding the full complexity of the work it would be nice to know at least what each character is talking about. What we do get, however, is fascinating...‘That Which Isn’t’ is a heartbreaking work."
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“Very quickly, Acts One and Two become emotionally draining as we struggle to empathize...The theme of the play seems to be the boundaries between what should be said and what thoughts should be kept hidden...It does such a good job putting forth a truly difficult character that by the end, I didn’t really want to know anymore. This was a skillfully well rendered experience I would not be eager to repeat.”
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