“Collectives often have a dispersive energy, and so, unfortunately, does this show. Giving essentially equal weight to multiple characters and situations, it rarely persuades us to care about any of them...And yet one performance, by Brendan Dalton as a nervous, closeted young musician named Mihaly, is a soulful standout...In those few moments, and a couple of others driven by music, the show pulses with the defiant idealism that we otherwise only hear the characters talk about.”
Read more

“'The Place We Built' is a big, rangy work, and it's the Flea's good luck that the director, Danya Taymor, has a gift for pointing our attention in the right direction, even when the stage is filled with chaotic activity. The cast is more than up to the task...The script is slightly overlong, and would probably benefit from a larger-scale production, but this is a very solid achievement, an excellent chance to make the acquaintance of an extremely promising playwright.”
Read more

"'The Place We Built' turns out to be more of a theatricalized documentary than a play, however vivid, important, and revelatory its message. The conglomeration of episodes lessens the thrust of the real drama at the expense of exposition. The play is held afloat by its determined, if motley, cast of fierce young actors...Director Danya Taymor did what she could to mold Gancher’s rambling play into a sustained drama and mostly succeeds."
Read more

"A high-energy, politically relevant play…Neither the interviews nor the multitude of flashbacks successfully develop the play’s characters as they define themselves…The cast is uniformly competent and compelling. Danya Taymor’s direction is uneven…The strength of 'The Place We Built' lies in its theme of resistance and transformation…It is this youthful penchant for chasing hope that makes 'The Place We Built' engaging and relevant and worth the visit."
Read more

"My companion...was totally taken by it, declaring it one of the best things he’s seen in months;...I demurred, finding its structure scrambled and diffuse..., and, at two and a half hours, its running time overlong...The manifold perspectives, insufficiently developed characters, fuzziness about who, when, and what, and dilatory dramaturgy made me feel I’d stayed up past my bedtime. And that was before the intermission."
Read more

“A part of history that I was unfamiliar with and realize we should be paying more attention to...The space is smartly used thanks to director Danya Taymor...This is completely cast by the Bats who are normally so rawly talented, this time they are uneven and out of their comfort zone...The show runs way too long at 2 hours and throws too many issues at us at once without going in depth leaving us to do the research.”
Read more

"A politically charged docudrama that is raw, gritty, and purposely intense…This ensemble was stellar at bringing the energy…Gancher’s play isn’t necessarily strong in character so many of the featured players didn’t have much room to explore…Taymor did an impeccable job at bringing history to life in an compelling manner… Not all the pieces fit together, there were some occasional cracks. But no matter what, 'The Place We Built' inspires."
Read more

"The play’s many characters and complex structure teeters on the edge of confusion, but thanks to wily direction by Danya Taymor, it never tips into chaos...It’s a thoughtful and emotional piece of writing and performance, with superbly developed characters and slowly intensifying and gripping action...Thanks to the small space and the powerful writing and talented performers, we become part of their story, and their fight."
Read more