Playbill's 2023 Edinburgh Fringe pick Life & Times of Michael K has officially opened Off-Broadway, and the reviews are rolling in.
Running through December 23, the piece is a puppet show for adults. Put together by the Baxter Theatre Centre and Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, the production is an adaptation of J.M. Coetzee’s 1983 award-winning novel by South African director Lara Foot, with the Tony-winning Handspring Puppet Company (War Horse) leading the charge.
Set during apartheid in the 1970s and ’80s, it is the story of a man who was born with a cleft lip. Growing up in institutions and eventually becoming a gardener in Cape Town, Michael is determined to take his sick mother back to her hometown. But the journey into the countryside, amidst a fictitious civil war, is dangerous—and the trials that await him beyond those he expected.
Read the reviews here:
New York Stage Review (Sandy MacDonald)
New York Theatre Guide (Amelia Merrill)
New York Theater (Jonathan Mandell)
The New York Times (Naveen Kumar)
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Playbill will continue to update this list as reviews come in.
The creative team includes Foot, who adapted her novel and directs this stage adaptation; set designer Patrick Curtis, original music composer Kyle Shepherd; lighting designer Joshua Cutts; directors of photography and film Fiona McPherson and Barrett de Kock; videographer and editor Yoav Dagan; projection designer Kirsti Cumming; costume designer Phyllis Midlane; and sound designer Simon Kohler.
The cast consists of nine South African performers, led by puppet master Craig Leo, with puppeteers Roshina Ratnam and Markus Schabbing, and actors Sandra Prinsloo, Andrew Buckland, Wessel Pretorius, Faniswa Yisa, Carlo Daniels, Billy Langa, and Nolufefe Ntshuntshe.
For more information, visit StAnnsWarehouse.org.
