The History of the World OFF-BROADWAY REVIEWS

• NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF The History of the World

  

  From the Crucifixion to the Internet, You Are There

  ANDY WEBSTER

  January 24, 2012: Judith Malina — a founder and unsinkable bulwark of the Living Theater, a beacon of experimental performance in New York since 1947 — instigates another rebellion with “History of the World,” now at the troupe’s Lower East Side home. Though Ms. Malina, at 85, shows no loss of fight, there is something almost elegiac about her latest piece, no less than an exuberant, dizzying and exhausting flight through the course of Western civilization, peppered with political observations. Certainly Ms. Malina has earned the right to conduct such an ambitious survey.

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• THEATERMANIA REVIEW OF The History of the World

  

  The History of the World

  Chris Kompanek

  January 13, 2012: Soraya Broukhim and company in The History of the World (© Janne Hoem)"I am Socrates/They say I'm the wisest man alive/That's why they condemned me to death/Because we always kill the wisest and the best: That simplistic speech is meant to be the point of Living Theatre's latest play, grandiosely titled The History of the World.

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• BACKSTAGE REVIEW OF The History of the World

  

  History of the World

  Mitch Montgomery

  January 13, 2012: "Who are you in history?" This circularly rhetorical question forms the backbone, flexible though it may be, of Judith Malina's unfettered but ultimately unimposing interactive play "History of the World." A legendary stage artist, provocateur, and co-founder of the Living Theatre, there is surely no question who Malina is in history.

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• CURTAIN UP REVIEW OF The History of the World

  

  History of the World

  Deirdre Donovan

  January 12, 2012: Judith Malina’s History of the World takes theatergoers on a whirlwind tour of history. But in compressing thousands of years into less than two hours, its historical personages get the dime-store treatment.

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• NY THEATRE REVIEW OF The History of the World

  

  The History of the World

  Mitchell Conway

  January 7, 2012: We can change history now! With a title audacious enough to warrant a parody film of a similar title, The Living Theatre's newest production matches that boldness with its vision. Who are you in history? In The History of the World, written and directed by Judith Malina, that question is addressed by having the audience participate in significant historical events, flowing between being guided by the actors from scene to scene and directly creating the action. This dynamically reveals how, by watching the current historical moment, we can forget we are a part of it with the genuine capacity to take action.

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