Theater Thursday - Peerless

We were given complimentary tickets to Peerless for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own. 

What: Peerless 

Where: 59E59 Theatres

             59 E. 59 Theatres

Who: Recommended for Ages 5 and Up

When: Through November 6. 2022

Primary Stage's production of Peerless is a compelling dark comedy by Jiehae Park. The show resets Macbeth in the world of elite college admissions. Every year one student is selected to attend "the college". It is never actually named but it is clearly meant to be on par with an Ivy League college like Harvard or Yale. Twins M and L have come up with a plan for one of them to stay back a year so they will both have a chance to get in but when someone else is chosen and their plans go awry the consequences are deadly. 

This is an extremely thought-provoking play. It makes you realize how much we are pitted against each other pretty much from birth in some cases.  It is a competition to get into the best schools, sometimes even from preschool. It is a competition to get the best jobs and so on.

The writing is sharp. The cast is uniformly good but especially Sasha Diamond as the naive M and Shannon Tyo as the cold conniving L. The former is like a deer perpetually caught in the headlights, the latter ruthless to her core. Their faces are both very expressive and really let you in to the inner thoughts of their characters.  All in all, the show is riveting.

And that's our view. Tune in Saturday for a Still More Theater Saturday.

Photo credits:

All Peerless production photos by James Leynse