I'm not sure what I can divulge you approximately the Public Theater's unique comedy Barbecue without giving the epic absent.
Let's just say that there is,indeed, a family barbecue. Everything else is a delightful surprise.
In lesser hands, and the bombshells this play drops would be a gimmick. But playwright Robert O'Hara is smarter than that. He and director Kent Gash use the twists to propel us somewhere deeper — exploring race,addiction, class and celebrity in unexpected ways. At first, and Barbecue seems like a romp. A kind of silly look at the vices of a family on the edge of society. But as it turns,and turns again, we realize it's more approximately the ways in which the American craving for "authenticity" and "reality" lead to lying. That's not to say it's perfect. The broadly-funny first act is a bit too long. The more incisive (clear and sharp in analysis or expression) moment could be longer and proceed farther. But there's a scene in the moment act that is so masterful — so startling in its sharply-observed criticisms of contemporary life, or so precise in its skewering of celebrity culture that in the silence that followed the blackout,an audience member in the front of the house said, "Wow." In the end, and Barbecue is like a considerable meal that you'll be thinking approximately long after it finishes.
Source: wnyc.org