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Time Out
11-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Well, I'll Let You Go
Photograph: Courtesy Emilio Madrid | Well, I'll Let You Go New York stage treasure Quincy Tyler Bernstine stars as a Midwestern woman navigating the ruins of her life in Bubba Weiler's debut play. Director Jack Serio ( Grangeville ) has assembled a knockout ensemble cast to support her: Emily Davis, Constance Shulman, Amelia Workman, Will Dagger, Danny McCarthy, Cricket Brown and—making a long overdue return to the stage after more than a decade—Michael Chernus ( Severance ). Mon, Aug 11, 2025 Tue, Aug 12, 2025 Wed, Aug 13, 2025 Thu, Aug 14, 2025 Fri, Aug 15, 2025 Sat, Aug 16, 2025 Sat, Aug 16, 2025 Mon, Aug 18, 2025 Tue, Aug 19, 2025 Wed, Aug 20, 2025 Show more By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. 🙌 Awesome, you're subscribed! Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! Discover Time Out original video
New York Times
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Well, I'll Let You Go' Review: A Fog of Grief
Twenty-five years they lived in this old farmhouse together, Maggie and Marv — one of those good, solid couples the people in their Midwestern suburb have long since come to depend on: for help when times are difficult, and for the everyday hope that decent people inspire just by being there. But Marv died the other day — heroically, the neighbors say. Now Maggie is abruptly on her own in middle age, peering out from the fog of grief, trying to make sense of the life she built for herself and the husband she thought she knew. Played with deftness and delicacy by the extraordinary Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Maggie is the center who may or may not hold in 'Well, I'll Let You Go,' the quietly absorbing new drama by Bubba Weiler at the Space at Irondale in Brooklyn. Marv's death — his murder, actually, in murky circumstances — has body-slammed Maggie. Weariness is etched in her face; it weighs down her walk. Yet she has to keep moving, accepting the too-many flowers and too-many casseroles that materialize at her door, and deciding what to do about a funeral, which she isn't even sure she wants. Looking on at all this is a narrator played by Michael Chernus (recently of the Apple TV+ series 'Severance'), like a heartland variation on the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town,' to which Weiler's play nods. (The stripped-down set, part of that homage, is by Frank J. Oliva.) As friends, family and strangers appear at Maggie's house, the narrator tells us the secrets of each one: Wally (Will Dagger), Marv's odd, alarming mess of a cousin, who has leaned hard on Marv and Maggie and knows he is a burden; Joanie (Constance Shulman), whose myopic eccentricity makes her horrendous at her funeral home job, but who chose that career for a devastating reason; Julie (Amelia Workman), Maggie's friend since childhood, who visits only belatedly because 'Maggie has held her up through a lifetime of rough patches, and she's afraid what it might cost to pay her back.' Also stopping by: Jeff (Danny McCarthy), Marv's brother and Julie's husband, who is not above manipulating Maggie at her most vulnerable; Angela (Emily Davis), who figures in Maggie's past in a heartbreaking way that Maggie only vaguely remembers; and Ashley (Cricket Brown), the community college student whose life Marv saved from the gunman who killed him, and whose connection to Marv is, for Maggie, a torturous mystery. This is an eye-poppingly talented cast, delivering meticulous, vivid performances. Then again, Weiler — an Illinois native notable for his stellar turn in Rebecca Gilman's likewise subdued prairie play, 'Swing State' — has done what performer-playwrights tend to do: written a showcase for actors. Other than the omnipresent Chernus, each shares a single scene with Bernstine. The play is directed by Jack Serio, who made his reputation for assembling prestige casts when he staged 'Uncle Vanya' in a loft two summers ago, with David Cromer in the title role. (Stacey Derosier, who lit that show, is similarly expert here.) In its palpable Midwestern-ness, this production feels reminiscent of Cromer's 'Our Town.' (The spot-on costumes are by Avery Reed.) Niggling detail, though: The geographic illusion breaks — at least for people like me, who are from there — when characters pronounce 'Wisconsin' with an East Coast crispness (Wis-CON-sin) instead of running it together, Midwest-style: Wi-SCON-sin. 'Well, I'll Let You Go' is a deeply American play about loss, regret and what makes a meaningful life. It's about how weird people are around death, and how confused they can be by complexity, especially when morality is involved. It's about the elusiveness of love, let alone happiness. And it's about the clarity that comes when that fog of grief dissipates, even for a moment, and you can see what was real, and what you get to hang on to. Well, I'll Let You GoThrough Aug. 29 at the Space at Irondale, Brooklyn; Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.
