←

Near Nellie Bly by Mark Loewenstern

  • Recommend
  • Download
  • Save to Reading List

Recommendations

Recommendations

  • Cindi Sansone-Braff:
    1 May. 2022
    “ This historical drama set in 1887 in a New York women’s insane asylum is a harrowing account of how easy it was back then for a woman to be misdiagnosed as mentally ill and then institionalized. Nellie Bly, a bold and courageous reporter, sees firsthand the cruel, inhumane, and barbaric treatment women were receiving in an institution on Blackwell Island. There are many fascinating parts for women to portray. This docudrama would be riveting to see staged. Bravo! ”
  • Suzi Elnaggar:
    29 Apr. 2022
    “ This play was a finalist in the Epiphanies New Works Festival 2021. The exploration of feminine madness and who Nellie Bly was to the women who met her was awesome. Definitely recommended. ”
  • Steven G. Martin:
    29 Dec. 2021
    “ This full-length drama stunned me. Mark Loewenstern spotlights the impact of Nellie Bly's daredevil journalism on the women cruelly treated at the asylum on Blackwell's Island. We see the impact on Anne Neville, a resident as the asylum before and after Bly's 10-day stay, as well as other residents and the staff.

    Loewenstern storytelling is tremendous. Yes, there is realistic drama, but we feel through Anne's dreams how not only institutions but entire societies have attempted/are attempting to keep women docile and disenfranchised. We feel Anne is learning.

    Truly a stunning script that will profoundly affect audiences when produced. ”
  • Doug DeVita:
    7 Jun. 2021
    “ Darkly atmospheric, rich in period detail, and intensely gripping from its first lines, by telling Nellie Bly’s story through the eyes and point of view of Anne Neville, an inmate in a mental institution, Mark Loewenstern creates an immediacy and sense of horror that creeps up on you and is hard to shake long after having read the play. Dynamite roles for women help make this an excellent, provocative work, and one I’d love to see staged. ”
  • Jerry Polner:
    10 May. 2021
    “ In this shattering dramatization, reporter Nellie Bly goes undercover to expose the cruel mistreatment of women at the insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island, New York City in 1887. Nellie befriends a woman named Anne, who is worn down but wrongly committed and has no one left to save her. The story of the asylum is told through Anne’s eyes – how every working woman is just one job, one accident, or one marriage away from being branded insane and locked away forever. Near Nellie Bly is a brutal, beautifully written shot of truth. ”
  • Duncan Pflaster:
    22 Oct. 2020
    “ A moving and interesting adaptation of Nellie Bly's story, Loewenstern delves deeply into proto-feminist ideas and notions and not only tells the story of Nellie's investigation into Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum, also draws a vivid picture of the abuses perpetrated upon those women incarcerated there. ”
  • Jennifer O'Grady:
    11 Jan. 2020
    “ Terrific, theatrical play about a forgotten woman and a famous one. I would love to see this staged. ”
  • Rich Rubin:
    16 Sep. 2019
    “ A bold and thrilling work of theater -- multilayered, cinematic and extremely powerful. In addition to presenting the fascinating, nineteenth century story of Anne Neville and Nellie Bly, the play's time-shifting structure touches on both the distant past and the distant future. It's a wild ride, but we know from the start that we're in the hands of a master playwright. Highly recommended! ”
  • Scott Sickles:
    11 Oct. 2018
    “ The choice to tell the tale of Nelly Bly's stay in an Blackwell's from the point of view of another patient somehow gives the story even more power. Anne Neville is not a well woman: fragile, possibly delusional, trapped, and enraged, we truly get the sense of the hell the mentally ill endure from both their afflictions and their so called treatment. It's a tour de force role in a striking and daringly imaginative play. ”