A Wild BIG FEELINGS Brings Us Back To First Grade — Review

As you enter Ms. Joy’s first grade classroom, you are greeted with a big hello and asked if you want a first bump or a high five. I opted for the high five. After putting my bag in my assigned cubby, I sat down at Clarke’s desk [I was assigned him at the door] and began my morning work. “Draw a picture: When was a moment where you lost control? What did you do?” 

I did as instructed. 

Once we are all signed in and situated, Ms. Joy (a fantastic Julia Greer) lets the class know that it will be her last day teaching first grade — from that moment we hit the ground running with Ryan Drake’s Big Feelings which opened tonight at The Cell’s Gallery Space on 23rd Street. 

The joy of this 85 minute solo piece is not quite knowing where we are headed next. Drake, who I have been following since his lovely Off-Broadway run of you don’t have to do anything back in 2024 has now teamed up with director Sammy Zeisel and created this delicious new work that I haven’t stopped thinking about since leaving the theatre. 

Why did Ms. Joy go to a soccer game of a girl she doesn’t know? Why won’t she be in class tomorrow? I won’t say more but Drake has crafted a remarkably unsettling comedic piece of theatre that I already know will be one of my favorite plays of the year. 

Zeisel, who recently directed Gooey’s Toxic Aquatic Adventure at the Bushwick Starr, delicately balances letting the naturalistic comedy breathe while never losing sight of the darker shadows creeping in around us. It’s a tonal high-wire act that Greer carries out triumpahntly — she’s equal parts Miss Honey and Amy Dunne (I think it's time for a Gone Girl rewatch with Rosamund Pike headed to Broadway.)

In Silin Chen’s stunning hyper realistic scenic design of Ms. Joy’s classroom, you are fully immersed but fear not, as the production website calls it “audience-integrated”, for all those anti-participation audience members, you will be fine. Joyce Ciesel deft sound design — almost imperceptibly — lives underneath the production, quietly shaping the evening with shifts in mood that the audience might not even register. 

Big Feelings is a production worth celebrating and I encourage you to get tickets as it's quickly becoming the show of the summer and at just 20 seats a night, many performances are already sold out. And I mean, tell me every piece of theatre wouldn’t be vastly improved with a snack break. 

Big Feelings is now in performance at the cell on West 23rd Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.