"The pleasures of Mr. Dial’s play are threefold: Watching the motley assortment of students emerge as real people; laughing at the barely concealed connections of their fiction to their real lives; and taking the course along with them...'In the Room' offers no flashes of universal revelation, but it’s solid and smart...The cast’s fierce commitment renders the experience—seeing a bare-bones production with an audience of mere dozens—thoroughly transporting."
Read more

"'In The Room,' deftly directed by Knight, is well suited to the small space where it is being performed...Everyone is quite vulnerable, especially as they begin to reveal things about themselves. None of this is handled melodramatically; it's just the truth of it that will either shut them down or free them up...There are no grand revelations, but at least some of the characters emerge all the stronger for the experience...In the end, we feel we have been engaged with authentic characters."
Read more

"Anyone who has participated in a creative writing course will appreciate Dial’s skill at capturing the evolution of the classroom dynamic...The production’s very capable cast members meet the challenge of acting in a naturalistic manner while also honoring the more expressionistic elements of Knight’s direction...Harrington and Hunt are both fine in their roles, and I understand why Dial foregrounds their relationship...But their story dominates the action a little too heavily toward the end."
Read more

"Harrington and Hunt are the standouts in this cast...The rest of the characters are given less development, though all the actors are strong...Rather than speeding through the days and seeing who didn’t have their writing done, I would’ve preferred to learn more about who these people are...There are a lot of different ideas in this play, all of them engaging and entertaining, which makes for a swift and enjoyable evening of theater."
Read more