"'[PORTO]' sneaks up on you...It's a smart, surprising ode to the modern woman's anxious, circuitous quest for simultaneous self-actualization, pleasure, and perhaps even love...The minute that Benson took clear aim at the vexed territory of feminism, sex, desire, shame, what we want from our partners, and what we feel we should do for them...I could feel her punches right in the chest...Evans gets smart, pointed, playful performances out of her entire cast."
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"A strictly realistic presentation of this story might look like a poor onstage imitation of HBO's 'Girls', but Benson delivers something uniquely theatrical with a script that is magical, mischievous, and just plain hilarious...Evans maintains Benson's intoxicating cocktail of magical realism and timely satire with a pitch-perfect production...With humor and honesty, '[PORTO]' dramatizes the late capitalist paradox of having a million avenues for pleasure, but still feeling a gnawing dissatisfaction."
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"Whenever Benson stops talking, her play threatens to be a funny and touching romantic comedy tinged with the anxieties of early middle age. Too much of the time, however, we are forced to cope with the playwright's voice -- insistent, intrusive, and intent on stealing focus from the characters she has created...The result is death by extreme editorializing...The biggest problem with '[PORTO]' is that, shorn of all its tricks and traps, its observations aren't terribly original."
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“Kate Benson's ‘[Porto]’ (the title refers to the voice in the heroine's head) will please die-hard feminists most who will be glad to hear the play's messages spoken from the stage. However, many of the rest of us will be forgiven if thinking the play trades in platitudes and is overly derivative. We have met all these people - and their problems - before. The play's gimmicks may either strike you as novel and fresh or as tired and trite.”
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"More a lab experiment than a stage play...The entire night walks a fine line between pretentious and high satire...Benson's writing is most accessible when she's making fun of millennials and their penchant for 'serious' bars and anything pickled...As directed by Evans, the cast all inhabit their characters earnestly. Chukwu stands out for creating a sympathetic Raphael, while the others, in a work that is funny-strange instead of funny-ha-ha, tug more on the brain than on the heart."
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“A comic cocktail with a bitter twist of feminism...A kick more closely resembling a Shirley Temple than a Long Island Iced Tea…In its indirect way, the play is as critical of our overindulgent eating and other habits as it is about anything else…So much time is consumed by Bracket's verbiage, much of it with…the lights off, you begin to look forward to such moments to catch some z's…I must dutifully report that the play elicited a fair share of laughs…; my own humor meter barely moved.”
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"A rom-com for millennials to love. And judging by the knowing laughter from the 20 and 30-somethings in the audience at the performance I attended, she's hit her intended mark...There's a tongue-in-check quality to most of the characters...The one exception to these one-note characters is Porto...Sirna-Frest makes her the anchor of this one. And she gives Porto (and [porto]) such sincere vulnerability that you almost don't need to be a millennial to appreciate it."
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"In the very funny, very smart '[Porto],' Kate Benson has a lot to say...Splendidly directed by Lee Sunday Evans to not only coax out the humor but also the humanity of the characters...These actors fully inhabit their roles, yet the audience has the luxury of filling in the details...Sirna-Frest plays Porto in an exquisite match of character and performer...Approachable, offbeat, clever, smart, thoughtful, and hilarious, '[Porto]' is just about perfect theater."
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