The Qualms NYC Reviews and Tickets

"'The Qualms' remains winning, compelling, and necessary, even though it ultimately fails to thoroughly convince. Even so, it furthers a worthwhile message...There are no perfect plays, just as there are no perfect people, and being the wrong kind of judgmental toward anyone or anything is likely to cause more problems than it solves. Instead, just let yourself go. The rewards here are great, even if Norris's own overeagerness means you won't be able to give yourself over completely."
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"The committed performances notwithstanding, the actors can do just so much with mostly rather sketchy characters...With its top drawer assemblage on stage and back stage creative talent, 'The Qualms' is never boring. Sure, we all have our own qualms about sex and marital issues, but these stereotypical characters do little to make us able to laugh at or better understand our own conflicting feeling and opinions."
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"Pam MacKinnon’s direction is virtually unnoticeable, her touch is so light. She lets Norris’s well-constructed work unfold on its own, or at least that’s how it seems. Her casting is impeccable...'The Qualms' has a lot going for it, but its greatest asset is Norris’s keen powers of observation. He doesn’t judge; he simply shares what he sees. He doesn’t pretend to know the answers, but he sure knows how to pose the questions."
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"The performances are each exquisite. The ensemble work and the direction are smooth as a baby’s bottom...The absence of sex makes this party more or less the equivalent of a heated bridge tournament, but hey – in the end who cares? Like the saying goes – it ain’t the meat, it’s the motion that makes your mama want to rock. This production rocks."
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"An uproarious one-act comedy. 'The Qualms' is a compelling, thought-provoking, and hilarious peek into the titillating world of swinging...'The Qualms' may not make you question your own views on monogamy, but it certainly makes a compelling case either way."
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"While there is humor to be found in this portrait of a buttoned-up, conservative white male becoming deeply uncomfortable and defensive when in foreign sexual territory, it does seem like low-hanging fruit, dramatically speaking...This is undoubtedly a funny play. There are many laughs to be had in 'The Qualms' – sex and its peculiar effect on our social selves has the power to amuse – but Norris’s writing does not push itself and does not do much to take its subject matter in any interesting new directions."
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"'Death and money and violence,' Ken concludes. This is not an original observation, granted, but Norris seems to be applying this theme to his essentially decent characters, each subtly damaged in typically American ways. He also milks it for humor. I suspect he is playing on the audience’s internal contradictions as well– our qualms about sex (including seeing sex on stage) versus our yearning for a little titillation."
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"While its foreplay is strictly verbal, and the only climax comes when Chris blows his top, there’s still enough amusing titillation to make a visit to 'The Qualms' a suitable way to get your theatergoing rocks off."
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