"'After the Dark:' Under Ms. Buchaca’s direction, many of the shifts in dynamic compel, although an unthinking equation of sexual desirability and power needs more scrutiny...'Summit:' Absorbing...Under Neil LaBute’s direction, a few details feel off...Ms. Buchaca’s play is so topical that it resists analysis...'I don't know:' LaBute returns to his frequent and rather tired assertion that most men are brutes, and most women are witches...I wished I were somewhere else."
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"'After Dark:' While at first this seems to be pretty much Colin's show, Jessie turns out to be more than just a sounding board for a tour-de-force monologue...'Summit:' Despite LaBute's pacey direction and the author's smart dialogue, the play's super timeliness exacerbates that it comes off as somewhat contrived...'I don't know:' Kind gives his usual standout performance...Covatin is a star in the making...These intriguingly connected plays are well worth a trip to La MaMa."
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"An intriguing evening of one-acts...Innovatively and minimally staged...’I don’t know what I can save you from,’ the last one-act, is the most astounding and manifests a fitting ‘boom’ to the evening. Calvani’s superb direction of the wonderful Crovatin and the equally amazing and versatile Kind is devastating and nearly surreal…The concluding revelation at once clarifies and shocks, thanks to the masterful actors, exceptional direction and LaBute’s writing, which distills disturbing genius."
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"The direction is strong, each playwright making the most out of a fellow artist’s somewhat mundane material. These are three lugubrious stories with rather unlikable people. Each play has two characters in a power play, in which the person seemingly in charge is one-upped by his/her victim…The most original play is LaBute’s...The repartee between miscreant father and resentful daughter is hilarious...Kind and Crovatin execute their gamesmanship with depth and perfect comic timing."
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"Neil LaBute has teamed up with Marco Calvani and Marta Buchaca to present three plays that are 'surprising takes on the idea of power dynamics'...How relevant and thought-provoking these plays are in that climate is somewhat problematic. In all three short plays–two in translation–the conflicts and motivations of the characters are clear. What is not clear is why these believable conflicts drive such muddled and often less-than-fun plots."
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“The acting is for the most part stellar. It’s a brisk and engrossing evening of theater…’I don’t know what I can save you from’ is the most complex and subtle of the plays–the one I’d see again in case I missed something…The three 'power' plays leave you with the good feeling of having been well exercised. It’s perhaps surprising that none of these one-on-ones relies on traditional romance. They’re about other things, and they’re refreshing!”
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"The realism of LaBute, Calvani and Buchaca’s plays tugs at the heart and mind. On one hand, to offer some solutions or hope of change regarding sexism, ageism, and male authority would have been a confirmation that the hard work of the past has had some effect...The playwrights demonstrate how male and female power is still highly unbalanced in our society, and that male power is still able to flip the tables, often in brutal ways."
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"LaBute, Marco Calvani, and Buchaca explore power struggles of varying natures in three one-act plays, and in doing so have created a phenomenally thought-provoking evening...The disconnect between different age groups and time frames is intelligently brought to life in 'Author Directing Author,' while the most 'powerful' aspect of the show is in its ability to explore the many facets of the human desire to be dominant, and what that entails once it has been achieved."
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