“Gentle as a summer rain until, bam, something electric happens to charge the air. Kaikkonen’s handsome, rough around the edges production makes a better case for the play as a curiosity than a forgotten gem, though...A paean to women’s sexual freedom from a time before they even had the right to vote...A play about class, ambition, and self-determination, but it’s even more concerned with the suffocating effects of paternalism.”
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“One of the least sentimental plays ever written about matchmaking...A quiet play about a commonplace situation, but, the more one thinks about it, the more devastating it seems...Under Kaikkonen's meticulous, understated direction, a way of life and its assumptions and ideals are overturned by a capitalism-inspired vision of individual satisfaction...Effectively immerses us in a world where the mere hint of impurity is enough to destroy a young woman's reputation."
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“The play's construction is rather unusual but highly effective in terms of what we see or don't see happen...Kaikkonen directs with the utmost sensitivity, helping to draw wonderfully naturalistic performances from all involved, and dialect coach Stoller seems to have been a big help with the Yorkshire patois. These two and the rest of the production team...work together with a superb cast and the words of a long-deceased playwright to create something very special.”
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“Under the sure-footed direction of Kaikonen, each member of the cast gets to make the most of his or her character's real and very human personality traits. Brinkley as Fanny is a convincingly feisty early feminist and we wouldn't have a play without her character. However, it's the older characters...Who bring out the humor and make this more than a period drama with a dash of feminism...As usual with a Mint production, a huge nod to the crafts team.”
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“Not seen in New York in 95 years, ‘Hindle Wakes’ has been given a stylish and fast-paced production by Gus Kaikkonen making it yet another rediscovered treasure, the Mint's stated mission. At its center is a magnificently wry performance by Jonathan Hogan in the play's leading role. Though some may find the play's Edwardian morality dated, the Me-Too movement shows not a lot has changed in the past 100 years. The clever and wise ‘Hindle Wakes’ is as timely as ever.”
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“A thoroughly enjoyable, readily accessible play...Although it was written more than 100 years ago, it raises issues of sex, love, ethics, and morality that still stir controversy...While Ibsen, Wilde, and Shaw had previously addressed these matters, the characters in ‘Hindle Wakes’ are more fully realized and the humor is gentle...This work has been brilliantly cast and dazzlingly performed. It’s rich with laugh lines that are also thought-provoking...So run, don’t walk, to buy thy tickets.”
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“Mint Theater Company’s production vibrantly brings to the contemporary table sexual issues which preoccupy us today...The climax is startling and worthy of our age, a gift from playwright...A company of great actors, due much congratulations on their masterful craft...Directed with clarity and sensitivity...This play deserves our attention. It is a descendant of Ibsen and owes much to that master of realistic social argument, the theatrical presentation of ideas.”
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“This 1912 drama is stunningly pertinent and potent...A thoughtful, handsomely mounted, and thoroughly enjoyable production...It’s a bit tricky for the director to segue from the extremely dark and heavy opening scenes of the play to the sort of comedy-of-manners business that comes later in the evening...The cast is solid...This production owes a great deal of its success to Brinkley’s turn as the radiantly earthy Fanny. She is pitch-perfect.”
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