"A rare, vivid insight into Japanese-American life after WWII...Nakahara pares the story to the bone...Narasaki’s theatrical adaptation has the same trouble as many stage treatments: a story of private contemplation becomes a string of episodes and loses its narrative voice...In the hope of making something exciting, Narasaki has compressed Okada’s book too much. The actors in this production try to give it room and life again, but they only break the surface in shallow, gasping breaths."
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"Narasaki’s adaptation parses through a dense and layered novel to find the dramatic action necessary to portray the text theatrically. The cast is excellent...There was no lighting design: the lights stay on the whole time...The actors sometimes have to awkwardly come out of character in front of the audience, dissolving the effect of their performances...'No-No Boy' tells an important story. The play is worth watching for the actors and their truly brave performances."
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"There are over ten well-rendered characters whose situations and emotions are vividly dramatized...Presenting this epic story with a large cast in such a very small space as it is being done at Theatre Row’s Studio Theatre is problematic visually...Director Ron Nakahara’s staging is resourceful and clever...The performances of the ensemble of diverse ages are uniformly passionate."
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"'No-No Boy' is a very good play with a harsh, scalding beginning, but it has some weaknesses. One big problem the play should have addressed was the legal standing of Japanese-American men...Much of the success of the play is due to spirited work by skilled director Ron Nakahara. You have to give a yes-yes to this 'No-No Boy' production because it is stinging and because the audience learns a great deal of history."
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"'No-No Boy' is an extraordinary and essential play...Has been adapted into a tight, intense script...Directed with precision by Ron Nakahara and performed by a sterling cast of ten, 'No-No Boy' blew me away from the very beginning...Admirably, it does not mythologize a monolithic ethnic viewpoint...I can only urge everyone who cares about how theater connects to this country’s past and future to catch Pan Asian Rep’s 'No-No Boy' wherever whenever you can."
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