"What really awakens the senses here is the feeling of suffocation that pervades the domestic battlefield…Ms. Arbus’s interpretation and Ms. Lacey’s performance help insure that the argument here is by no means one-sided. If Laura is compelled to destroy her husband, it’s because she has effectively been his prisoner for so long…Mr. Thompson’s Captain is, in a word, brilliant, an exact and devastating portrait of one man’s inevitable collapse."
Read more

“Turgid doesn’t begin to describe the dialectic embedded in August Strindberg’s melodramatic battle of wills, and yet adapter David Greig manages to winkle out humor and insight...Though Strindberg was clearly on the side of his hog-tied title character, a grudging respect is surely due such a resourceful virago.”
Read more

"The battle of the sexes comes served two ways in Theatre for a New Audience’s sturdy and ever-accessible double bill of classics...Maggie Lacey plays against her girl-next-door looks. In 'The Father,' she’s a wife who drives her husband crazy by undermining his trust...John Douglas Thompson brings depth as her spouse in each show."
Read more

“As played by Thompson, the Captain comes across like an innocuous nut job...By contrast, Lacey's Laura is calculating in her malice, ‘I've yet to meet the man I can't defeat,’ she tells her husband, her icy gaze freezing him in his tracks. Such melodramatic lines pervade the text, and this fabulous cast knocks them all out of the park. Strindberg's darkness, his pseudo-adolescent gloom, registers here as high camp and we love every second of it.”
Read more

"A taut, tension-filled psychological battle…Thompson charts the Captain's breakdown, step by harrowing step...His total surrender is both disturbing and impossible to turn away from, climaxing in a kind of fit that also works as a physical expression of total despair. Next to his tour de force, Lacey, as Laura, plays a kind of dramatic rope-a-dope, cannily circling her prey and inserting new stabs of doubt and fear into his head...Arbus gets exceptional work from her cast."
Read more

"Insightfully directed…A terrific repertory ensemble...Thompson gives full reign to the high-octane dramatic chops that have earned him a reputation as one of the contemporary theater's best and most vivid Shakespearean actors…I've always found 'The Father' something of a yawn, hopelessly dated and excessively melodramatic. But seeing it in this context didn't have a boring moment, it's full of unforgettable moments."
Read more

"These inspired revivals using the Thornton Wilder adaptation of 'A Doll’s House' and Scottish playwright David Greig’s new English language version of 'The Father' feature a company of actors led by the magnificent John Douglas Thompson and Maggie Lacey, all of whom appear in both plays. With the audience sitting on opposite sides of a narrow playing area with two walls removed that puts the viewers ring side, these productions are dazzling theater whether seen in tandem or seen separately."
Read more

"The plays feel more accessible and tailored to a wider audience than ever, thanks to dual outstanding lead performances in both pieces by John Douglas Thompson and Maggie Lacey. Under the capable direction of Arin Arbus, Thompson and Lacey storm through both masterworks with an intensity and passion that elevate them far above all other elements of the productions."
Read more