***Winner of the Pretentious Award for Best Use of Cognitive Dissonace***
Interview: Director Jon Stancato in the Brooklyn Courier
Interview: Director Jon Stancato on the Pretentious Festival Blog
"...the result of putting genres into an aesthetic supercollider and pressing the trigger...supple, smart...daring."
-Leonard Jacobs
The Clyde Fitch Report
"[I]t's important that this newly written old-school hit be recognized. That rape could be funny, not tragic, who knew? The producers and writers of Stolen Chair, that's who. With swagger and grace and a man who's ribald, the show woos us and flatters us, we're never appalled...[T]his show's a must see...The only sad part about Commedia Dell' Artemisia is that it's condensed to stay under an hour."
-Aaron Riccio
PBS' New Theater Corps
"Kiran Rikhye's script is clever...witty...and gives the audience rich food for thought. Cameron J. Oro...has an amazingly commanding voice and precisely the light quality of movement needed for such demanding work. David Bengali...is a true virtuoso...The company is clearly on the right path."
-Ishah Janssen-Faith
NYtheatre.com
"[D]izzying and fun...some of the intricate polysyllabic rhymes are especially impressive...Making an audience think about gender politics in the middle of a raucous seduction scene is undeniably an achievement."
-More-
"The original script, by Kiran Rikhye, is in rhymed couplets and is mostly good enough to sound like a Wilbur translation of the master [Moliere]; some of the intricate polysyllabic rhymes are especially impressive.
The staging is dizzying and fun...Commedia Dell'Artemisia makes some salient points about violence against women and society's culpability thereto. Making an audience think about gender politics in the middle of a raucous seduction scene is undeniably an achievement. The show also manages more direct satire in its final scene, a perversion of justice disguised as a trial that quickly devolves into a media circus of the sort we can all recognize. Stancato, Rikhye, and their collaborators score some points about reality TV and celebrity-obsession here. Stancato appears as the foolish, greedy father, and turns in a fine performance that's niftily rooted in movement rather than words.
Jon Campbell is appealingly dastardly as Tassi, and Alexia Vernon is effective in the soubrette role of next-door neighbor Tuzia. Jennifer Wren doubles as the title character and the pompous ignoramus judge; she's particularly delightful as the latter.
This is the first event of the month-long Stampede Festival, a showcase of under-the-radar theatre that you won't see anywhere else in town. My past experiences at Stampede have taught me that this is where I can go for theatre that will surprise and challenge me in weird and unexpected ways. This off-kilter, stylized, marching-to-its-own-drummer composition feels right at home here."
-Martin Denton
NYtheatre.com
"...one of the most elegantly scripted 'rapes' in the history of theatre...[E]xquisite craftsmanship...never ceases to hold the audience's attention."
-More-
"...one of the most elegantly scripted 'rapes' in the history of theatre...
...Campbell brilliantly captures the bravado and arrogance of [Tassi]...Stancato likewise turns in a strong performance as Gentileschi's father...
...Jennifer Wren is magnificent as the coquettish Artemisia. She makes the transition from cautious ingénue to zealous tart effortlessly...Vernon as Tuzia is skillful in portraying the older neighbor and erst-while matchmaker...
The play, however, ultimately succeeds because of the exquisite craftsmanship apparent in Rikhye's comic dialogue. The ingenuity of the show's rhymed verse at times hints at plays by Moliere like Tartuffe and Don Juan. Rikhye's skill in developing the show's elegant multisyllabic couplets never ceases to hold the audience's attention."
-David Tenenbaum
Fifth Street Review