Patrick Chavis – LA Theatre Bites
Circle X Theatre Company’s West Coast premiere production of Do You Feel Anger? @ Atwater Village Theatre – 10 out of 10 – Masterpiece! LA THEATRE BITES RECOMMENDED. Read more…
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw
There’s a Cowboy Junkies song from 1993 called “Hunted,” which is about the ever-present threat of male violence in women’s lives, the refrain of which is: “Do you know what it’s like to be hunted?” It’s a terrifying song, and unfortunately is no less resonant today than it was 30 years ago. Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s play, Do You Feel Anger?, explores the dark side of the war between the sexes with great humor and a bit of surrealism but clearly gets across outrage that women still have to deal with this situation. The new production by Circle X at the Atwater Village Theatre is superb, bolstered greatly by vivid performances…Director Halena Kays gets high-energy work from her talented cast and adroitly achieves the tricky balance between humor and disquiet that the play requires. Read more…
Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld
Sexism and misogyny have been rampant for decades – centuries – no matter the context: social, private, or professional…Playwright Mara Nelson-Greenberg smartly and incisively takes on the topic of this disease in DO YOU FEEL ANGER?, now being performed at the Circle X Theatre Company in Atwater Village to explosive and thought-provoking results.
Nelson-Greenberg does a magnificent job of hitting the zeitgeist of the #MeToo movement with a fresh approach. Her script is complex and trenchant and edgy without being self-conscious about it. It has touches of absurdity a la Beckett (the male characters all but wear red noses they’re such clowns) but it is only half a step from reality, making the comedy that much more terrifying. She is masterful at skewering the toxic masculinity that infects even the most mediocre of men. It’s so instilled in so many that they can’t see it or understand it, which is exhibited uniquely through John, Jordan, and Howie, who are so emotionally stunted, they can’t identify an emotion let alone process one. Read more…
Katie Buenneke – Theatre Digest
This is a fairly new play by Mara Nelson-Greenberg that is, ostensibly, about a woman (Paula Rebelo) who comes in and teaches a collections office how to manage their emotions. But it’s really about how people navigate around male emotions, which often come out as anger. The text is too stylized for my taste, and I wondered who was supposed to be the intended audience of the play. Read more…