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Archive for Samuel D. Hunter

A GREAT WILDERNESS by Rogue Machine at The Matrix Theatre

John-Perrin-Flynn and Jeffrey-Delfin in A Great Wilderness. Photo by Alex Neher.

John-Perrin-Flynn and Jeffrey-Delfin in A Great Wilderness. Photo by Alex Neher.

Terry Morgan – ArtsBeat LA

In my experience, ninety percent of the time that there’s an issue with a theatrical production, the problem is the play itself. It’s surprisingly rare for the main trouble to be with the acting or direction or design. And so it is with Samuel D. Hunter’s A Great Wilderness. I’ve enjoyed other works by Hunter, such as Pocatello or The Whale, but Wilderness has major structural issues that derail whatever impact it might have had. Rogue Machine’s Los Angeles premiere benefits from a strong lead performance by producing artistic director John Perrin Flynn and a handsome set but ultimately can’t transcend the unfocused writing. Read more…

Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw

One of the marks of playwright Samuel D. Hunter’s work is how skillfully he portrays people who lead lives in desperate isolation. In A Great Wilderness, produced by Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, that scenario might apply to Walt (John Perrin Flynn), an elderly man, arguably in the first stages of dementia, who’s dedicated his life to the egregious practice of conversion therapy. Read more…

Through October 31

A BRIGHT NEW BOISE – Chance Theater at the Bette Aitken Theater Arts Center

Photo by Doug Catiller

Photo by Doug Catille

Margaret Gray – LA Times

Some of us try to jury-rig meaningful lives using the disheartening fragments at our disposal; others dream of wiping the slate clean and starting anew. Both approaches prove painfully unsatisfying to the lonely characters in Samuel D. Hunter’s play “A Bright New Boise,” the 2011 Obie Award winner being revived at Chance Theater. Read more…

Now running through October 25.

A PERMANENT IMAGE at Theatre/Theater

Photo  by John Flynn

Photo by John Flynn

Margaret Gray – LA Times

Here’s a deal, L.A. theaters: We’ll happily watch all the liquored-up-dysfunctional-family-reunion dramas you care to stage, as long as you cast Anne Gee Byrd as the mother. Read more…

Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw

Like his other plays, Samuel D. Hunter’s A Permanent Image is set in the arid cultural wasteland of northern Idaho. Read more…

Les Spindle –  Edge on the Net

Obie-winning playwright Samuel D. Hunter (“The Whale,” “A Bright New Boise”) is among the most vibrant and relevant voices in contemporary theater, known for his daring works of uncompromising emotional resonance and psychological depth. Read more…

Dany Margolies  -  Arts In LA

Ah, to be in northern Idaho, where an ordinary couple could peacefully parent a son and daughter, and then spend their golden years wallowing in substance abuse and unenlightening religious worship. em>Read more…

 

Now running through July 20.

REST at South Coast Repertory Theatre

Hal Landon Jr. and Lynn Milgrim in South Coast Repertory's 2014

Myron Meisel – The Hollywood Reporter

At an expiring retirement home on the outskirts of a small town in northern Idaho, the staff prepares to relocate its few remaining residents, when a dementia-impaired nonagenarian music professor, Ken (Richard Doyle), goes missing off the premises as a fierce blizzard completely isolates them from any outside assistance. Ken’s healthy, sardonic spouse Etta (Lynn Milgrim), beside herself with worry, has to speak up tartly to shield herself from the onslaught of patronizing reassurances and bumbling responses. Read more…

Bob Verini -   Arts In LA

A skeleton staff and a few hanger-on residents are the last occupants of the dilapidated Northern Idaho rest home in Samuel D. Hunter’s Rest. This hardy little band must cope with two impending catastrophes—the facility’s closing and a monstrous blizzard—and a dozen or more personal bumps. The South Coast Rep design department does well by the former in the play’s world premiere, but helmer Martin Benson and his fine cast have problems with the intimate travails. The playwright hasn’t done much to help out. Read more…

Now running through April 27.

The Whale, South Coast Repertory

Photo by Scott Brinegar/SCR.

Photo by Scott Brinegar/SCR.

 

The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter.

 

Deborah Klugman – ArtsBeatLA

In Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale, Charlie (Matthew Arkin) an obese gay man confronting his own mortality reaches out to the daughter he walked out on years ago. Like Hunter’s play A Bright New Boise (produced to justifiable acclaim last year by Rogue Artists in Los Angeles), this drama is set in Idaho, and centers on one troubled man’s quest to connect with lost kin, and secondarily on a younger man’s overwhelming desire to connect with God.
Read more…

 

 

A Bright New Boise, Rogue Machine at Theatre/Theater

Photo by Matthew Elkins.

 

A Bright New Boise by Samuel D. Hunter.

 

Dany Margolies – ArtsInLA.com

This Samuel D. Hunter script is saying something, and other people say they hear its message. But some of us do not hear it. Why not? The play pleased a New York publication enough to win an Obie. The play then merited the interest of Rogue Machine theater company and director John Perrin Flynn, who are giving it its West Coast premiere. Read more…