Neal Weaver – LA Weekly
Breaking up is hard to do, particularly if you’re embedded in a 20-year marriage. That’s the not terribly surprising message of Paul Coates’ play, illustrated by three couples: one straight (Kelly Coffield Park and playwright Coates), one gay (David Youse and William Franklin Barker) and one lesbian (Ferrell Marshall and Wendy Radford). Read more…
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA
How much should theater resemble real life, and how much can it do so? Playwright Paul Coates hits a big nail on the head in this look at the human heart. His play clearly and cleverly reveals the universality of love and the pain of divorce. But it also spotlights the artificialities, albeit long-accepted ones, of theater. Read more...
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly
At the beginning of Paul Coates‘ new play, The End of It, currently playing at the Matrix Theatre, a long-married heterosexual couple living in Los Angeles, Joanna and Drew (Kelly Coffield Park and Coates), are recovering from a party they’ve just thrown. As any number of sociologists and dramatists from Erving Goffman to Samuel Beckett will tell you, it’s not just sex or common interests that hold couples together. It’s the repartee.
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Now running through October 20.