"NYTimes Critic's Pick!...“Dana H.” is not just the story of a woman brutalized by a psychopath; it is also the story of a mother abandoned by a son. What else would a playwright do to make reparations but write a play about just that, in the process returning to her what the world had stolen: her voice."
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"Five stars!...O’Connell is nothing less than astonishing...Watching Dana H. is like listening to a fascinating true-crime podcast, and part of the interest is in the mysteries that adhere to Dana’s account, which may be distorted by trauma and time."
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"I recently reviewed a show and declared that talk business does not belong onstage. Dana H. has forced me to eat my words and to accept that there are no absolutes in theatre, particularly when the story is horrifically affecting and spectacularly executed as this show is. Dana H. should be required viewing for legal scholars, law enforcement officers, and aspirants across the country, if only to remind them that depravity reigns when they fail to do the right thing."
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"Mr. Waters has staged it with the utmost simplicity, trusting in the force of the tale. I have never watched a more powerful piece of documentary theater: Once seen, it will stay with you for a long time to come."
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"A mesmerizing act of electronic ventriloquism...It’s hard to say which is more absorbing: Dana’s story or O’Connell’s uncanny portrayal, requiring her to reproduce in perfect alignment with the audiotape every cough, pause, giggle and slap of the chair in which she sits for much of the 75 minutes of the piece."
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"Given the lip-synching and lack of movement on the part of O’Connell, one may wonder why “Dana H.” needs to be a live piece of theater rather than a true crime podcast or a raw testimonial video on YouTube. But at its best, the production (directed by Les Waters, who has also staged other plays by Hnath) is compelling, terrifying, and multilayered, especially with regard to the nature of reality."
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"Not only is it the wildest true story on any stage in New York City, but it features a performance that must be seen to be believed."
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"A theatre piece that unmistakably demands considerable thought and even more unmistakably boasts Deirdre O’Connell’s unbounded talents."
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