"A rawly funny but uneven new comedy...The fun stops a little too early: Mr. O’Hara springs a big reveal at the close of the first act that ultimately turns the play in a more serious and less satisfying direction...Mr. O’Hara jolts us with a twist that ends the first act on an admittedly intriguing note. What follows, unfortunately, lets the helium out of the balloon, as the second act mostly dispatches with comedy entirely."
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"Robert O’Hara’s brash, taboo-flouting roast of race and representation... As in the playwright's hilarious 'Bootycandy', most of the scenes involve extreme, broadly drawn comic conflict. I suspect that Barbecue could be even stronger if it took a longer step out of caricature, but that’s clearly not what O’Hara is after. For better or worse, his satire is relentless."
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"I’ll only reveal enough to convince you that you must see this play, and given that the aspects of this play are divine in every way, it won’t take much...by the end of this two-act, O’Hara has explored a slew of relevant topics, all while telling a story that left my and the entire audiences’ mouths vacillating between two positions: screaming in laughter, and agape in utter shock...Go forth and see good theatre. Go see 'Barbecue.'"
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"I’ve not laughed as hard in the theater, or felt as uncomfortable about it, since O’Hara’s 'Bootycandy...' I’m not categorically opposed to plays whose logic doesn’t track, or those that move from yuks to yikes; but this one loses its sprightliness and sense of direction. It is not without its moments of levity, its piercingly apt observations of certain kinds of people. But after such a furious boil of comedy in Act One, the attempted drama of Act Two can only feel like a comedown."
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"Robert O’Hara’s new play, 'Barbecue' (directed with vigor and understanding by Kent Gash), is my idea of an American classic, or the kind of classic we need. Although its fecund imagination seems unlimited, the work wouldn’t exist if it didn’t have the junk of our times to feed on—and spit out. Set, for the most part, in a nameless public park in the middle of the country, 'Barbecue' unfolds in a kind of electrified space, filled with leaf-curling light."
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"Robert O’Hara’s cruelly funny new play, 'Barbecue,' shrewdly turns the formula for the American domestic comedy on its head, forcing uneasy thoughts about the facile presumptions we make about poverty, race and social class, as applied to dysfunctional families."
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"In Robert O'Hara's very funny, recurringly surprising, and ultimately fairly thoughtful new play, which alternates between slapstick and serious, nearly everything is doubled, mirrored, multilayered, at least slightly dishonest...in a great moment at the end of the first act, you will discover that O'Hara's point is something else entirely. You will most likely hoot out loud at the revelation. You'll return for the second act, eager to see where things are going."
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"O’Hara has proved he can pull a rabbit out of a hat. 'Barbecue' is lousy with rabbits — and laughs. But it’s curiously light on substance...When talk between two characters turns serious — rehab, family, sexuality — it almost feels out of place. Fortunately, it’s nothing a few well-timed one-liners can’t fix."
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