"Aiming to be a raucous comedy of misbehavior and a quiet tragedy of mistreatment, it amazingly succeeds at both...It is serious and sad and profoundly human...Crowe-Legacy, Fuller and Gilbert are so delicate with the sadness that it keeps coming as a surprise how merciless they are with the comedy. O’Hara’s direction is key here...'BLKS' suffers from a familiar structural turbulence at the end, as if it’s too big a vehicle to land on a short runway. Still, it lands."
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“’BLKS’ operates like a sitcom, with ‘Sex and the City’ style leaps of logic, sudden romances, and the requisite piles of coincidence...Every now and then you sense the poet at work...Barnes wants this show to rollick along, and it doesn’t...The production moves too slowly to get into the appropriate gear...Director Robert O’Hara believes that exaggeration is the key; designer Clint Ramos believes a galumphing turntable will keep things swift. Neither of them is right.”
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"Her playwriting debut, despite the manic energy of Robert O’Hara’s production, is discouragingly prosaic...Presented in 23-minute-long punchy, raunchy episodes, it might find its groove. But onstage it feels like a missed opportunity, its drama mundane and its comedy mostly overwrought...It’s the highly game trio of actors at the center of 'BLKS' that keep us on board...But the sum of the play’s parts never surprises us, never exceeds our expectations for standard-issue contemporary realism."
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"Fortunately, for all its overly calculated provocation, the play is also very, very funny at times, which goes a long way toward making up for its thinness...At times the overly broad humor becomes repetitive. But under the energetic direction of Robert O'Hara, 'BLKS' features plenty of laughs...Although all the performers do excellent work, the standouts are Gilbert as the panicked Octavia, and Myers, who charmingly makes the most of the sole male character."
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"Under the snappy direction of Robert O'Hara, the three lead actors savor Barnes's salty language...Barnes's lack of fear as a writer is what makes 'BLKS' a particularly joyous experience...Each of Barnes's characters is a mess in his or her own special way, and it is in their flaws that we are best able to see reflections of ourselves — and laugh-cringe at the mirror's harsh truth."
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“A raucous, girls'-night-out comedy that veers between delightful, off-kilter hilarity and rank vulgarity, pausing occasionally to embrace a totally unearned moment of seriousness or two...’BLKS’ is marked by a screwball hilarity, best expressed in the lead characters' trash-talking ways...At a certain point, it becomes pretty obvious that ‘BLKS’ is a lot of running around with no particular destination in mind...Following its characters avidly without entirely making them fully engaging.”
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"Deliciously outrageous, and utterly hilarious...'BLKS' a play by Black people for Black people...and you're going to love it whatever race and sexual orientation you may be...The dialogue is brutally honest and we immediately care about all of them, despite the fact each is deeply flawed and has serious emotional issues...Barnes' play is raunchy and heartbreaking and unmissable."
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“Loud and messy and smart—just like the women it depicts—‘BLKS’ is a rambunctious new comedy...If the play turns a mite sentimental in its concluding scenes, the quirky charm of its characters and the words that fly out of their mouths easily compensate. What is especially notable is the playwright’s expressive way with conversation...Barnes’ pungent realistic dialogue embraces a dynamic blend of black vernacular with rich urban slang that sounds wonderfully alive.”
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