"A curious flatness pervades most of 'Fruit Trilogy'...Mr. Rosenblatt too often goes for bluntness where nuance is needed, which gets in the way of human connection. So does the almost unrelenting tonal darkness of the first two plays, making them seem less like a protest against women’s victimization than a fetishization of it...'Coconut' makes an uplifting finish to a grim program. And laughter, that vital survival mechanism, whooshes in like oxygen."
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"The play contains the kind of frank language about deeply personal situations that is likely to disturb some audience members. However, Ensler's eyebrow-raising scenes are not gratuitous. 'Fruit Trilogy' is an honest, unflinching look at the way women's bodies are commodified, violated, and — with great difficulty, courage, and strength — eventually accepted by their owners...It's a significant piece that shouldn't be ignored, especially now."
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“Ensler is best known for her straightforward style...So it's a bit of a jolt that the first third of her trilogy takes on an absurdist angle...The second scene, Clemons admirably throws herself into the difficult material, but Rosenblatt could have had her modulate her intensity more...The final piece gives viewers some much needed feel-good positivity to cap off the night...The ending can be awkward, but my more extroverted guest was having a ball.”
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"If she was a tour guide, Ensler would be the kind who asks you to venture into pits of darkness, without ever promising light on the other side...Her words, and the places she takes her characters to, rely on what can only be described as an esoteric law of physics, something along the lines of: we have endured this much, so the universe ought to balance it out somehow. That she does this without relying on condescension or cliché is miraculous and life affirming."
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"Staged by director Mark Rosenblatt with considerable style...One note of caution: The scalding anger that boils over here regarding male brutality towards women may disturb some viewers, while anyone who cannot abide Beckett or abstract theater modes will not have a good time. Otherwise it is intriguing to see Ensler consider her usual topics such as body image, male violence, sexual freedom, social exploitation, and similar concerns through an atypical dramatic lens."
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"'Pomegranate'—mercifully, the shortest of the three shorts—is just something you’ll have to endure to get to the harrowing 'Avocado'...Each piece seems to exist in its own world. There’s no easy way to move from the avant-garde 'Pomegranate' to the confessional 'Coconut.' And after the weighty 'Avocado,' 'Coconut' seems almost trite...But I admire Ensler’s message of positivity and celebration of visibility."
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"Eve Ensler's 'Fruit Trilogy' depicts worthy issues that need to be publicly discussed. However, as the individual plays are only about one issue each, they tend to go on too long, way past the time when the audience has gotten the messages. This may, in fact, be Ensler's chosen technique, inundating the viewer with too much information that becomes difficult to forget, a limit to what we can take in. However, the problem is that there is a dropping off of attention, a diminishing of returns."
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"The trilogy combines moments of levity with moments of fear and conviction...In 'Pomegranate,' the performers present as Items, ready for sale...Without extraneous movement, they deliver the text, thoughtfully and unflinchingly...The box bursts open in .Avocado'...In a courageous performance by Clemons, who previously performed in 'Transparent,' moments land with a definitive sense of breath...In 'Coconut,' it’s refreshing to find a differently inclusive narrative."
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