"The wonderful new play written and directed by Richard Nelson...'Hungry,' a work in which nothing much happens beyond some contemplative pre-dinner chatter, may well be the most resonantly topical and emotionally engaging play of this presidential election year...Mr. Nelson finds the weave of momentous history in the fabric of the quotidian. These works are as personal as they are political, and you cannot separate the two any more than you can in your own life."
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"The compression of the project has taken a toll. Characters speak in undifferentiated voices, with similar tics, and despite a host of touching moments, certain narrative choices sour even in the play's short running time...Haste has disrupted his delicacy, leading to the show's worst technique: constant reference to the deceased Thomas, who turns out to have been a Nelson-esque playwright...We see the hand of the playwright, and—all too often—that hand is patting the playwright's back."
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"Its thousand acts of extreme daily realism, from chopping vegetables to the constant dance of interpersonal negotiation, amount to a kind of human politics, dramatizing the historic conflicts and consolations of living in our country right now...Superbly performed, under the playwright’s invisible direction, 'Hungry' may abjure cheap theatrics but nevertheless provides the occult kick of a thriller. You watch it thinking, 'Hey, don’t I know you?'"
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"Nelson’s quietly incandescent 'Hungry' feels as fresh as if it was written this morning...Everything and nothing happens in those 100 minutes...Nelson again directs his work with assurance and the cast is fine; the standouts are Plunkett and Sanders...'Hungry' will be followed in September and November by the last two Gabriel family plays, which are certain to be more civilized and civilizing than the surreal events unfolding in the world around them."
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"Anxiety, thick enough to cut with a knife, is what author and director Richard Nelson is really exploring in this gorgeously acted portrait of American lives in limbo…Performed by a flawless ensemble, 'Hungry' always goes down very easy even if, as in the Apple plays, this production isn’t action-packed. It’s about conversation — talk that’s freighted with plainspoken eloquence, humor, remorse and anger. The acting is so natural it delivers a fly-on-the-wall voyeuristic thrill."
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"The evening delivers the sort of intimacy rarely encountered on the stage, even if it has its longueurs...Narratively speaking, little happens in these plays...The evening, then, is not about action, but rather the casual interplay among the extended family members. As with the first trilogy, this installment seems mainly designed as an introduction to the characters. All of them seem vitally real thanks to both the precision of the writing and the superb performances by the ensemble."
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"Very little occurs in these plays...The casual, subdued acting from the six-person ensemble is ultra-realistic, but it’s hard to stay interested in 'Hungry' for 100 quiet, uneventful minutes. But taken together with the upcoming two segments, 'The Gabriels' will provide another up-close and in-depth portrait of a struggling American family at this specific moment in time."
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"The characters are so affable, so friendly, so genuine, that it's almost like we're eavesdropping...Nelson's major gift here is the way he captures, in a way no other contemporary playwright yet has, the all-too-real fear among members of the Democratic Party: What if it collapses...Directed with sharp precision by the author, 'Hungry' features a company of actors whose work is so authentic we forget they aren't actually their characters."
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