"Drums are what herald two extraordinary monologues in this densely packed, erratic comic drama, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz. Their percussive insistence shapes two separate instances when both a character and the play that has hitherto confined her soar into a stratosphere of freedom...You may find it difficult to sort out all the rivalries and counterplots festering among these women...Gardley’s fondness for metaphor can sometimes strangle what should be simple exposition."
Read more

"Though it’s luscious and structurally artful, the play seems somewhat divided against itself. In the first half, Gardley changes Lorca’s mood from Spanish lyric tragedy to ribald French comedy, and Lileana Blain-Cruz steers the deft cast through tart and sharply funny exchanges, backhanded insults and dirty jokes...Gardley tries to change the plot’s hardwired doom and gloom to notes of uplift and liberation...Having started on firm foundations, this excellent play seems to shudder at the last."
Read more

"It’s an elegant narrative formation, and one that lends itself to heightened theatricality...Blain-Cruz’s production only intermittently taps into the play’s brassiness, its conscious defiance of naturalism, and this flickering in and out of focus isn’t simply a matter of directorial oversight...I longed for an overarching theatricality that more fully tied these moments together: a production where the the powerful realness of Gardley’s characters made fewer concessions to realism."
Read more

"This poetical drama infused with supernatural elements boasts rich language and colorful imagination. But its narrative clunkiness is very much on display...The drama possesses many arresting lyrical elements, but Gardley never makes them cohere...The evening's tone shifts uneasily from floridly melodramatic to a near sitcom-style level of broad humor...The end result proves frustrating; the work's thoughtful and provocative aspects are undercut by its stiltedly artificial ones."
Read more

"Between its supernatural tone and outsize feminine sexuality, the play often verges on camp. While Gardley's storytelling occasionally digresses, he still proves himself one of the great theatrical practitioners of historical fiction by depicting a little-discussed era of American history...Like a practitioner of theatrical voodoo, director Lileana Blain-Cruz succeeds at conjuring an ideal atmosphere for magic and mayhem."
Read more

“Over the course of two acts, the house of ‘The House That Will Not Stand’ is wracked by storms, scandals, catfights, and bizarre supernatural doings. None of this is boring, but neither is it totally believable...The script is marked by stylistic inconsistencies...In the end, Gardley's house stands, even if it wobbles a bit from time to time. Its foundation is sound, and if you don't mind some of the more garish appointments, you may have a gripping experience there."
Read more

"Finally receiving a first-rate New York production that's richly produced and wonderfully acted...Gardley injects a huge dose of humor into his play in the caustic put-downs between the women with Gravatt getting the lion's share of the most hilarious retorts...Astutely directed...Yes, you can quibble about the two-dimensionality of several characters and Gardley's occasional contemporary anachronism, but you can't argue that 'The House...' isn't wildly entertaining."
Read more

"The elegance of Gardley’s prose and Rigg’s set is greatly enhanced by the actors as they circulate in Blanco’s predominantly black costumes and as they glide under Lileana Blain-Cruz’s style-establishing direction. The always-formidable Gravátt heads a cast of equals, each of whom instills believable late 18th-century presence...Gardley sees to it that every one of them has at least one taking-focus moment. It’s another tactic in his suave fight on behalf of woman’s equality."
Read more