"A play — sometimes dubious and sometimes devastating — about sexual assault and its aftershocks, it’s a rom-com, a drama and very nearly a tragedy. Do we have a word for that yet? Do we want one?...Webb writes great lines and great one-liners, but they don’t always sound like spontaneous back-and-forth. The characters matter less than the arguments. If that’s a questionable trade-off, the debate is compelling and sometimes complicated...This is a tear-struck thesis play."
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“Webb's drama starts as delirious, wish-fulfillment romance...The characters are too carefully expositional, and later we're too aware of their being manipulated...by their playwright-puppeteer. Yet their fight is bruising. The actors commit themselves totally...‘The Light’ is about choosing to feel someone else's pain, and its best illustration of that idea consists in simply watching Masden and Belcher lift their internal floodgates and let a terrifying tide course right through them.”
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"The play doesn’t push any theatrical envelopes, but it does fill its sturdy, conventional box with affecting articulation and real feeling...The play works because Webb, Vaughn, Masden, and Belcher III give us not only ideas and arguments but full, familiar, suffering and striving human beings. They’re working inside a form that has its literalism and its limits, but they’re bringing dimension, tenderness, and the audacity of hope to the task."
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"This compact, superbly acted two-hander opens a new front in the ongoing -- and, too often, fractious -- dialogue about race and sex. It also introduces a playwright and director who are very much worth knowing about...'The Light' is not a polemic. Webb, a canny dramatist, provides both characters with plenty of firepower...The director, Logan Vaughn, confidently guides the action."
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"A compelling play receiving a superb production with excellent actors makes it something of a minor miracle...Logan Vaughn has directed a taught, rollercoaster of a love story...'The Light' is ten minutes too long and Webb needs to tighten the ending....Belcher & Masden's interactions are painfully real and there are moments you'll want to look away for fear of voyeuristically eavesdropping on such personal conversations. But don't. You won't want to miss a second."
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"Abundant thanks to director Logan Vaughn and the strapping Belcher and the beautiful Masden. They all dive bravely into this emotional maelstrom. They handle the lighter moments with blithe dexterity, yes, but their approach to the tougher twists is inspiring. It’s one of those situations where spectators leave awed that actors choose to go through such draining exercises eight times weekly."
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"A blazing show that reaffirms the company’s mission to produce works that provoke timely conversation...The first 30 minutes or so of Webb’s 75-minute drama is thoroughly beguiling...Sharp observations punctuate the latter parts of the drama, which stir up audible reactions from the audience...Vaughn ably navigates the play’s changing rhythms, which rise and ebb several times, and she cultivates superb performances from her two actors."
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"'The Light' is an explosive, riveting New York premiere by Chicago author Loy A. Webb on the subject of race, sex, gender, trust and loyalty ripped from the headlines at the beautiful new MCC Theater complex on W. 52nd Street. Opening the Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater, a black box theater, one of two theaters at the brand new Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, 'The Light,' developed at Chicago's The New Colony theater company, is so stunningly directed by Logan Vaughn."
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