“Absorbing...The show features the finest direction by Dunne and an excellent cast. While the play portrays some serious family issues, it has just the right shades of humor...As the story unfolds, there are unpredictable twists and turns...This four-person ensemble portrays Neary’s captivating tale with all the humor, spirit, and drama it demands...There are some tense, surprising and even absurd moments...Yet, audiences will be able to relate...It is a must-see production.”
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“There are more tricks than treats in this ungainly hybrid of a thriller, domestic comedy, and dysfunctional family slugfest...’Trick or Treat’ is an unpleasant, uninvolving evening...Exploiting sensitive subjects like illness and violence against women without providing a single compelling character...It makes occasional passes at being a probing family drama but is fatally undermined by its relentlessly carpentered, often barely plausible, plot."
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"Rather than producing catharsis, the multiple secrets laid bare and lies exposed amount to something more like unintended parody...I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that any number of patrons were stifling laughter in deference to the actors. That quintet plays the drama—all right, the melodrama—according to the frenzy the script increasingly demands, and director Carol Dunne guides them accordingly...In the final analysis, 'Trick or Treat' may be trick, but it’s definitely not treat."
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"Superior first act...The second act, which tosses out too many curve balls and tonal shifts for the play’s own good. Neary earns credit for pulling us in and keeping us guessing for a while...Under the direction of Carol Dunne, performances are credible even when the story loses its grip... In the end, all of the plot pieces fit, but when it comes to a satisfying evening, the play is more trick than treat."
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"Michael Ganio's costumes are as natural as one would expect, and Tyler M. Perry's lighting design is always on target, illuminating a play that has been designed in every particular, begging the question, where exactly are the surprises. It's well written, but ultimately far too pat to be convincing."
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"This pitch-black comedy manages to find humor in the unearthing of buried family secrets...The first half of the play is suspenseful drama mixed with dark comedy...Under the direction of Carole Dunne, each cast member convincingly navigates the play's twists, turns and changes in tone, challenges that might have easily sabotaged the show in lesser hands...'Trick or Treat' straddles the line between genres."
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"Playwright Neary negotiates the action among the family members with humor, sensitivity and pathos...As the second act continues, Neary shifts the tenor and action in another plot twist and the family relationships clarify...Neary pings every theme about the fault lines of the human condition...This is a profound work with smashing performances by the cast, who raise the stakes at every moment and engage us to the end."
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"If only the right attitude were found,…'Trick or Treat'…might have qualified as a chillingly humorous exercise, something in the vein of…'The Trouble with Harry.' But the play veers from comedy and even farce to melodramatic pathos, struggling to maintain a fundamental sense of believability…Although each of the characters challenges credibility, the actors at least make them colorful. Clapp's Johnny is convincingly petulant, narrow-minded, and thickheaded."
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