"Mr. Dietz has something besides humor in mind and that something — the weight of grief, the paralyzing fear of illness — emerges over the course of the show...In the plain, affectless staging by Mr. Silverstein, Mr. Burton and Mr. McGrath expertly underplay the characters...You may wish, at times, for a dash of immoderation, but the show’s deceptively gentle approach is also what makes it stand apart in our angry times."
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"Its depiction of the plague years still hits hard. And it’s hard to imagine a better cast than the stars of this revival, directed by Jonathan Silverstein for Keen Company. As the two characters spar with each other, mostly through inspired put-downs and bon mots, McGrath expertly parries Burton’s superlative sardonic takes. They duel as though their lives depended on it—which they ultimately might."
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"It's easy to see why this particular text is rarely regarded in the same breath as its seminal contemporaries...'Lonely Planet' has a hard time figuring out what it wants to be: Is it a poignant tearjerker or an absurdist fantasia (on national themes)? Dietz can't make up his mind...Fortunately, when the loquacity of the play becomes soporific, the performances more than make up for it...Silverstein stages the play with sensitivity."
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"Silverstein has found an ideal cast and he has guided them faultlessly through the script's hairpin turns...Seeing 'Lonely Planet' was an almost combative experience; even as I resisted Dietz's setup, I fell under the spell of his writing and the performances...Dietz gets at something hard to shake off about the way gay men had to deal, daily, with death...Keen Company was right to revive this troubled, troubling play just now."
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“The play's premise is straightforward, and the plot is relatively uneventful...The explicit and implicit intertextual connections sometimes detract from the effectiveness of the play as these come off as inorganic and self-consciously writerly...The absurdist elements and the burdensome weight of symbolism often occur at the expense of character development and relationships...Burton and McGrath are wonderful, and their performances compensate for perceived frustrations in the script.”
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“Under Silverstein's placid direction, Jody and Carl never really get angry with each other or show much emotion. The entire play remains basically on one level. Anshuman Bhatia's setting is very realistic, but on the other hand something more surreal might have been in order. Paul Hudson's lighting usually telegraphs the time of day, but not always. How much time goes by is never made clear.”
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"The performances and high standards set forth by Keen Company's production of 'Lonely Planet' exemplify all that Off Broadway can offer...The company puts forward a challenge to think on, connect with, and truly hear the confusion of a tumultuous time...'Lonely Planet' shows us the 'Greenland Problem' of it all: which messes do we accept as a part of the world that we live in, and which distortions do we ignore, or else find the strength to face?"
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“What touched me so deeply about their relationship and what I think Steven Dietz captures so well, is their complete and utter acceptance of each other without judgement...The performances by both Arnie Burton as Jody and Matt McGrath as Carl were stellar...I think what makes ‘Lonely Planet’ so relatable now, is the sense of danger looming for the characters that makes them feel vulnerable in ways they’re not used to.”
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