"Playwright/co-director Frank J. Avella's Lured at the Theater for the New City practices a bit of theatrical legerdemain. Ostensibly about the perils of being gay in today's Russia, Avella takes an unexpected turn into revenge melodrama that almost defeats his main political/social theme. Considering that Lured is based on real events, at the very least he dulls the important political and social points he is making by having the victims and perpetrators behave equally abhorrently."
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“An uncomfortable experience. ‘Lured ‘ is sheerly violent, graphic, and unapologetic about it...The intent is to provoke the audience into righteous anger, and it works...It's a brisk hour and change, with a lithe cast undertaking the difficult material with guts and moxie...At times it's genuinely difficult to watch, but the cast and director succeed in their mission. By the end there is no way to not talk about this play and the uncomfortable facts of our reality it presents.”
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"It is hard to watch the show because it makes you want to yell and scream at the inhumane treatment happening on stage...My one slight criticism of this provocative, in-your-face play is when Tatiana speaks about her brother. I know the playwright, Frank Avella’s reasoning for including this. But instead of making the oppressed and the oppressor connect, it seems unnecessary and forced into the play...'Lured' is timely, relevant to our political climate, and heart wrenching."
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"This grotesque violation of humanity is dramatized in an ingenious way that contextualizes the trend while never flinching from portraying the depravity...'Lured' tackles a topical theme in an artful, non-exploitative way. It is never satisfied preaching to the choir...It doesn't force-feed us any easy resolution, either, ending with a question mark in the best possible sense...Not an easy play to watch, but it is 70 minutes of truth — you can't ask for more."
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"Avella’s play focuses a myopic lens on the entrapment, humiliation and torture of human beings. The spectacle of such cruelty and inhumanity is disturbing enough for any audience to witness. The subject matter is certainly horrific and Kudos to Mr. Avella for being brave enough to bring it to the stage. However, most of the characters are representative either as perpetrators or victims...Their personas need to be more fully realized."
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"The power of 'Lured,' a gutsy new political drama exposing heinous crimes against gay men in present-day Russia, is felt well before the actors take the stage...Among the most arduous and exhilarating 80 minutes I’ve spent at the theater in recent memory...If the dialogue is at times overwrought and the staging a bit clunky — the pacing and fight scenes are not as fluid as they could be — the performers, employing Russian accents, are committed and thoroughly convincing."
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