"[The actors] seem to be having just as good a time as Mr. Rapp apparently had writing and directing this tall and bloated tale of nasty doings on the banks of a cannibalistic river...It is easy to imagine 'Wolf' as a collaboration between Tennessee Williams and Erskine Caldwell, both deep in their cups...The artery-clogging prose is enlivened by the vivacious staging...The cast members will be very much in your midst throughout, sharing their glee at the chance to act up a hillbilly storm."
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"Though 'Wolf' has trouble sustaining its fever-dream intensity, there's no doubt that Rapp can write...Rapp clearly loves horror, but this attempt to import the style onto the stage doesn't quite work. A few of the flaws are in execution: As a director, Rapp creates inventive environmental staging, but he urges his actors into loud performances rather than frightening ones. Even the dialogue, Rapp's strong suit, turns against him at times."
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"Rapp presents a handful of scenes that are among his very best, alongside an assortment of seriously confounding characters and plot contrivances that don't add up to much...The actors bring a fierce intensity to their roles, like sticks of dynamite that have just been lit...'Wolf in the River' ends up feeling more like an overstuffed, undercooked stew of atrocities...That's not to say it's entirely a loss. Amid the gratuitousness is a collection of moments that rank as top-tier Rapp."
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"A wildly overstaged and mostly incoherent tale...Nothing much happens in 'Wolf,' which fades from one scene of depravity to the next....'Wolf in the River' is a would-be shocker undone by its sheer oversupply of grim and grimy details. Even for playwright Adam Rapp, who revels in the details of various bodily fluids, this one is a bit much. Acting as his own director, Rapp seemingly has no one to point out the moment when his taste for the horrible descends into shtick."
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"The play, which has alternate endings, is told out of chronological order so that it makes it difficult to follow...While the audience may be confused, the cast appears to be gleefully enjoying their roles...'Wolf in the River' is more like a 1960’s happening with its non-linear plot line, colorful characters, startling imagery, gratuitous violence, weird goings-on, and use of myth and folk tale. It will not be to all tastes."
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"At times the constancy of the shouting and the breathless vocabulary of the dialogue can be exhausting. The quietude of this single river scene is something to cherish...The fact that there is such a gentle relationship around which all of this menace occurs only raises the tension. There is an immediacy to the impressionistic appeal of 'Wolf in the River,' but its ideas about the way human beings can instantaneously relate to each other grant it a more permanent universality."
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"By constantly shifting storytelling styles the aggregate impact of this yarn gets diluted. However, there are vivid performances and haunting moments that will still grab you...The silliness of the pre-show makes it quite hard to take the show seriously, and some goodwill is lost while you try to re-commit to the actual endeavor at hand. But once the play gets going and we get a grip on our surroundings, Rapp’s kinetic writing and intense poetry flourishes."
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"Under Mr. Rapp’s extraordinary direction, the ensemble cast of 'The Wolf in the River' brings the audience to a level of awareness and responsibility the theatre too often buries under the veneer of entertainment and the umbilical cord of numbness. Adam Rapp’s 'The Wolf in the River' is nothing like you have ever seen before and nothing you are likely ever to see again."
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