The House “If the laugh meter had been on, the opening night audience would have broken it, as the onstage antics prompted grins and guffaws and outright howling.”
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“Director Margarett Perry whips it up to a ferocious pace while staying true to the play’s rhythms. Parks’ dialogue comes in whiplash fragments of conversation, zipping between the actors like pinball or a super fast handball game, landing in a small burst of an outrageous declaration before taking a swift turn into a dazzling non sequitur. Then with a tiny breath the next fusillade begins.” |
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“Designer Tyler Perry’s set is ingenious. The silhouette of the house is a wall, as well as the floor, of the living room where all the action takes place, reinforcing the audience’s awareness of the different things the house means to the two couples. Two sofas are placed facing each other, underscoring the impression of the four adults continually facing off against each other. “
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“Under the inspired direction of Margarett Perry, four actors have inhaled helium and run with it.”
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“The comedy is as much physical as verbal, including a great face-off between the two guys (two nebbishes trying to out-macho each other) and another face-off, this one fully nonverbal, where each couple tries to take possession of “their house” by settling into grotesquely intimate embraces.” |
