The Marriage of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein - Press

CRITIC’S PICK “Einhorn gives Stein, and often Toklas, dialogue that circles and careens before crash landing in unknown territory...As brilliantly phrased by Ms. Simon, [Toklas'] gnomic utterances take on as much emotional depth as Stein's manner of speaking denies them, and surprises us in revealing the cost beneath the camp....He is interested in borrowing Stein's compulsively reiterative prose style for its intrinsic delight. To that extent, this 'Marriage' is a silly aural pleasure...What makes the insight fresh in Mr. Einhorn's play, is the absurdist language in which it's told. And what makes it painful is the understanding that in every marriage, someone is the genius, someone not."

Jesse Green

Read the full article at The New York Times

5 STARS “Einhorn directs with stylized precision, while leaving flexibility for the portrayals…The actors hit their marks with marvelous, in-the-moment-truth...It is clear that they have invested full personal stakes in these portrayals, adding up, through Einhorn’s clever direction, to a masterwork that will not easily be forgotten...A lighthearted, whimsical, funny and yet incredibly profound examination of love, being, identity, and interconnected consciousness." 

Carole Di Tosti

Read the full article at blogcritics

BEST BET “A brilliant love letter for Stein and Toklas in the form of a whimsical, furiously funny, and ultimately profound play...Their story is told in a style of self-aware charm, endless pretense, and suspended beliefs...It will make you laugh, and then before you realize it, make you cry as well...The cast is superb. Katigbak and Simon have glorious chemistry...A perfect example of a harmonious co-existence of wild imagination, an excellent structure, and a strong central theme." 

Ran Xia

Read the full article at Theater is Easy

“The highly skilled actors commit passionately...Utterly riveting show. There is an eloquence forcing its way through the shiny surface of quick witticisms and wordy observations that brings meaning and gravitas to the play...Underlying the farcical, high-paced, cartoon-esque moments lie truth and depth, poignantly and subtly lingering as smoke. Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, this love story that was, the marriage that should have been, is the play you must see." 

Tania Fisher

Read the full article at Stage Buddy

“Stein is the eye of this storm, played with magisterial humility by Mia Katigbak. She is the oracular center on which her coterie of geniuses base their self-attention...Neale as Hemingway is a self-satire tottering on the precipice of tragedy, a tour de force of tortured élan; Harding as Picasso and everybody else is a genius of self-importance and shtick painted thinly over remorse and ambivalence." 

Adam McGovern
Read the full article at
HiLoBrow

Einhorn directs his play with a flair for both comedy and complexity. Mia Katigbak stuns with her delivery as Gertrude Stein…Be prepared to be swept away, and suddenly confronted with complexities and philosophies that strike a nerve…The play leaves you breathless and spellbound…Fully realized by a brilliant cast, use of lighting, sound, and costuming…Theatre that needs to be seen, and a dance that needs to be experienced.”

Amy Oestricher
Read the full article at
Huffington Post

“A farcical frolic with members of Gertrude and Alice’s charmed circle...Mia Katigbak and Alyssa Simon balance powerful moments with sensitive ones and interchange identities...Edward Einhorn’s writing creatively embraces Stein’s verbiage and cadence with his own touches of humor and enough historical references to satisfy the Gertrude and Alice fan, English or art history major, 1920s Francophile, or anyone looking for an enjoyable, thoughtful, theatrical romp.”

Hans Gallas
Read the full article at
GertrudeandAlice

“The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein is the sort of thing that one chortles through from paragraph to paragraph while unraveling additional meanings until the final period lands...Though all is nearly lost, one thing remains: the love that set this whole shebang into motion and the promise that geniuses - and newly converted Christians - will meet again in heaven. You'll have to see the play to unravel that tease. Do so; it is absolutely worth it.

Juan Michael Porter II
Read the full article at BroadwayWorld


LONDON PRODUCTION AT JERMYN STREET THEATRE

5 STARS “A small gem of a play...moves seamlessly from the farcical to the darkly insightful.

JC

Read the full article at London Living Large

5 STARS “Theater of Absurd at its best." 

William Russell

Read the full article at ReviewsGate

5 STARS "Alice is portrayed by Alyssa Simon  who conveys beauty and femininity . She was the other half of Gertude Stein whose fierce lesbianism is wonderfully portrayed by Natasha Byrne...an extraordinary, deliciously dotty play. It is intelligently funny portraying the personality  of Gertrude, a woman  not crazy, not even eccentric but incredibly sure of herself and her own ideas. A strong, intelligent [genius?]"

Aline Waites

Read the full article at Pyekan

4 STARS “The company of four highly talented performers switch characters with ease." 

Carole Gordon

Read the full article at North West End UK

4 STARS “The four [performers] give a pacey, energetic performance which neatly counterpoints the seriousness of the  concepts of art and reality with which this piece juggles...Einhorn deftly explores important issues about gay marriage and Jewishness.

Julie Peakman

Read the full article at Plays to See

4 STARS “You get a real sense of that  bohemian creative ferment,  both absurd and enlighteningly necessary as the West recoiled and reconsidered between the wars. You feel the shadows over it too, and the compromises.  Shafts of sudden  epigrammatic truth sparkle suddenly, and it is a hymn to solid love." 

Libby Purves
Read the full article at MyTheatreMates

4 STARS “It’s quite a powerful 90 mins of straight-through theatre because it has layers.  Although The Marriage of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein is very funny, not least because there’s an element of theatre sending itself up, it’s also a rueful reflection on gay marriage. That sits alongside an exploration of the  nature of genius – with a sideways glance at the predicament of Jews during the lifetime of these women. It’s a celebration of lifelong love too and that’s always satisfying.”

Susan Elkin
Read the full article at Sardines

4 STARS “Simon, repeating her Off-Broadway performance as Alice, holds the piece together with her understated and as Alice. Her quiet reflections and casual comments give the piece so much of its clarity. Even if much of the facts are pretend, the desire for freedom and acceptance is universal. ”

Read the full article at PaulinLondon

3 STARS “It is brave and uncompromising; especially towards the end, where Alice imagines Gertrude chatting with Solomon, Moses and Abraham, Einhorn takes the show's Jewish feel in an intriguing new direction that is well worth the wait.

Judi Herman
Read the full article at Jewish Renaissance