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The Art of Darkness

PRESS

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The Reviews

Doubt, A Parable - Directed by Michael Wright

Helen Hayes Awards Recomended

TOP FIVE SHOWS OF THE WEEK - Maryland Theatre Guide

"SeeNoSun OnStage, dedicated to the genres of horror and suspense, takes a decidedly personal and psychological turn with its most recent offering. As much fun as it may be to indulge in the dark fantasy world of an H. P. Lovecraft, there are few things more horrifying than our easy suspicion of others." 
- Andrew White, DC Metro Theater Arts (Read Full Review)

"... in Michael Wright’s thoughtful production with SeeNoSun Onstage, you realize it’s about our own obsession with crime and punishment... in the end we learn more about the darkness in our own souls. If it’s done right—and it’s done right here—we have no idea whether any crime was committed."
- Andrew White, DC Metro Theater Arts (Read Full Review)

"SeeNoSun OnStage’s production, directed by Michael Wright, shows strength of performance chemistry and technical value. Michael Wright’s staging in this show will indeed surprise you, as there are moments where the dividing line between the world of the play and the audience disappears."
- Genean Hines Grobe, Maryland Theatre Guide (Read Full Review)

"Evan Crump portrays a casual Father Flynn with such a depiction of warmth and love for humanity that you may wonder if Flynn truly committed the crime. His garden scene with Emily Gilson as Sister James exudes such a palpable connection that you feel what they feel in that moment." 
- Genean Hines Grobe, Maryland Theatre Guide (Read Full Review)

"Mary Miller Booker owns the stage with her quiet resolve as Mrs. Muller." 
- Andrew White, DC Metro Theater Arts (Read Full Review)

"Mary Miller Booker’s depth of a mother’s love as Mrs. Muller is heart-wrenching." 
- Genean Hines Grobe, Maryland Theatre Guide (Read Full Review)

"The highlight of the show is (Wendy) Wilmer’s performance as Sister Aloysius, and it is gripping to watch her guide her character through a complex evolution of how the audience perceives her, from ice-cold intimidating schoolmarm to disempowered protector and finally to relentless crusader in pursuit of either justice or personal vendetta, depending on your point of view." 
- DC Theater Scene


Bug - Directed by Michael Wright

DC Metro Theater Arts Best of 2015 - Best Play, Best Director for Michael Wright, Best Actor for Aaron Tone as Goss.

"Five Stars... a perfect storm of powerful performance... OMG it slayed me! On one level Bug is a provocative metaphor for conspiracy-theory mania, a theme that Wright, whose direction is utterly lucid, explores in a program note. On another level, the theatrical playing stage, where live action impacts an audience or not, Bug is a hilarious thriller and a tragicomic romance played with a pace and force that left me agog." 
- John Stoltenberg, DC Metro Theater Arts (Read Full Review)

 

"Five Stars... SeeNoSun Onstage gives this delightfully demented early Tracy Letts play a bravura performance, so that for the next few days you will be unable to scratch an itch without thinking, however fleetingly, of the possibility of Mind Control. Let’s talk about the performances, which are out of this world. Tone, an excellent actor we see far too little of in DC, is superb as the horrifying Goss. Marcus is excellent when Peter is in the grip of his paranoia, avoiding staginess and being real at every moment. Everything is grounded in reality: he is hurt, wounded, cagey, defensive, but never actorly or hamhanded. At his best, Marcus reminds me of a young Karl Miller, who was the most natural-seeming actor I’ve seen on the Washington stage.  Wolfson is similarly nuanced. Aggie is frightened, angry, and defensive, but what she mostly is is starved — for affection, for approval, for recognition as a human being. Wolfson gets all of this, and masterfully steers her character from the frightened and cynical forty-year old she is at the outset of the play to a woman whose paranoia makes her — there is no other word — bug-eyed. Osborn and Gamble are convincing in subordinate roles, and are authentic in scene with the other actors. When so much goes right, credit should go to the director, so here it is: Michael Wright has done a hell of a job with this show, including a meticulously constructed (and uncredited) set and fabulous effects makeup by Alex Brewer." 
- Tim Teanor, DC Theatre Scene (Read Full Review)

"Five Stars... SeeNoSun’s production is captivating with superb acting and direction. Perfect for the fall, when people tend to seek out the darker and more terrifying experiences, this production grips the audience from the start and refuses to let go until the ride is over and the lights come back up."
- Kendall Mostafavi, DC Metro Theater Arts (Read Full Review)


"Wright's natural staging and tight pacing keep things moving and allow the audience to sink into the action in the effectively seedy and familiar, single-set motel room. He uses blood, gore and pain with the deftness of a true master of horror."
- BroadwayWorld.com


Killer Joe - Directed by Michael Wright
  
DC Metro Theater Arts Best of 2014 - Best Play, Best Director for Michael Wright, Best Actor for Sun King Davis as Killer Joe, Best Actress for Jennifer Osborn as Dottie Smith and Best Featured Actor for Matthew Marcus as Chris Smith.

"Five Stars... a powerful knockout of a show...adroitly directed by Michael Wright and played to the hilt by a cracker-jack cast, Killer Joe generates shocked gasps and guffaws in equal measure with the greatest of unease...a deliciously unsettling feast...fascinating, horrifying, and comic all at once." 
- DC Metro Theater Arts (Read Full Review)

"A visceral, graphic and indulgent experience. You have been warned.  All of the performances in Killer Joe are masterfully professional and brave. Go and see Killer Joe, but bring a friend; you will need someone to talk to about what you have seen."
- Maryland Theatre Guide (Read Full Review)

"A blood soaked fried chicken massacre that would make Tarantino squirm."
- BrightestYoungThings.com (Read Full Review)

"Killer Joe at SeeNoSun OnStage is a knockout...there is not a weak spot in this well polished and perfectly dirty production...it is thrilling to see something so unnerving that I didn't know whether to be amazed or offended at the end." 
- BroadwayWorld.com (Read Full Review)

"Chilling...Killer Joe, notwithstanding its bizarre events and tragic conclusions, is a story with human dimensions, engaging and sympathetic...the family members of Tracy Letts’ Killer Joe are just like the Westons of August: Osage County would be if the Westons weren’t so sweet and cuddly and loving...highly defective people; America’s Least Wanted. If we gave them caviar they would choke on it; if we placed them in mansions they would set them on fire, burning to death while watching television."
- DC Theatre Scene (Read Full Review)


Extremities - Directed by Michael Wright (for Molotov Theatre) 

DC Metro Theater Arts Best of 2013 - Best Play, Best Ensemble, Best Director for Michael Wright, Best Actor in a Play for Alex Zavistovich as Ray, Best Actress in a Play for Sherry Berg as Marjorie, Best Supporting Actress in a Play for Alexia Poe as Patricia and Best Supporting Actress in a Play for Jennifer Osborne as Terry.

"horrifying...unsettling...an uncomfortably fair psychological fight."
- The Washington Post

"creepy and convincing...uncomfortable, in-your-face, honest, and realistic"
- Broadway  World

"Five Stars... a sustained electric charge of tension...amps up the voltage to a point of potential trauma where a fuse might blow ...the only real breathers from this breathtakingly intense drama are the brief blackouts between scenes".
- DC Metro Theater Arts

"Brilliant...amps up the scares...you won't see a more visceral staging of a play".
- Entertainment Or Die

"a chest-clutching, jaw-gaping play of terror...see this play. It will disturb you in its wicked brilliancy".
- American Literary Magazine

" Expertly directed by Molotov’s Co-Artistic Director Michael Wright. He has used every inch of the teeny tiny DC Arts Center stage to full advantage. Wright builds the intensity of the piece from what looks like a casual encounter at the top of the show to its ultimate climax."
- Maryland Theatre Guide


The Extermination Machine - Written and Directed by Michael Wright

"Four Stars... The Extermination Machine succeeds in adapting a truly loaded subject matter for the Fringe festival set. The DC Arts Center’s black box bottling up of the interrogation between Eichmann and Israel police captain Avner Less puts an almost unbearably refined focus on the words and actions of two very different men. Distractions such as space and light are extinguished. The end result is a production that succeeds in transitioning from courtroom drama to film noir to intense philosophical dissection".  
- DC Theatre Scene

“The actors, directed by playwright Michael Wright, are subtle and intense; I resented a couple times having to tear my eyes from one in order to watch the other.  This show is in its best moments taut and merciless.  The Extermination Machine is a ringer in Fringe"
- Washington City Paper

“Heartbreaking"
- Fringe and Purge

"Chilling!  You are taken on a one-way journey to Auschwitz"
- MD Theatre Guide

"A chilling, historical drama"
- DC Metro Theater Arts

"As the mild-mannered Eichmann, Kim Curtis is extraordinarily ordinary"
- Washington City Paper

"Kim Curtis shows us the lines between Eichmann being old and frail and acting old and frail. He reveals him for who he truly is; a skillful manipulator who is breaking at the seams"   
- DC Theatre Scene

"James Radack shows us an Avner Less who is undergoing an intense moral struggle; how good of a person is one expected to be in the face of such great evil?"
- DC Theatre Scene

"Playwright/Director Michael Wright’s work may well have a future beyond this tiny stage. But it’s not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach"
- Woman Around Town Blog (2010, 2011 & 2012 NY Press Club Award Winner)


Terre Haute - Directed by Michael Wright

"SeeNoSun does us a service in bringing this provocative play to life. By compelling us to confront an unspeakable act, through the eyes of characters who believe they understand it, Terre Haute expands our understanding, which is the highest goal of theater"
- Tim Treanor (DC Theatre Scene)

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