...dark, comic and passionate...

...this whirlwind of a dark comedy does indeed have passion of Shakespearean intensity.

Founder and artistic director of barebones, Patrick Jordan, plays Jackie with appealing fury and even more appealing bewilderment. Ruth Gamble is a quasi-tragic spitfire as the seriously conflicted Veronica, and Daina Michelle Griffith (who seems to be in two or three plays simultaneously these days) comes closest to tragedy as Victoria. Edwin Lee Gibson is the self-assured Ralph (the roll played on Broadway by Chris Rock; Gibson is better). We know all these and appreciate their talents. The discovery is Leandro Cano as Cousin Julio, who may enter as comic relief but develops into something more.

For me, the ending has a surprising emotional kick... Maybe sad is just sweet by another name.

...opening with a scene of lethal toxicity thanks to Ruth Gamble (as Veronica) and Patrick Jordan (as Jackie), this barebones production starts with an H-bomb bang.  

Corrosive, profane, darkly funny

The irony of the show is that the people who would most appreciate Guirgis' somewhat mawkish story will be the least likely to see it.

Guirgis has written smart, complicated, and at times unpredictable characters, and the barebones ensemble realizes those characters with fierce intelligence. 

Gamble and Griffith both succeed superbly at the difficult task of giving us a glimpse at the seed of hurt around which their characters’ tough shells have calcified.