Visiting Edna & Good for Otto: Two Plays

Many would list [Rabe] among the very greatest of living playwrights --Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

Rabe's theatrical universe is at once vivid and mysterious, a pageant and a puzzle, where his bemused characters glimpse only the barest outline of what one of them calls 'the unrelenting havoc' in which they flounder . . . Rabe . . . has produced a wide-ranging body of distinguished drama . . . Rabe's daringly stylized dramas hover in the realms between the natural and the metaphorical. --John Lahr, New Yorker

Rabe's moving drama [has] a symphonic quality . . . As exciting as it can be to discover fresh new voices, it can be just as heartening to see a veteran playwright return to powerful form, as Mr. Rabe unquestionably does in this sprawling drama about mental illness . . . Mr. Rabe digs into his subject with a depth that almost feels bottomless . . . The play's near-epic nature is integral to its strength. --Charles Isherwood, New York Times, on Good for Otto

Remarkable . . . The great American writer David Rabe . . . [is] justly one of the most revered American dramatic writers of the 20th century, and a writer who has, at the age of 75, now penned as comprehensive, heartfelt and even-handed a theatrical look at the issues surrounding mental illness in America as you ever are likely to see . . . [A] thoroughly wonderful play . . . Rabe is a humanist poet and there are, trust me, some astoundingly beautiful gushes of prose in this work . . . Rabe is a giant of the American theater with plenty more to contribute. --Chicago Tribune, on Good for Otto

The distinguished American playwright employs a couple of extraordinary devices . . . [A] searing play . . . A great American poet and dramatist . . . The writing soars with Rabe's remarkable fusing of wisdom and ignorance about life, with his compassion for troubled souls and yet his fury at how from one another we find ourselves wrenched apart . . . Inestimably moving . . . An important play --Chicago Tribune, on Visiting Edna

Remarkable . . . Good for Otto is an altogether breathtaking piece of theater . . . Otto might just become Rabe's crowning achievement. --Chicago Sun-Times, on Good for Otto

If anyone worried that Rabe might be rusty, such concerns dissipate quickly in Good for Otto . . . The play is long, dark, and deep . . . also thoroughly compelling. --Variety, on Good for Otto

[A] fascinating drama . . . Rabe's play mightily resists traditional dramatic twists or revelations, insisting on a realistic depiction of a complex relationship, loving but bafflingly unsatisfying to both . . . The work ultimately has a deeply searing power . . . Beautifully agonizing. --Variety, on Visiting Edna

An immersive, engaging look inside a profession of passion. --Time Out Chicago, on Good for Otto

The finest play on mental illness in America I've ever seen . . . filled with humor and hope, in homage to the many wounded souls among us who courageously carry on, choosing life against the longest of odds . . . The people standing before us in Otto are accorded tremendous empathy and respect; within the small room where their stories get told, they become our neighbors and our friends. By play's end, I loved them all . . . Otto doesn't just teach us a thing or two about loving our neighbors. It teaches us to love--and be honest with--ourselves . . . A major play by one of our most important 20th-century playwrights. --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on Good for Otto

Tough and moving . . . This being the great David Rabe--whose plays never let our love of story get in the way of truth--you can rest assured that while Edna prompts plenty of tears, it resists the pull of the sentimental . . . Very funny . . . As Rabe's play reminds us, our visiting hours together here are never quite long enough. --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on Visiting Edna

The play's power rests with Rabe's poetic, painfully eloquent writing and the humanity that underscores it. It's also clever, as evidenced by the subtle connections between the characters, reinforcing the idea that Rabe's portraits are in conversation with each other. --Daily Herald, on Good for Otto

A punch in the gut to the viewer. It's not the feel-good play of the new theater season, but it figures to be one of the best --Daily Herald, on Visiting Edna

Beautifully wrought . . . Very clever and coherent . . . Rabe has provided a universally human piece--one of the best I've encountered in a long time . . . A successful and intelligent display of human experience. --Northwest Herald, on Visiting Edna