Washington Post - Highly Recommended
"...Amy Herzog's savvy "After the Revolution" is set in New York and Boston, but it's a first-rate Washington play. The drama, being acted with heart and intelligence at Theater J, follows a family of hard-core lefties through a spying scandal - an imminent uproar that threatens to tar the clan's name and cost a social justice foundation millions of dollars."
DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended
"...Who would have guessed that a family drama about everyday ethics and far-left ideology could be so engrossing and engaging, the characters so real and riveting, that what happens on stage enters one's mind as if the fourth wall has fallen?-as if the the play has liberated a new theater zone?-as if the tension between character and conscience seems more alive than in real life?"
Washingtonian - Highly Recommended
"...The acting propelling After the Revolution is staggering, elevating the play’s less consequential scenes; particularly enjoyable are Emma’s business lunches with Morty, an aging radical played with a casual, self-deprecating wisdom by James Slaughter. As Emma, Anderson’s nervous energy is engaging, exhausting, and entirely believable. Susan Rome also makes a powerful impression as Meg, Emma’s stepmother, a relatable figure whose own flirtations with activism were never fully embraced or respected by the domineering Joseph clan. But when Vera is in the picture, the stage belongs to Robinette. Her hearing problems and outdated stereotypes (lesbians = victims of abuse) could make her a caricature, easy to brush off. But Robinette gives Vera a sharp mind and a cutting tongue."
Curtain Up - Recommended
"...There's no scarcity of conflict in Amy Herzog's very fine, thought-provoking play. Father/daughter, brother/brother, sister/sister, boss/employee, girl friend/boy friend, personal gain/the greater good, truth/idealism. And under director Eleanor Holdridge there isn't a false note. The cast is good, dominated, as it should be, by Megan Anderson in a very fine performance as the strong-willed and well-intentioned Emma. As the grandmother whose hearing is failing but memory is clear, Nancy Robinette particularly the grandfather's perjury when denying he was a Soviet spy – reveals how times and generations differ. In smaller roles, Susan Rome as Mel Joseph, Emma's stepmother, is alternately funny and psychologically astute, while James Slaughter, as Morty, the money-man behind Emma's fund, charmingly and amusingly steals every scene he is in. His is a small role fleshed out beautifully. Misha Kachman's set uses the color red evocatively and Andrew Cissna's lighting creates just the right mood for the play's varied locales."
MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended
"...Recycling personalities from her popular play, 4000 Miles, Amy Herzog creates the same tense dialogue and moral ambiguity in After the Revolution. With the lines blurred between the Joseph’s personal and political identities, making determinations about what is “right” or “wrong” is excruciating for Herzog’s three dimensional characters yet all the more exciting and relatable to the audience. Thanks to director Eleanor Holdridge this play is opinionated without being preachy and gently paced without losing its initial verve. Strip away the communist rhetoric, the monologues about education reform and the commentary on institutional racism and you still have a highly compelling story with a powerful message and an undeniably human pulse."
DCTheatreScene - Recommended
Getting a leg up from your family is awfully nice. But what happens when that lift suddenly falls away? Such a precarious moment arrives for the idealistic young activist Emma Joseph early on in this appealingly intellectual drama by Amy Herzog, penned in 2010 and smartly produced at Theater J this month as an area premiere.
