The Father Reviews
Washington Post- Recommended
"...The playwright strives to create a compelling picture of the incremental mental losses Andre sustains, through some simple and effective repositioning or removing of objects in his apartment from scene to scene. Ah, but is it his apartment? ("The Father" asks you to play mnemonically along, as wall hangings and side tables and even whole rooms disappear.) Is this Anne really his daughter, and which of these guys who materialize sipping red wine is her mate, Pierre?"
DC Theater Arts- Highly Recommended
"...It is The Father's dramatic construction that constitutes the play's real genius, however. A lot of modern plays use fragmentation and disassociation to convey 21st-century disorientation. The Father works within that convention but in a unique and supremely effective way."
MetroWeekly- Highly Recommended
"...A stark drama tilted acutely towards the droll humor of its octogenarian title character, The Father also offers a walloping dose of what feels like the truth. Florian Zeller's illuminatingly dark and piercing comedy - translated from its original French by Christopher Hampton - is brutal but not cold in its honesty. It handles an audience much like the daughter at its center, Anne (Kate Eastwood Norris), handles her mercurial, elderly father, Andre (Ted van Griethuysen) - with firm directness, guided by warmth and patience."
Talkin Broadway- Recommended
"...Director David Muse carefully guides the six actors through a series of scenes bordered by blasts of white light from panels on the proscenium. Andre charms a prospective home health aide (Caroline Dubberly) before turning snide and ridiculing Anne; he finds unfamiliar people in his apartment, some of whom say it isn't his apartment at all; he can't find the right words and tries to express himself through gestures; and pieces of furniture seem to vanish when he isn't looking. The viewer has to put the pieces together (and a few of them remain missing), but the clues point to a person slipping into dementia and trying to hide the fact or at least hold on to what he knows is true."
MD Theatre Guide- Highly Recommended
"..."The Father" creates an immersive, heart-wrenching lucid dream become waking dream where, like Andre, we can revel in the mystery while praying through our nervous smiles that we may navigate its labyrinthian plot and wake up in a secure reality. It absolutely invites multiple viewings in order to decipher its detailed development of the plot and is so wholly engaging and terrifically realized through its performances and design that each viewing is sure to leave you shaken, questioning, and yet warmed by its empathy towards yet another painful reality of human existence."
BroadwayWorld- Recommended
"...The Father isn't the type of play that will easily lift our spirits, but it does have the hallmarks of great drama. For in one act, 90 minutes, Zeller helps us understand the human condition. Hopefully Andre's fate will be one we only experience onstage, and not in our lives."