Washington Post
- Somewhat Recommended
"...This setup has enormous potential, including a deep dive into Warhol's carefully curated persona, the role artists play in politics, the tangled history of the United States and Iran, and a basic clash of personalities. Askari touches on all of this, with moments of camp and comedy, and an ambiguous ending that leaves open the possibility that the whole thing was a dream by an artist who was insistently elusive when it came to things like reality."
MetroWeekly
- Recommended
"...Seiden and his cast draw out hints of sexual tension simmering between Warhol and his captor. Yet, while we wait for this scenario to ignite in one direction or another, towards violence or seduction or something, the pot stays simmering, like the discourse, not quite boiling with rage and revolution but torrid enough to keep us guessing."
Washington City Paper
- Recommended
"...Still, Askari's play is admirable and tender and Mosaic Theater Company's production succeeds with the help of a top-notch design team. Andrew Cohen's monochromatic set design frames the Tehran hotel room with images and properties drawing from Warhol's work-especially his photography and videography. Chilly granite-colored walls, boxes of Brillo, and aluminum are countered by the gentle warmth of Alberto Segarra's lighting design. Jeannette Christensen's groovy 1970's costumes enhance the production's vivid, cool aesthetic, while Mona Kasra's projections animate the intentional sterility of the opening scene."
Washington Blade
- Recommended
"...In playwright Brent Askari's "Andy Warhol in Iran," now playing at Mosaic Theater Company, Warhol (Alex Mills) is brought outside of his usual area of interest when he lands face to face with a young revolutionary. While Warhol could be artistically revolutionary, he didn't connect with the idea of forgoing the pursuit of money and fame for the infinitely more difficult task of achieving social justice."
MD Theatre Guide
- Recommended
"...Capturing the essence of a character like Andy Warhol (who arguably was as much self-conceptualized character as he was actual human being) can go one of two ways: either the portrayal will devolve into caricature to further prove a point, or surprisingly, it will offer up new and even more sophisticated ways for said character to be interpreted. In Brent Askari's "Andy Warhol in Iran," presented by Mosaic Theater, the Andy Warhol that we ultimately get languishes somewhere between the two as he rides out a heartfelt story of finding humanity in a hotel room."
BroadwayWorld
- Highly Recommended
"...Andy Warhol really did go to Iran. In 1976, the Shah's wife, Farah Pahlavi, arranged to sit for Polaroid photos which Warhol would then use as a basecoat for a series of prints, and Andrew Cohen reproduces Warhol's image of her as a permanently present part of his set design. Warhol also could really order reasonably priced caviar from his hotel's room service. But playwright Brent Askari has not written a documentary. Rather, he's found a way to use facts to explore, enlighten, entertain; Andy Warhol in Iran places an interesting set of "what if" questions in the middle of what really happened in and to the 2500 year old civilization now called Iran."
DC Theater Arts
- Highly Recommended
"...Mosaic Theater Company’s production of Andy Warhol in Iran is a masterful, creative blend of humor and reflection. Brent Askari’s play imagines a possible event during the pop artist’s 1976 visit to Iran to take Polaroids of the Empress for paintings, an event that, as Andy puts it, “might have happened.” Directed by Serge Seiden, the play intimately reveals the connections between two seemingly different people."
