Washington Post - Recommended
"...Signature Theatre is giving Shinn’s play, a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for drama, a well-deserved Washington area debut. And aside from a tendency on Keegan’s part to hurry through some of Peter’s lines as if he were rushing to catch a bus, director Matthew Gardiner’s production supplies the right amount of restraint to a story loaded with resonant detail. The piece is a low-simmering psychological mystery, the sort of sophisticated evening that comes to a satisfying end without the burden of a thorough explanation."
DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended
"...Christopher Shinn’s provocative time-shifting 65 minute piece, Dying City, explores the themes of love, loss, grief, brotherhood, the past, duty, and identity. Kelly, a young, repressed Harvard grad psychologist is visited one evening at her New York City apartment by an unwelcomed visitor. Her husband Craig, who was also a student at Harvard, died in Iraq under unclear circumstances over a year ago when he was called up again by the Army. When she is visited by his actor identical twin brother, Peter, Kelly is placed in the uncomfortable position of recalling her last days with Craig, the arguments they had about the war, and the state of their marriage as Peter shares Craig’s letters with her. Her complicated relationship with Peter makes the night even worse."
Examiner - Highly Recommended
"...The playwright, Christopher Shinn, has taken such care to reveal the character's flaws and back stories in such a gradual way, that it seems unfair to spoil any major revelations (and there are at least several). Instead, let's just say that there are things about each of the characters, whether stated or observed, that one doesn't plainly see going in. And that's the fun of a story that is full of pain. The three characters are hurting at the deepest possible levels, yet there are moments of laughter and moments of "a-ha.""
WeLoveDC - Somewhat Recommended
"...As talented as Shinn is in constructing such a moving drama with a small cast, setting, and time-frame, the piece feels unresolved. After a packed single act of conflict, it ends with a bit of a whimper without any clear message to walk away with."
Washington City Paper - Recommended
"...Dying City is a perceptive but grim illustration of how even losses we’ve already mourned can be reframed to torment us anew. It’s a short show with a long reach, cold but fine."
Washingtonian - Somewhat Recommended
"...It’s hard not to wonder if Craig’s character might have been best left unseen, particularly since the e-mails he sent his brother from Iraq (e-mails Peter prints out and carries around in a sweetly Victorian gesture) are so unrealistically eloquent. It’s a little too convenient that the sensitive, thoughtful brother who’s a devoted fan of Faulkner, Hemingway, Hawthorne, and Melville leaves such beautifully written prose to remember him by, especially since they reveal unwelcome but half-suspected truths to Kelly. It’s almost as if Shinn wanted a way to express dissatisfaction with the war but realized his characters were too self-aware to say such things sincerely."
Washington Blade - Recommended
"... An intimate play, “Dying City” is ideal for the Ark, Signature’s smaller black box. The fast-paced drama’s action alternates between Peter and Kelly’s strained visit and flashback scenes involving Kelly and Craig (also played by brawny Keegan). This casting trick requires a lot of quick exits and entrances. Fortunately, gay director Matthew Gardiner’s shrewd staging along with Colin K. Bills’ lighting and Matt Rowe’s transporting sound design make time travel smooth and not the least bit hokey. By changing shirts and adding a little swagger, Keegan morphs from the more effusive, self-absorbed Peter to his butcher, more reticent straight brother Craig."
Curtain Up - Not Recommended
"...Stir the one-liners and 65 minutes later the play ends, having made its revelations with some confusion and not much depth. There’s even a reference to the formula for scripts written for Law and Order. Maybe Shinn’s writing really belongs on television — a medium better suited to drama that has less use for plot and characterization — than live theater."
DCTheatreScene - Somewhat Recommended
In this brief, dense hour of misery and mystery, Kelly (Rachel Zampelli) salts herself in grief over the death of her husband Craig (Thomas Keegan) while Craig’s identical twin brother Peter (Keegan, again) haunts her living room, reeling out complaints about his life and job as he stutters his way to a revelation.
The nature of that revelation is, of course, the business of Dying City, and Thomas Shinn’s story, given somber voice by director Matthew Gardiner and Signature Theatre, plays it out like an expert fisher landing a marlin.
