Familiar Reviews
Washington Post- Recommended
"...Gurira's "Familiar" is funny and warmhearted while remaining true to the serious turf she claimed in her earlier plays "Eclipsed," "The Convert" and "In the Continuum." Gurira is interested in African stories, and "Familiar" sticks close to her roots as the Iowa-born daughter of Zimbabweans. Some of the dialogue on race and cultural friction was so on point that during Friday night's opening, the hippest pockets of the audience snapped their fingers in approval."
MetroWeekly- Recommended
"...A crowd-pleasing, sweet-hearted sitcom with a provocative edge, Danai Gurira's Familiar delivers a very different take on the immigrant experience - and a very timely one. In a climate in which our nation's new arrivals are reduced to faceless statistics and political pawns, it's vital to be reminded that these are real people who can never be so easily pigeonholed. And Gurira's is a refreshingly original premise: two well-heeled Zimbabwean parents have raised a couple of privileged American daughters in the heart of Minnesota. Now, as the eldest is about to marry an uber-Christian white man, an aunt arrives from Zimbabwe to deliver a traditional wedding ritual - and something of her own agenda - and the family is tipped into a chaos that moves from comedy to crisis."
DCTheatreScene- Highly Recommended
"...Familiar, by Tony Award winning playwright Danai Gurira, is an intimate comedy-drama set in the home of a first-generation Zimbabwean family living in Minnesota. The family has gathered over the weekend to celebrate and prepare for the winter wedding of their eldest daughter, Tendi (Sharina Martin) to Chris, her white fiance, (Drew Kopas)."
BroadwayWorld- Highly Recommended
"...A few of my favorite shows staged at Woolly Mammoth over the last decade or so have one thing in common - they were all written by Danai Gurira. Whether it was In the Continuum, Eclipsed, or The Convert, each offered a unique theatergoing experience thanks to the skillful writing, compelling story, and unique insights about cultural identity. The Tony Award-nominated writer's latest work, Familiar, follows the same trend. It's a powerful work and one of the strongest offerings to date in the ongoing Women's Voices Theater Festival. Under Adam Immerwahr's impeccable direction, a supremely talented cast brings out the best of the exceptional script."