Washington Post - Recommended
"... The inaugural offering of the Studio Lab series, the world premiere of the two-character play by Duncan Macmillan, is at once beguilingly modest and rewardingly polished. Director Aaron Posner ably guides his actors, the outstanding Brooke Bloom and Ryan King, to charmingly recognizable portrayals of young people convulsed by the conflict between their boundless desires and the realities of an age in which dreams of big things — or dreams of any kind — seem a foolhardy affront to nature."
MetroWeekly - Highly Recommended
"... Lungs uses this plot device terrifically. Scenes end and begin within an instant of one another. Some jump forward minutes, others years. Only rarely does the effect confuse or muddle -- and to Bloom and King's credit, they handle the shifts brilliantly, subtly altering their characters as time passes without set or costume aid. (The Studio Lab's line is that of "stripped-down productions of new plays with affordable tickets," so Lungs is presented on a bare wooden stage with lights and nothing else.)"
WeLoveDC - Somewhat Recommended
"...Lungs seems like an exorcism of every bad break-up story you’ve ever had to suffer through, as the cliches alternately sadden, alienate, and infuriate. There’s a fair amount of schadenfreude laughter too, which makes sense given we’ve all gone through at least one of the situations on display. It’s apparent from John Barry of DC Theatre Scene’s interview with Macmillan that the playwright earnestly believes his generation is the first to experience these things with such urgency, the first to stare down the loaded gun of environmental ruin… But as portrayed here, W and M are just the same as every other couple, as every other generation, in every other play or movie or sitcom about their plight."
Washington City Paper - Highly Recommended
"... Lungs, concurrently making its world premiere at Studio and two U.K. theatres, is a superb choice to inaugurate the former’s Lab series, intended to offer bare-bones productions of new plays at bargain prices. In this case, bare-bones refers only to the physical production. To call Luciana Stecconi’s set “minimalist” would be too grand: It’s a stylized wooden platform with a light-panel positioned at each corner. No furniture, no props, nothing for an actor to fuss with or hide behind. It’s a good approach—scenery changes would only slow things down—but one wonders if all Studio Lab productions will be staged this way. That might not be a bad thing. With material and performances this rich, two characters talking to one another is all you need. The rest is, you know, silence."
Washingtonian - Recommended
"... Macmillian has done a fascinating job creating a universe out of nothing at all, aided ably by director Aaron Posner. Without props (W’s only concession to naturalism is an over-used tissue), or scenery, or anything to help them set the scene, the actors flit between times, locations, and situations with ease. The rapid-fire plot moves with breakneck speed at times and seems to drag interminably at others. And be warned: If you’re someone with little tolerance for discussing your own feelings, it’s almost unbearable to be subjected to an hour-and-a-half of other people discussing theirs. This is brilliant, minimalist theater, even if it’s the kind of thing that may strike its target audience uncomfortably close to home at times. Does it have an overarching, take-home message? Not really, which is the only thing that could be missing. But it’s an original and striking new play from Studio, even if its characters are as clichéd as they come."
BrightestYoungThings - Highly Recommended
"... The end reminded me so much of the Waves by Virginia Woolf, I couldn’t breathe. Two characters, talking without pause, but you know they are growing older, years as seconds before your eyes, describing a life passing in fleeting moments, touching repetitions, significant moments. Macmillan uses the simplest of touches to illustrate the most momentous change and I thought I would die of the pure beauty, simplicity, and sadness of what I was watching."
MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended
"... The enormity of the decision of whether to bring a child into an already overcrowded, eco-unfriendly landscape descends upon a lone couple as they ‘start a conversation’ in the first breathe of the play, played out amusingly in an IKEA. Surprisingly it is the man, billed as “M” who breaches the subject to his counterpart “W” when societal roles might lend to expectations of the reversal. She is taken aback, to say the least, and needs ‘a second’ or longer to think it over. And thus the stage is set both literally and figuratively at The Studio Theatre’s production of Lungs."
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
Through lightning-swift shifts in mood and movement, Bloom and King, skillfully directed by Aaron Posner and abetted by James Bigbee Garver’s era-appropriate sound mix, Luciana Stecconi’s spare set and Colin K. Bills’ simple, effective lighting, irresistibly pull us along with them through a half-century of two lives much like our own, or if not, the lives of those we know. Without a single prop, lighting or costume change, the Studio Theatre has inaugurated its new Lab Series with great promise.
