Washington Post - Recommended
"...Eason’s script, originally produced at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago and earlier this year at Second Stage in New York, with Anna Gunn as Olivia and Billy Magnussen as her reformed Lothario, Ethan, feels camera-ready, too. In Posner’s astute treatment, in fact, it’s better than the New York version, owing in part to the uncanny chemistry between Twyford and Sottile and a far defter handling of the temperature shifts in Olivia and Ethan’s increasingly stormy relationship."
DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended
"...Let’s get this out of the way. Sex with Strangers by Laura Eason (at Signature Theatre) is a slam-dunk champ. It is an easy crowd-pleaser on its polished comic surface, but, oh what a delicious depth it has!"
DCist - Recommended
"...Such a play could feel uncomfortable, even voyeuristic, with the wrong cast. The show is on Signature’s ARK, a small space, and JD Madsen’s cozy set design heightens the intimacy still. (It’s a clever design, too, using books to panel the floor and walls and crown the windows and doors.) But Sottile and Twyford are well matched, playful and smart, and demonstrate a natural chemistry."
Talkin Broadway - Recommended
"...Is it possible for lovers to know too much about each other? What kind of future is there for an author who has built his reputation on stories about his drunken hookups with women he doesn't even like? These are among the issues considered in Sex with Strangers, the serious yet funny and sexy play now in the ARK Theatre at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia."
Washington City Paper - Highly Recommended
"...The script for Sex With Strangers was the writing sample that landed Eason a job on the writing staff of the second and third seasons of House of Cards. The play had a David Schwimmer–directed production starring Breaking Bad’s Anna Gunn only last summer, but the pairing of director Aaron Posner and Twyford, who together put a flawless production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia onstage at the Folger Theatre five years ago, wants for nothing. It’s the sexiest show of the year, but you’ll love it for its mind."
Washington Blade - Recommended
"...Eason’s entertaining dramedy, now in production at Signature, brings together two very different writers. Thirty-nine year old Olivia (played by out actor Holly Twyford) is a talented-but-yet-unsuccessful novelist who works as a teacher. Brusque Ethan (Chicago-based Luigi Sottile), 28, has already parlayed a blog detailing his sexual exploits into two best-selling books and a soon-to-be-made feature film."
MD Theatre Guide - Recommended
"...Witty, full of crackling dry humour, amused stabs at generational differences, poetry, and references to wonderful pieces of literature like that of Marguerite Duras, Sex with Strangers is a deeply thoughtful, timely production that audiences must experience. While some of the scenes could be a little slow-moving, the two-person cast kept attention with their facial expressions, body language, and chemistry. “It just feels personal, somehow,” Olivia says at one point in the play. “That doesn’t mean you can’t tell me,” Ethan answers, and they are both quite right."
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
Laura Eason’s Sex with Strangers is a booty call with brains. Funny, sexy and insightful, Sex with Strangers is a play about hooking up—and the often messy consequences when the afterglow fades—that hooks you with its unpredictable approach to the mind games lovers play, as well as the issues of privacy and identity in the social media age.
