The Oldest Boy: A Play in Three Ceremonies Reviews
DC Theater Arts- Highly Recommended
"...Sarah Ruhl's The Oldest Boy is a graceful meditation on motherhood: its joys, its sorrows, and its unforeseeable costs. Director Kathryn Chase Bryer offers a visually lovely and emotionally moving version of this magical play."
MD Theatre Guide- Highly Recommended
"...This is a beautiful, tempered production that ultimately offers hope and a belief in the magic of the universe we inhabit. It's a journey well worth taking."
DCTheatreScene- Recommended
"...Plenty of pop culture real estate-from The Omen to We Need to Talk About Kevin, to name a few-has been devoted to parents coming to terms with the possibility that their child may be pure evil. But grappling with a potentially holy offspring can be equally fraught, or so suggests The Oldest Boy, a play written by Sarah Ruhl currently having its DC premiere courtesy of Spooky Action Theater under the direction of Kathryn Chase Bryer."
BroadwayWorld- Highly Recommended
"...The central performance in Sarah Ruhl's The Oldest Boy, now playing at Spooky Action Theater through June 30, belongs to the ensemble as a whole. The title character, a reincarnated Tibetan Buddhist lama, is brought to life not by a single actor, but by the seven actors that create his world. Some are more directly responsible than others - the puppeteers, for example, move him from one place to another, help him to look where he needs to, help him to hold things - but all are crucial to helping us believe in him. When his mother looks into his eyes, we think we can catch him breathing. It's a leap of faith on our part, one that yields some of the richest results any show will bring this summer."