Reviews

The Ask

RECOMMENDED PICK OF THE WEEK! “Under Jessi D. Hill’s meticulous direction, Aidem and Litchfield play off each other like expert musicians … Freeman brings more than a decade of his own experience as an ACLU fundraiser to The Ask, and his achievement is not only to capture two voices with both precision and spiky humor, but also to venture on a generous exploration of two full, wildly different humanities.” - Sara Holdren, Vulture

FOUR STARS & Critics Recommended Pick! “Words are wounding in Matthew Freeman's taut two-hander The Ask, an entertaining and empathetic examination of generational and philosophical differences that divide the political left.” -Raven Snook, TimeOut NY

“Matthew Freeman’s ‘The Ask’ is a bold play. So, it’s only fitting that I start this review with an equally bold statement: It’s the best play I’ve seen in a very, very long time.” Theater Beyond Broadway

“[Freeman is] a master of electrified small talk … Aidem is the ideal actor to play Greta, mining Freeman’s script for every nugget of wry humor and humanity…Litchfield matches her with a performance that is just as sympathetic….Director Jessi D. Hill has finely calibrated the tone and pace…” - TheatreMania

“Freeman’s sparkling script, easily one of the best of the year, surely demanded intense work from the actors as well as from director Jessi D. Hill. Their efforts make this rather intellectual material sing with emotion – and fun. Personality-based levity laces the drama as we follow each party’s argument wondering how the other will counter it.” - Blogcritics

“While I would love to see The Ask, Matthew Freeman’s tight, achingly precise two-hander, confidently and expertly directed by Jessi D. Hill, follow the path of last season’s Job to ever-bigger venues and longer runs, I’m grateful I got to see it in an intimate space like the Wild Project.” - Exuent Magazine

“…stellar acting, writing, and direction…Will Greta continue to fund the organization through the solicitations of Tanner, and if so, at what cost to get what they all need? It’s an intriguing question in a fully entertaining, provocative, and timely play.” - DC Theater Arts

Four and a half stars! “When you’re able to give great actors wonderful things to say, purpose in saying them, and meat for the mind to chew on, you’ve got a play worth watching.” - Front Row Center

“The Ask is a well-crafted, thoughtful and wise piece of theater that will undoubtedly appeal to anyone concerned not only about philanthropy, but about the state of the world. Aidem and Litchfield are first rate actors who make this piece crackle, thanks to Jessi D. Hill’s sharp and precise direction.” - Manhattan Digest

“There's a little gem playing at the Wild Project through September 28th. One set, 80 minutes, with terrific and compassionate writing (Matthew Freeman), directing (Jessi D. Hill), and acting…The debate/dance is fascinating and full of texture; I'm still thinking about it days later.” - Show Showdown

That Which Isn't

"[A] graceful psychodrama...scalpel-sharp...A day later, I can still feel its melancholy chill." - Helen Shaw, The Village Voice

"Freeman’s script is like a literary iceberg, with much of its context floating dark under the surface...That Which Isn’t is a heartbreaking work." - Marti Sichel, Woman Around Town

"Freeman has an ear for tense naturalism." - Jenna Scherer, Time Out

The Listeners

"Matthew Freeman’s The Listeners boasts a swinging, Aleister Crowley naughtiness. It’s a Lynchian fable set in a bed-and-breakfast where time has a habit of looping back on itself. Imagine The Wicker Man sprinkled with Pinter: dark and silly, silly and dark." - Helen Shaw, Time Out New York

"Think Ionesco writing for The Twilight Zone" - Teddy Nicholas, New York Theater Review

Why We Left Brooklyn

"CRITIC'S PICK! See Why We Left Brooklyn. Frowsy, Funny, Quietly Furious. Matthew Freeman’s play—a dinner party from hell packed with aging, underemployed actors and artists clinging to the fringes of their ever-gentrifying borough—doesn’t stop short of caricature: It barrels right through, spilling up-sold wine and cheap irony all over the Ikea furniture." - Scott Brown, New York Magazine

"A love letter to a borough like no other from a generation like no other." - Jim Taylor, WCBS Radio

"Why We Left Brooklyn is a tragedy of manners in the realist tradition of Chekhov and Ibsen....Kyle Ancowitz’s deft realization of Matthew Freeman’s airtight script will make everyone over the age of thirty who holds a liberal arts degree squirm uncomfortably. But it’s a good kind of discomfort, a salutary kind. Why We Left Brooklyn reminds those of us who haven’t achieved super-stardom that our struggles and our problems are no less valid because someone else has had it worse, or has been a bigger success, or has moved out of the borough." - Will Kenton, Cultural Capitol

"Why We Left Brooklyn is Gawker snark served with screwball spin...There’s real, galvanizing anger among the zingers, particularly in Freeman’s outrage at the humiliations of the actor’s life." - Helen Shaw, Time Out New York

"The dialogue — satiric wit, intelligence, humor and insight — that emanates from the mouths of Mathew Freeman’s characters is fresh, and makes Why We Left Brooklyn a particular pleasure" - Eleanor Foa Dienstag, Woman Around Town

"A play that is both highly contemporary and rooted in the classic American tradition ...with its exceptionally literate dialogue, its seriocomic treatment of an essentially sad situation, and, yes, that three-act setup, it feels like the 21st-century version of a comedy by Philip Barry or S. N. Behrman. Like them, Freeman finds meaning in contemporary manners and mores..." - David Barbour, Lighting & Sound America

"A sweet and funny New York story." - Molly Marinik, Theater Is Easy