Our Lady of 121st Street

Our Lady of 121st Street

"Guirgis . . . may be the best playwright in America under 40 . . . [He] already belongs on the list of accomplished young . . . playwrights that includes Suzan-Lori Parks and David Auburn . . . Our Lady of 121st Street . . . is a knockout."—Bruce Weber, The New York Times Magazine

"The immensely gifted Stephen Adly Guirgis just fills me with hope . . . His urban voice is startlingly fresh and new—an unmistakable great talent in the wilderness [with] an unpredictable, original mind . . . [Guirgis is] on par even with the manic farce and subterfuge of Joe Orton . . . but it is the dramatist's seamless transition to quiet revelation that makes him a poet of tender mercies . . . Our Lady of 121st Street is the best new play I've seen in a decade."—John Heilpern, The New York Observer

"[Guirgis] has a hilarious, sympathetic, terrific ear for Harlem . . . He heightens the rhythms of the street until there is a brilliant buoyant cacophony . . . [Written] with desperate and fierce and funny life, Our Lady of 121st Street is exciting theater."—Donald Lyons, New York Post

"Guirgis has a fresh, furious, yet sympathetic voice, and . . . a gift for mosaic, for creating a throbbing canvas from the accumulating bits of people's lives."—Linda Winer, USA Today

"A wild, woolly dark comedy . . . which has exploded off the stage of off-Broadway . . . Guirgis is an original."—Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press

"Guirgis is an exciting talent with a gift for raw but rich dialogue and an entertaining ability to find the absurd humor in emotional extremis."—Charles Isherwood, Variety

"Guirgis would qualify as the poet laureate of the angry . . . [He] has one of the finest imaginations for dialogue to come along in years."—Bruce Weber, The New York Times

Jesus Hopped the A Train

"This probing, intense portrait of lives behind bars . . . considers subjects of Dostoyevskyan reach: crime and punishment, free will, moral responsibility . . . [Full of] intellectual vigor and sophistication on the one hand and . . . anguished passion on the other . . . Jesus Hopped the A Train . . . has been written in flame. Plays of this ilk automatically raise the body—and mind—temperament of New York theater."—Ben Brantley, The New York Times

"An incendiary piece of theatre rife with complexity and pulsing energy . . . Guirgis . . . creates dialogue that is so pitch-perfect you hang on most every word."—Michael Lazan, Back Stage

In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings

"An updated Balm in Gilead for the 1990s."—Wilborn Hampton, The New York Times

"Guirgis has a real talent for capturing the wit and absurdity in the most hopeless situation."—Jason Zinoman, Time Out New York

"You can't dismiss the author's knack for brutally realistic dialogue . . . There are moments so authentic, you feel as though you're in the seedy W. 43rd St. bar where the play takes place."—New York Daily News

"Guirgis is harking back to the abiding theme of American drama: the conflict between dreams and reality . . . In the tradition of Tennessee Williams, [he] combines sympathy for the walking wounded with sharp humour."—Michael Billington, The Guardian

"A fascinating portrait of a group of New York City denizens who will do anything to survive . . . Guirgis has filled his script with colorful characters and daring dialogue . . . [This play] does not pull any punches in dramatizing life on the street."—Elias Stimac, Back Stage

"If Adly Guirgis is not one of the freshest new voices in theater he is certainly one of the most courageous . . . In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings is a magnificent achievement."—Ricky Spears, In Theater

"Guirgis [has] a Mamet-like ability to catch and express the nuances of angry low-life vernacular."—Nicholas de Jongh, The Evening Standard