Photo: Steven Shaw and Meredith Bishop in "Breaking and Entering." Credit: Ed Krieger
BITTERSWEET
It’s an admirably complex script, the outcome in doubt up to its denouement. Yet, though director Mark L. Taylor gets considerable mileage from Jeremy Pivnick’s lighting and Bill Froggatt’s sound, the tension comes and goes. Shaw and Bishop do competent work, although his Art Carney aspect isn’t exactly menacing and her nervous emotionalism lacks nuance.
David C. Nichols – LA Times
BITTERSWEET
This is a tiny but significant detail in a very clever play that grapples with and compares dueling themes: reality and illusion, fame and fraud. The play sparks and shines when it reaches the intersection of these two ideas, but the road to that intersection is a bumpy one.
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly
BITTER
Not that every play must hew to a particular style, but this one wanders among far too many. Neil Simon one-liners, magical realism, noir—as we watch Colin Mitchell’s script unfold, we’re never sure how we are to react, similarly unaided by the direction of Mark L. Taylor.
Dany Margolies – Backstage
SWEET
Shaw’s performance is enigmatic, keeping the audience wondering what his next step will be. Bishop plays Milly with just the right amount of chutzpah (nerve), even under the most frightening of moments. Mark L. Taylor’s direction, Jeremy Pivnick’s lighting and Bill Froggatt’s sound, help create the tension of this inexplicable, well-done production.
Carol Kaufman Segal – Stagehappenings
SWEET
Breaking And Entering has much to recommend in it. Mitchell keeps us constantly guessing about what’s going to happen next. The deeper we get into the plot, the more Trumbull and Milly turn into characters far more complex than we may originally have judged them to be. The darker and more twisted Breaking And Entering becomes, the harder it is to pigeonhole it as either comedy or drama. Its lead performers are never anything less than excellent, as might be expected from an actor with Smith’s five decades in live theater and an actress with Bishop’s recent string of exciting performances on L.A. stages. As directed here by Taylor, neither one could be better. Shaw makes for a great grouch of a recluse, and no one plays slightly off-kilter like the gifted young Bishop.
Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA
BITTER
But as the mystery unfolds and the tension increases, the plot, unfortunately, unravels. There are too many improbable coincidences, too many unlikely plot twists. And why on earth would a woman decide to give away her only son for no apparent reason? THAT implausible plot twist is never explained nor even guessed at.
Cynthia Citron – Reviewplays
SWEET
In the end, the play is essentially a drama at heart, despite its weak attempts at lightheartedness. With the charming performance of Bishop and the surprising revelations of the storyline, “Breaking and Entering” ultimately achieves its purpose: To show that when it comes to truth and fiction, the line can easily blur.
Jennifer Ta – Daily Bruin
SWEET
Once those knots are loosened, what remains is an intellectually nasty story, a bit of a jolting surprise, because we’ve been forced to take sides, and the goods turn out to
be in quite a different corner. But that depends on how one likes one’s coffee, or one’s comedy. This is, nevertheless, quality writing, cleverly and agreeably directed by Mark
L. Taylor, who manages to deal with the intricacies of the text and the quirkiness of the theme while still keeping an audience interested in the characters.
Madeleine Shaner – Park La Brea News/Beverly Press (pdf)
