11, SEPTEMBER: 0% Bittersweet – UPDATED

BITTERSWEET
The play rides the line between exploring and exploiting coincidences, yet it gets bogged down in its own psychological realism. This raises questions that can’t be answered by chaos theory, or any other — such as why the characters sometimes blurt out incendiary details of their past, given how neither is particularly trustworthy, or why Martin would drop by uninvited and wind up reading Angela’s diary, conveniently left in her bed.
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly

BITTERSWEET
That said, Kampf and Rebert’s performances are on the nose. Both give all they have in these difficult roles. Not only do they fill the shoes of their respective characters, but they evoke the other, unseen players in their drama—parents, past and present lovers. There is also much amusing and clever dialogue, and Kampf’s use of a flash-forward framing device—Martin’s speech at the symposium on September 11, 2009—provides exposition as well as the final summation of the play. Gita Donovan’s direction overcomes the challenges of a single stage set and two actors. This production, by Chicago’s Breadline Company, of which Kampf is a founder, shows the capability of this company. One only wishes that 11, September stood on a less clichéd and stronger dramatic foundation.
Lynne Bronstein – Reviewplays

BITTERSWEET
But for all the philosophical references and hairpin turns, the contrivances begin to wear thin. Too much, too soon is said between strangers harboring tragic pasts, and without anything more than a strange attraction as explanation, their lives literally turn into an open book. The push-pull dynamic eventually exhausts itself when character choices are made out of necessity of plot rather than from plausible motivation such as Martin’s return to Angela’s apartment while she’s out, Angela’s mysterious midnight calls, and the happenchance on finding her journal.
MR Hunter – Stagehappenings

BITTERSWEET
While there’s surface logic afoot, the Big Picture parallels choke in a tangled plot that risks exploiting rather than exploring 9-11. The ending’s citation of factual anomalies is arresting but doesn’t really integrate with the tragic resolution. “11, September” is a respectable effort but also a missed opportunity.
David C. Nichols – LA Times

BITTERSWEET
At its heart, or maybe just on its sleeve, the play is your basic meet, greet, have fantastic sex with an anonymous person, then continue on to live an everyday life until the next out-of-town assignment reminds you it’s about time to get out there and rediscover yourself all over again in another world- shaking overnighter. In the case of Martin Healy (Paul Kampf) and Angela Madison (Liz Rebert), the situation’s a bit different; there are several outstanding September 11ths in their lives, including a memorable one in 1989; an unforgettable one in 2001, and the not totally coherent one on stage at the Odyssey Theatre in 2009.
Madeleine Shaner – Park La Brea News/Beverly Press

BITTER
The play starts out on a good footing, but the revelations build up into a very unwieldy pile and, ultimately feel false. The author throws bizarre coincidence (or are they fate?) upon bizarre coincidence and fateful happenstance (or are they coincidence?) upon fateful happenstance until it has stretched the credibility and patience of the audience to a breaking point. Then he throws tragic twist and revelation upon the last tragic twist and revelation, in an attempt to devastate the audience. It ends up being an entirely intellectual enterprise and the audience is left largely unmoved by what could and should have been a wrenching experience. And to attempt to tie this all together with September 11th, especially the political underpinnings of that fateful day, is completely unconvincing, dishonest and extranious.
Geoff Hoff – LA Theatre Review

BITTERSWEET
While the drama raises provocative questions about coincidence and conspiracies of silence, the twists and turns of the plot become excessive. What starts off as a suspenseful series of exchanges between two strangers spins off into a chaotic universe of family dysfunction and violence. To quote a line from the play, “there are too many ghosts” in this basement.
Gina Shaffer – Stagehappenings

BITTER
In his new play, writer Paul Kampf may be exploring interesting notions of possibility and probability and destiny in the story of two individuals bombarded by seeming coincidences of epic proportions. The only thing that’s certain is that he loses the audience in the process.
Jennie Webb – Backstage

BITTER
Speaking of puh-leeze moments in otherwise realistic plays, this one has, oh, nine or eleven of them. Paul Kampf’s script is cluttered and humorless, and despite its title, its relationship to what we think of as “September 11″ is dubious. If anyone is in the mood right now for a production with a tentative connection to that famous date, a much better bet is South Coast Repertory’s Ordinary Days. (Complete Review)
Don Shirley – LA Stage Watch

BITTER
Breadline Productions’ new play 11, September is perhaps the grossest misusage of this heralding to date. From title to content, writer and star Paul Kampf demonstrates a deplorable lack of taste by interweaving the date of September 11th, and all it invokes, into the plotline of a rather banal, overworked, and overwrought piece of theater.
Amber Cassell – BroadwayWorld