Reviews of Past Productions
Blood Sweat & Fears: A Grand Guignol Sick Cabaret
“Molotov Theatre Group mounts some of the most interesting combos of style and substance in town.”
—DC Metro Theater Arts “It’s Magic Time!” column
TOP FIVE SHOWS OF THE WEEK
—Maryland Theatre Guide
“I loved this show…You will laugh, you will cry, you will laugh at yourself for crying, you will be shocked and seduced, and you will thrill at every shocking, beautiful moment of French-styled sex and horror.”
—DC Metro Theatre Arts
“…extremely important…lip biting…cringe inducing…”
—DCist.com
“…vivid and memorable… keeps the audience oscillating between roaring laughter and a cool stupor…”
—Maryland Theatre Guide
“…Pleasingly eccentric…punchy and exciting… frightening and moving…over the top…”
—dctheatrescene.com
Lovecraft: Nightmare Suite
HELEN HAYES AWARDS RECOMMENDED©
“…Jay D. Brock’s show is most alive in its design…the mood is spot-on…”
—The Washington Post
“…the company’s most technically ambitious show to date…intriguing enough to send you back to the original tales…”
— Washington City Paper
“…compelling enough to enchant, mesmerize, and yes, at times even terrify…”
— DC Metro Theatre Arts
Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom
DC Metro Theatre Arts Capital Fringe 2015 Honors: Favorite Show of the Fringe, Favorite Drama, Favorite Ensemble, Special Recognition to Gregory Thomas Martin for Score/Soundtrack.
“…thrills and shocks as the cul-de-sac crumbles.”
— Washington City Paper
“…a bloody good time.”
— DC Metro Theatre Arts: Best of the Capital Fringe
“…It feels authentic…a wildly talented cast.”
—The Free Canvas
“…the play excites and scares, creating a slow-building tension that grabs you by the fingertips.”
—DC Theatre Scene
Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe
HELEN HAYES AWARDS NOMINATED for Outstanding Choreography in a Play – Helen Production (choreographer: Jen Bevan)
HELEN HAYES AWARDS RECOMMENDED©
BROADWAY WORLD 2015 BEST ACTOR IN A PLAY: Elliott Kashner
BROADWAY WORLD 2015 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Stacy Whittle
Listed on three DC Metro Theater Arts Best of 2014 lists, including Best Plays in Professional Theatres
“…a morbid, fog-ridden roller coaster of doom and horror with rich costumes, dedicated performances, and an entrancing ambiance…”
— Maryland Theatre Guide
“…an awesome and mysterious way to spend an evening…”
— Broadway World
“HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Quoth the critic, I’d love some more.”
— DC Theatre Scene
“4 1/2 STARS. For an entertaining, stylized scary evening with one of America’s great writers, Nightfall delivers.”
— DC Metro Theater Arts
Normal
HELEN HAYES AWARDS RECOMMENDED©
Listed on three DC Metro Theater Arts Best of 2014 lists, including Best Plays in Professional Theatres
“Up to snuff…a disciplined exercise in gothic style…”
— Washington Post
“…a perfectly compact, nightmarish little bedtime story…”
— Washington City Paper
“Five Stars…an artfully horrifying experience that is both fascinating and profound…”
— DC Metro Theatre Arts
“Highly Recommended…I’d binge-watch Normal any day of the week and twice on Sunday…”
— dctheatrescene
“A dark, unblinking plunge into the nether regions of human depravity.”
— Broadway World
“Top 5 Show of the Week. See Normal: It will make you think twice about your next blind date.” — Maryland Theatre Guide
Extremities
DC Metro Theater Arts Best of 2013 – Best Play, Best Ensemble, Best Director in a Play for Michael Wright, Best Actor in a Play for Alex Zavistovich as Ray, Best Actress in a Play for Sherry Berg as Marjorie, Best Supporting Actress in a Play for Alexia Poe as Patricia and Best Supporting Actress in a Play for Jennifer Osborne as Terry.
“horrifying…unsettling…an uncomfortably fair psychological fight.”
— The Washington Post
“creepy and convincing…uncomfortable, in-your-face, honest, and realistic…I can’t wait to see what the company does next.”
— Broadway World
“Five Stars…a sustained electric charge of tension…amps up the voltage to a point of potential trauma where a fuse might blow …the only real breathers from this breathtakingly intense drama are the brief blackouts between scenes”.
— DC Metro Theater Arts
“Brilliant…amps up the scares…you won’t see a more visceral staging of a play”.
— Entertainment Or Die
“a chest-clutching, jaw-gaping play of terror…see this play. It will disturb you in its wicked brilliancy”.
— American Literary Magazine
” Expertly directed by Molotov’s Co-Artistic Director Michael Wright. He has used every inch of the teeny tiny DC Arts Center stage to full advantage. Wright builds the intensity of the piece from what looks like a casual encounter at the top of the show to its ultimate climax”.
— Maryland Theatre Guide
Julius Caesar
“It is outrageous and it turns all of history upside down. You will hoot with laughter. And there’s plenty of gushing blood. Trust me on this.”
— dctheatrescene.com
“It’s quite a high-wire act, and it comes off beautifully. This is remarkable work. It’s a great, funny melding of Shakespeare and a Saturday-night horror show, but with many legitimate things to say, and eye-opening performances.”
— Dust and Corruption blog
“Bloody for the shock factor in certain moments, but way more classy than Troma.”
— Drown My Books blog
“The troupe tackles this project with bloody ferocity and maniacal glee under the master direction of Kevin Finkelstein.”
— dcmetrotheaterarts.com
Fat Men in Skirts
HELEN HAYES AWARDS RECOMMENDED©
“No time to catch your breath in this 90-minute, nonstop shock-and-awe campaign…”
— Washingtonpost.com
“Molotov Theatre is to the DC theater community what Björk is to the music world. I enjoyed this more refined, psychological approach to their usual goal of probing the dark and murky caverns of our collective subconscious.”
— dctheatrescene.com
“A bloody tone poem of love and anxiety, Molotov Theatre’s ‘Fat Men in Skirts’ is surprisingly sweet for a play about rape and cannibalism…”
— Washington Post
“One of the best plays they’ve done, full of wicked wit…This is Molotov at its best; gory, offensive, vulgar, smart, thought-provoking, and sensitive.”
— Dust and Corruption blog
“Fat Men strikes just the right tone…it’s edgy, raw and a little nonsensical. Molotov offers some impressive stage combat and some true gross-out effects…Marcus is commanding, spooky and riveting.”
— Dcist.com
Morgue Story
“It’s gruesome, tasteless, gory, vulgar, intelligent, sensitive, tragic, and overflowing with irony and its awareness of the omnipresence of death. It’s like scratching the surface of a John Waters plot and Schopenhauer underneath.”
— Dust and Corruption blog
“Their broad, delirious take on this story is like a blunt hammer swung by a clumsy drunk. Morgue Story delivers. This is a winkingly clever group of artists.”
— dctheatresene.com
Horrors of Online Dating
”Whimsically grotesque.“
— Washington Post Express
“perfectly choreographed for both maximum hilarity and maximum audience blood coverage…a carnival ride of a show…”
— Washington City Paper
“fear and Loathing in Las Vegas filmed on Avenue Q…”
— dctheatrescene.com
“about ten times the play I expected.”
— Dust and Corruption blog
Closet Land
“It’s a chilling, effective play. The torture scenes are handled with a certain amount of subtlety…Zavistovich exudes a bland, jovial complacency – until the mask comes off.”
— Dust and Corruption blog
“a disturbing piece of theatre that receives a solid and mostly involving production by the Molotov Theatre Group. Closet Land is a serious and affecting drama.”
— dctheatrescene.com
Blood, Sweat & Fears III
“This show is being played for laughs. Big, raucous, dirty laughs…”
— dctheatrescene.com
“a cozy, creaking tour bus slumming its way through theater history…”
— Washingtonpost.com
Mondo Andronicus
“a bloody, dizzying descent into the darkest corners of the human heart. If you can handle the graphic violence and ignore the B-movie props, there are impressive performances to behold here. Mondo Andronicus offers up a meaty dish of raw, vital theater that will haunt you long after you leave…”
— dctheatrescene.com
“Zavistovich has a weary authority… Cyle Durkee has a voice and a leer that make your skin start sloughing off … JaBen Early seethes with coiled antipathy as Aaron, and Ty Hallmark is a sinuous Tamora in her black bustier and boots…”
— DC City Paper
“Lucas Maloney’s direction keeps things going and is deft and smart. He knows just how much to suggest and how much to show, so that what’s left to your imaginations is pretty damn vivid.”
— Dust and Corruption blog
“I expected “Shock Theater” camp, and what I got was a very serious and professional production of Titus. They had condensed Titus down to 60 minutes to its barest core, stripping out much of the text to focus on the emotional darkness within the play. It was raw, it was brutal, and it was severe…”
— MarylandShakespeare.com
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