INVASION! Review Roundup

The reviews have been pouring in for INVASION! and you can check them out below.

Set in an urgently contemporary New York, a slyly entertaining comedy with a sharp political edge.
– The New York Times, Critic’s Pick

If you’ve ever wished somebody would write a razor-sharp play anatomizing lazy paranoia about the Middle East – somebody has.
– Village Voice

Unfolds with lightning-like rapidity… theatergoers find themselves hooked from the show’s opening moments.
–Theatermania

Provocative, daring and often startlingly insightful. It’s one of the best social commentaries in dramatic form of the past few years, and you owe it to yourself to see it as soon as  you can.
–Curtainup

A witty satire on immigration and ethnic identity – theatrical and political ideas bounce off each other like pinballs.
– Backstage

A stimulating, challenging, and rewarding ride.
– nytheatre.com

Cast of INVASION! from left to right: Andrew Guilarte, Debargo Sanyal, Bobby Moreno and Francis Benhamou

In the hands of director Erica Schmidt and in the voices and interpretative moments of all four ensemble actors, this play is funny, sad, and thoroughly engaging.
– Berkshire Fine Arts

Get your wallet out now. Ask no more questions. Do not hesitate. INVASION! is without a doubt one of the best plays I have seen this entire season.
– New York Nearsay

INVASION! is a whip-smart production and a must see.
– Theasy.com

Once in a very rare while a play captures your utmost attention. INVASION! is the perfect production to wake you from those winter doldrums.
– OscarEMoore.com

When you’re in the hands of totally confident, committed theatre artists — well, there’s nothing like it. The Play Company finds relatively unknown contemporary international playwrights with something to say. This is one of their best finds yet.
– Lighting & Sound America

U.S. Premiere production of INVASION! by Jonas Hassen Khemiri

PlayCo will present the U.S. Premiere of INVASION!, a play by the Swedish playwright and novelist Jonas Hassen Khemiri next month, directed by Erica Schmidt (Trust with PlayCo) and translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles.

INVASION! is a subversive comedy that centers on Abulkasem – a name that just might have magical powers. Everyone wants that name, but who is Abulkasem? A hero in a fairytale. A world-renowned stage director. A cute guy I met at the bar. A shadowy figure we’re tracking across the globe. Or all of the above? Who is Abulkasem? And how many are there?

Playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri

Jonas Khemiri is an acclaimed novelist and playwright. His father is Tunisian and his mother is Swedish. INVASION!, his first play, became one of the biggest hits of recent years at the Stockholm City Theatre, where it opened in 2006. Since then, it has been produced in Germany, Norway, London and France. Jonas’ many awards include the Borås Prize for Best Swedish Literary Debut with his novel One Eye Red, and for his second novel, Montecore: The Silence of the Tiger, the PO Enquist Literary Prize for accomplish European novelists under forty. Montecore will be published in the U.S. by Random House in March 2011, marking Jonas’ English-language literary debut and coinciding with the run of INVASION!.

PlayCo founding producer Kate Loewald says, “This play uses wit and theatricality to talk about serious racial and cultural divisions in our society. Jonas has broken new ground in Swedish theatre and literature with both his themes and his beautiful love of language. We are a nation of immigrants, and New York City is home to people of hundreds of nationalities. I think this play speaks to the moment in a dazzling way – it is surprising, funny and moving.  I’m so excited to introduce this writer to audiences in the U.S.”

INVASION! is the second project in PlayCo’s Universal Voices Translation program, which commissions new American translations of outstanding foreign plays.

Featured in the cast of INVASION! are Francis Benhamou (Three Women at 59E59 Theaters), Andrew Guilarte (Marat/Sade at Classical Theatre of Harlem), Bobby Moreno (ReEntry at Center Stage Baltimore) and Debargo Sanyal (Queens Boulevard at Signature Theatre).

Scenic design for INVASION! is by Antje Ellermann (Trust and Sakharam Binder with PlayCo); costume design is by Oana Botez Ban (Romania. Kiss Me! with PlayCo); lighting design is by Matthew Richards (Made in Poland with PlayCo); and sound design is by Bart Fasbender (Trust, Sakharam Binder, Terrorism, Arabian Night, The Attic, Bad Jazz, Made in Poland, and Edgewise with PlayCo).

Previews: February 9th
Opening Night: February 21st

Running through: March 12
Performance schedule:

Mondays through Fridays – 7:30 p.m.

Saturdays – 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Ticketsare $30 and $40 and can be reserved at https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/30245

INVASION Workshop

Playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri was in town in October to work with us on the new translation of his play INVASION! We held a private reading at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in Long Island City, where PlayCo is in residence for studio development work this season. Afterwards we celebrated at our October Playdate with members of the cast and PlayCo friends. We snapped a few photos for you below!

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