What people have said about my plays:
Georgie Gets a Face-Lift (at The Riant Theatre's Strawberry One-Act Festival):
"Daniel, I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed Georgie. Haunting, poetic, beautiful and funny." - Strawberry
Winner Brian Harris
Attic (at the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival):
"I never say this, but this was the most innovative, most interesting play I've ever seen. Well... from a college student."
Chairman of the Dramatists Guild of America, Gary Garrison
I'm Not Gay! (at the Loftkastalinn Studios in Reykjavic, Iceland - translated by Thordis Thorvaldsdottir):
"Hmmm... Well... the Morgunblaðið (or the Morning Paper), didn't like it particularly. The headline was: GAYS AS
ENTERTAINMENT. Their critic said that the play can't decide if it's a play or a TV sitcom. She said that this play would
perhaps have made sense in the US, (where there's homoprejudice and catholic scandals happening) but she doesn't
think it fits in Iceland. She also admitted that she isn't of the so-called South Park generation that likes to be shocked
out of their seats, so she may not have been the right person to write about this piece. She added that during the play,
there were many times where she wasn't sure whether to laugh or to cry (which I personally think is awesome), but
she didn't like that fact and said that it was hard to be in the audience in such uncertainty. She went: "People were
tricked into thinking that the playwright is unbiased towards gays. We were tricked into laughing at a ten year old child
who thinks it's perfectly fine to be subject to sexual abuse. Tricked into laughing at obese people. And tricked into
laughing at gays in the humiliating light that is typically shed on women in the porn industry."
(The Morning Paper is the most respected newspaper of the country, but also the most conservative one. Its' typical
reader is middle aged and rich. Not our target audience.)
Dagblaðið (The Daily Paper) is the most liberal paper in Iceland. Their critic wrote a suuuuperlong review that would
take me days to translate, so I'll give you the highlights. The headline was ARE FAGHAGS HOMOPHOBIC? The critic
says: "I'm not gay! is a competent play in which prejudices collide like go-kart cars and bounce of the walls with
laughter." (Don't ask me what the hell that sentence means). "The show is very reminiscent of Will and Grace and
other such TV sitcoms. The whole piece is like a joke out of a movie. I don't know if I'm not gay! will serve to lessen or
increase prejudice towards homosexuals, but one thing is for sure - people in the audience were choking with
laughter. Perhaps that's because laughter is people's biggest defence mechanism when something shocks them.
However, the characterisation was unusually good and it is rare to find such a great cast, in which each and every
actor was absolutely brilliant. The language in the show is foul, but it serves the point. The tolerance of the prudes who
see this show will be put to the test, because the language is basically a dictionary of the anus." (What the..?)
Finally the critic goes ballistic over the fact that we had a little boy playing Timmy. Actually, both critics did. My phone
has been ringing off the hook for the past 2 days, people are really upset over this. However, we were clever. The boy
looks like he's ten, but in fact, he's fourteen. So screw them.
There will be more reviews in the next few days. We're not upset over these reviews, not at all. Actually, they're better
than we expected. We always knew that the cultural-élite of Iceland would attack the show viciously. What matters to
us is that the audience is loving it. LOVING IT. We're getting awesome feedback from the streets. Some people are
already booking their second ticket for the show.
I'll write more soon.
You did good, Dan.
Thanks.
T.
Georgie Gets a Face-Lift (at The Riant Theatre's Strawberry One-Act Festival):
"Daniel, I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed Georgie. Haunting, poetic, beautiful and funny." - Strawberry
Winner Brian Harris
Attic (at the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival):
"I never say this, but this was the most innovative, most interesting play I've ever seen. Well... from a college student."
Chairman of the Dramatists Guild of America, Gary Garrison
I'm Not Gay! (at the Loftkastalinn Studios in Reykjavic, Iceland - translated by Thordis Thorvaldsdottir):
"Hmmm... Well... the Morgunblaðið (or the Morning Paper), didn't like it particularly. The headline was: GAYS AS
ENTERTAINMENT. Their critic said that the play can't decide if it's a play or a TV sitcom. She said that this play would
perhaps have made sense in the US, (where there's homoprejudice and catholic scandals happening) but she doesn't
think it fits in Iceland. She also admitted that she isn't of the so-called South Park generation that likes to be shocked
out of their seats, so she may not have been the right person to write about this piece. She added that during the play,
there were many times where she wasn't sure whether to laugh or to cry (which I personally think is awesome), but
she didn't like that fact and said that it was hard to be in the audience in such uncertainty. She went: "People were
tricked into thinking that the playwright is unbiased towards gays. We were tricked into laughing at a ten year old child
who thinks it's perfectly fine to be subject to sexual abuse. Tricked into laughing at obese people. And tricked into
laughing at gays in the humiliating light that is typically shed on women in the porn industry."
(The Morning Paper is the most respected newspaper of the country, but also the most conservative one. Its' typical
reader is middle aged and rich. Not our target audience.)
Dagblaðið (The Daily Paper) is the most liberal paper in Iceland. Their critic wrote a suuuuperlong review that would
take me days to translate, so I'll give you the highlights. The headline was ARE FAGHAGS HOMOPHOBIC? The critic
says: "I'm not gay! is a competent play in which prejudices collide like go-kart cars and bounce of the walls with
laughter." (Don't ask me what the hell that sentence means). "The show is very reminiscent of Will and Grace and
other such TV sitcoms. The whole piece is like a joke out of a movie. I don't know if I'm not gay! will serve to lessen or
increase prejudice towards homosexuals, but one thing is for sure - people in the audience were choking with
laughter. Perhaps that's because laughter is people's biggest defence mechanism when something shocks them.
However, the characterisation was unusually good and it is rare to find such a great cast, in which each and every
actor was absolutely brilliant. The language in the show is foul, but it serves the point. The tolerance of the prudes who
see this show will be put to the test, because the language is basically a dictionary of the anus." (What the..?)
Finally the critic goes ballistic over the fact that we had a little boy playing Timmy. Actually, both critics did. My phone
has been ringing off the hook for the past 2 days, people are really upset over this. However, we were clever. The boy
looks like he's ten, but in fact, he's fourteen. So screw them.
There will be more reviews in the next few days. We're not upset over these reviews, not at all. Actually, they're better
than we expected. We always knew that the cultural-élite of Iceland would attack the show viciously. What matters to
us is that the audience is loving it. LOVING IT. We're getting awesome feedback from the streets. Some people are
already booking their second ticket for the show.
I'll write more soon.
You did good, Dan.
Thanks.
T.
Reviews
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