MONKEY ADORED: 77% – SWEET

Justin Okin, Amanda Mauer and Edward Tournier in "Monkey Adored" at Rogue Machine. Credit: John Flynn.

SWEET
An uneven production of an uneven text, the audacious vest-pocket spectacle is nevertheless one of the most captivating attractions around right now.
Bob Verini – Variety

BITTERSWEET
Still, the idea of an underground society of animals who ape humans and hate humans at the same time is fascinating, I wish the irony of these potentially conflicting attitudes had become more of an issue among the characters. And a little explanation about why they’re all so nonchalant about trans-species sex might have been illuminating, too.
Don Shirley – LA Stage Watch

SWEET
Director John Perrin Flynn delivers a production filled with viscerally enthralling effects and virtuosic performances.
Les Spindle – Backstage

BITTERSWEET
Director John Perrin Flynn is perhaps too faithful to Murray’s early-draft whimsy: James speaks in rhyme; Madeline, in homage to Lili Von Shtupp, the real Madeline Kahn’s character in “Blazing Saddles,” replaces Ls and Rs with Ws. (“Wuv is wust.”) These affectations get irritating once the plot gets heavy. After a stunning scene in which a lab technician (David Combs and Linda Hoag’s chilling giant puppet) comes for Sonny, the show devolves into vague moralizing and repetitiveness.
Margaret Gray – LA Times

SWEET
For all its occasional foibles, I give this production an opposable thumbs-up.
M.R. Hunter – EyeSpyLA

SWEET
John Perrin Flynn directs this darkly comic tale with a keen eye for subduing the melodrama and maximizing the sensitivity of the characters. In the scene when the humans come to take away the monkey, you are horrified by the indifference of man. When the dog and the rat plan their grand scheme it’s not unlike eavesdropping on conflicted young men in the Middle East planning a desperate last statement. And when you see the final results you’re kind of glad that this is a play and you didn’t have to choose sides.
Jose Ruiz – Reviewplays

BITTERSWEET
My best guess is that Rogue Machine’s latest will hold considerably more appeal for fans of Orwell, Vonnegut, and C.S. Lewis than it did for this reviewer. Though ultimately it ended up a bit too arty for my tastes, those looking for something out of the ordinary might do well to give Monkey Adored a try.
Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA

BITTER
I did stay through all of Monkey Adored, and I don’t know any more about it now than if I had left at intermission. Less, maybe, since the mostly farcical and cohesive first act devolves after the break, when the love quadrangle sprouts political thrillerisms before branching off into the metaphysical. That none of these elements unifies with the others is the fault almost equally of author Murray and director John Perrin Flynn, for the play seems neither directed nor written but ejaculated.
Jason Rohrer – Stagehappenings

SWEET
As much as it is about repression, rebellion and revolution, “Monkey Adored” is about love and lust, alle- gory and brutality, peace and pay- back, brutality and philosophy, tem- pered with plenty of humor and some lightness hovering over the dark subject matter.
Madeleine Shaner – Park La Brea News/Beverly Press (opens in pdf)

SWEET
It’s not too often that you see an allegory these days, let alone one that actually works, but Henry Murray has pulled it off superbly in Monkey Adored which is enjoying its World Premiere down at Rogue Machine. Its sole human has a supporting, if towering, part. He’s played by an immense puppet and voiced by Ron Bottitta.
Laura Hitchcock – CurtainUp

SWEET
Comedic, tragic and dark, Monkey Adored is superlative in execution, story and performance.
Tracey Paleo – LA Theatre Review

SWEET
Both this play and his former work (Treefall) reveal a strikingly original voice that agonizes over estrangement and cruelty — in this play with only a dash of sentimentality tempered by heaping spoonfuls of poeticism and wit. John Perrin Flynn directs the crackling ensemble in a production that steadily picks up momentum.
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly

MONKEY ADORED
Rogue Machine
At Theatre/Theater
5041 W. Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019
Runs through Nov 20, 2011; Fri & Sat at 8pm Sundays at 3pm
Tickets: $25-$30; (855) 585-5185
Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes