SHORT EYES (URBAN THEATRE MOVEMENT): 95% – SWEET

Matias Ponce, Miguel Amenyinu, Donte Wince, Mathew Jaegar, Jason Olazabal, and Mark Rolston in "Short Eyes'" at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Credit: Federico Mata.

SWEET
Although the nature of the subject matter in the play is heavy, there was also lightness found within the inmate’s interpersonal relationships through their senses of humor, and how they played off of one another with sarcasm and wit. I personally enjoyed a good deal of laughter during the show. Each character had it’s own unique personality, that managed to bring humor and lightness within an incredibly tough environment.
Lia Mandelbaum – Socal

SWEET
Co-produced by the Latino Theater Company and Urban Theatre Movement, this exciting production is dark, exhilarating, and utterly glorious. Pinero flaunts violence and poetry while navigating delicate moral, ethical, and social dilemmas contextualized by power dynamics and incarceration culture. The performances and direction for this production of Short Eyes are superior, driven, and lively.
Mialka Bonadonna Morano – LAist

SWEET
He offers a brutal glimpse of a brutal world, with hardly any punches pulled. Yet his staging doesn’t become bogged down in the banality of brutality. The tension in the room explodes often, with crackling dramatic urgency.
Don Shirley – LA Stage Watch

SWEET
The daring production is infused with bravura performances and a crackling atmosphere, punctuated by ironic humor and suspense.
Les Spindle – Backstage

SWEET
Profane, funny, and packed with more crotch-grabbing than vintage Madonna, the current revival of Miguel Piñero’s prison drama “Short Eyes” at the Los Angeles Theatre Center burns with vivid life.
Charlotte Stoudt – LA Times

SWEET
Aggressive, immersive and psychologically scathing, Miguel Piñero’s raw, poignant play is not to be missed.
Tony Bartolone – Huffington Post

SWEET
Fortunately, director Julian Acosta’s riveting and muscular revival (which has reopened for a six-week extension) matches Piñero’s indictment of contemporary social savagery blow for blow with some of the finest ensemble work of recent memory.
Bill Raden – LA Weekly

SWEET
The energy and chemistry of this entire ensemble is an exciting and inspiring machine to behold in action. Well Done.
Keisha7 – LASplash

SWEET
But the plot isn’t the reason to go see Urban Theatre Movement’s LATC production: it’s the marriage between an intimate realistic set and a cast that attacks the language with a brute muscularity.
Anthony Byrnes – Opening the Curtain

SWEET
The latest production of Miguel Piñero’s play SHORT EYES, by UTM and the Latino Theater Company, is both riveting and powerful.
Faye Brenner – Stagehappenings

BITTERSWEET
Short Eyes has not mellowed with age – it still brutalizes anyone who sees it; but neither have the years been kind to its shortcomings.
Jason Rohrer – Stage and Cinema

SHORT EYES
Latino Theatre Company & Urban Theatre Movement
Los Angeles Theatre Center
514 S. Spring St., LA
Thur-Sun 8 pm, Sun 7 pm
EXTENDED RUN FEB. 2 – MAR. 11, 2012
Tickets: (866) 811-4111