Icebergs Reviews
Los Angeles Times- Highly Recommended
"...Randall Arney directs his excellent cast with playful warmth and a keen sensitivity to the generosity and complexity of Smith's characterizations. The performances feel authentic and lived, and the characters' rapports convey the richness and surprise of real-life interactions while deepening the play's themes. At one point they all dress up in skeleton costumes - it's the Day of the Dead, and there's talk of going to a party - and dance in wild abandon, rebelliously celebrating the inevitability of destruction. "Icebergs" is aptly named: There's a lot going on under its sparkling surface."
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
"...But what really makes this new play so entertaining is the skill of each actor who seems to know their characters so well, both physically as well as emotionally as they all search for purpose in their lives. You really will feel as if you dropped in on people you know, like a fly on the wall who was let in with the breeze to witness how the lives of all the people shift on the whims which flow through their lives, much as the icebergs released by global warming shift direction as forces beyond their control take over their existence. This love letter to L.A. will no doubt enchant audiences in the City of the Angels before it moves to appreciative audiences elsewhere who envy our year-round, warm weather lifestyle."
Edge- Somewhat Recommended
"...Director Randall Arney has staged it well on an upscale Silver Lake home, with plants that are named, fine art on the walls, and posters which reflect the work of writer/director Calder and actress/wife, Abigail. (The attractive interior of the house was designed by Anthony T. Fanning.)"
Stage and Cinema- Somewhat Recommended
The direction is confined to a single bizarre sequence in which the style and mood lift and open, suddenly making the play a watchable vehicle for messages of social conscience. After a minute or two of pop-song playfulness, the show reverts to the same trite realism that has choked theatricality from big stages for decades."
Stage Scene LA- Highly Recommended
"...Under Randall Arney's incisive direction, the Gil Cates Theater stage is filled with one sensational performance after another-Corddry's sympathetic, sexy mensch of a Calder, Mudge's smoldering stunner of an Abigail, Powell's appealing outsider of a Reed, Henderson's ballsy delight of a Molly, and Near-Verbrugghe's trippy stereotype-defier of a Nicky."
ReviewPlays.com- Highly Recommended
"...Alena Smith has hit upon very up-to-date situations in people's lives and maybe it just hits the chord of some audience members. Though the topic is serious, the comedy makes it enjoyable to watch."
Will Call- Recommended
"...The astute director, Randall Arney, has a cast made in heaven. The brilliant Smith has created characters so distinctive and appealingly fleshed out, we soon feel we actually know these people. Calder is a man totally involved in his art but he has character and his values are in the right place. As Abigail, Mudge is lovely, intense, a "concerned citizen" and when she tells the story of her good friend Molly's current romantic interest, she positively sparkles and could light up the auditorium."