Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...And since the cast is directed to be presentation (well, rasping and rapping), I wonder what Crabs in a Bucket would be like if actors delivered dialogue as serious as they would in Endgame? In the end, while it says nothing new (but what does these days?), Cubría’s crabs entertain but could dig deeper."
Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended
"...If Eugene Ionesco or Samuel Beckett were writing plays today, they might well have come up with something very much like Bernardo Cubría's tangy absurdist comedy, Crabs In A Bucket, now getting its World Premiere at Echo Theater Company."
ArtsInLA - Recommended
"...Cubría's writing is humorous and smart, as in this putdown from Mamon to Amargo: "I'm Radiohead and you're the Dave Matthews Band!" He keeps things lively and entertaining, but when the play philosophizes about how naked ambition can be pointless or how being unwilling to bend or change can be isolating it's less successful. Cubría may want this show to be an allegory, but it comes alive when it's just being fun, people in big crab costumes being snarky and colliding in the Crabby Zone."
On Stage Los Angeles - Recommended
"...Do not be fooled by the title of this world premiere play by pinchy Bernardo Cubria. It may sound like lunch or dinner or it may well be an allegory, but the clams we meet in Clams in a Bucket present pretty much as .. well: clams. (far out set by Amanda Knehans). Blue crab costumes by Lou Cranch rock."
Showmag - Highly Recommended
"...What a metaphor for life! Bernardo Cubria simmers it down to a shucking bucket of crabs, all struggling to get up and out, no matter at whose (or whats’) expense. Sound familiar? If you wanted to get serious about late capitalism, yada, yada, this play provides a perfect backdrop. But if you just want to recognize yourself amid the rat-er-crab race, you’ll love Echo Theatre Company’s depiction of Crabs in a Bucket."
Stage Raw - Highly Recommended
"...In Crabs in a Bucket, his funny allegorical new play, Bernardo Cubria spins a fable around four clownish competitive crabs, creating a parallel between his characters’ contest to reach the top of the bucket and the aspirations of human beings to best each other in the game of life. It’s a smart, clever chronicle of homo sapien behavior which comments not only on our failings as narcissistic beings, too frequently disrespectful of each other, but on the false narratives that drive some of us to strive for a chimerical “top.”"
Ticket Holders LA - Highly Recommended
"...The Echo’s knockout production is blessed with the inventive and rule-defying directorial skills of Dietze leading a virtuoso ensemble of comedic actors and utilizing a clever team of designers who, unlike the characters stuck in Bernardo Cubria’s Crabs in a Bucket, are able to work together smoothly to celebrate what the future has in store for a very special dramatist, a guy I suspect has a shucking lot more to say."
Glamgical - Highly Recommended
"...The four actors offer a compelling and hilarious performance that exalt the brilliant script. The ingenuity of both the writing (Bernardo Cubría, Revenge Porn or The Story of a Body) and the direction (Alana Dietze) creates a combination that delivers a play that feels relatable and devastatingly human."
The Hollywood Times - Highly Recommended
"...I just can't say enough about how much I enjoyed the new play "Crabs in a Bucket" which premiered at the Echo Theatre Company this past weekend. This brilliant satire of "crab mentality" especially on oppressed communities stems from a Mexican saying about how people much like crabs will pull others back down if they try to escape from the drudgery of their daily existence. Alana Dietze directs this amazing play by Bernardo Cubría for a six-week run at Echo's home theatre at the Atwater Village Theatre."
