Los Angeles Times - Highly Recommended
"...As Rebecca's fortunes improve through her 40s, Yale's portrayal masterfully reflects the psychological legacy of that trauma. In a poetically choreographed handoff, a superb Auberjonois seamlessly takes over the role of Rebecca in her later years, and Yale reappears as Rebecca's daughter and then as her granddaughter, providing elegant continuity in tracing the enduring aftermath of persecution."
Broadway World - Highly Recommended
"...Emily Chase ever so tightly directs her very talented ensemble as they tackle multiple roles. Ample credit deservedly goes to costume designer Alex Jaeger for his appropriate outfits for the many decades of styles and ladies' coifs."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"...Collective trauma is certainly dark material for a play set during the celebratory Festival of Lights, yet fitting in its hopes of overcoming oppression. Despite setting itself up for easy wins through atrocities and shared humanity, it's surprisingly lacking in its ability to genuinely move us. While its ending packs the most punch, the play's distracted focus leaves us wondering what the point is beyond a "Rebecca Blum, This Is Your Life" retrospective filled with a forced cast of characters. The irony of an elderly Rebecca's objections to the current generation's need to wear their ancestor's trauma like a badge of honor seems lost on a play that essentially does the same."
LA Splash - Highly Recommended
"...Skillfully directed by Emily Chase, EIGHT NIGHTS is an emotional roller coaster beautifully depicted by an uber-talented cast. Edward E. Haynes, Jr.'s scenic design is the perfect setting for this engrossing story - especially the bathtub/dining table inserted front row center and the permeable apartment walls which play so great a role at the end of the piece. Alex Jaeger's costumes are also well conceived, epitomizing the play's eight decades. Further kudos to projection designer Adam R. Macias, sound designer Jeff Gardner, and lighting designer Karyn D. Lawrence. EIGHT NIGHTS is a formidable collaboration between author, director, actors, and production team."
Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended
"...A Holocaust survivor newly arrived in 1940s New York. An African-American couple who've journeyed north in the tumultuous '60s in hopes of escaping racism down south. The Japanese-American grandson of WWII internment camp detainees circa 1988. A Syrian refugee in Trump-era America. Playwright Jennifer Maisel weaves together these characters and their interconnected stories in her decades-spanning World Premiere drama Eight Nights, an Antaeus Theatre Company triumph."
Gia on the Move - Recommended
"...Under the artful yet unobtrusive direction of Emily Chase, the actors invest their characters with an abundance of charm and humanity that make us overlook the play's occasional clunkiness. Arye Gross, as the gone-too-soon Erich, and Karen Malina White as Rebecca's friend and business partner Arlene were, for me, the stand-outs in a strong supporting cast."
Showmag - Recommended
"...Maisel's script has some minor structural issues and includes a number of fairly extraordinary coincidences. But those don't strike you while you're watching the production because the emotional truth of the journey is so eloquently enacted by this talented cast."
Stage Raw - Recommended
"...This heartfelt odyssey, covering eight decades (1949-2016) in the life of a Holocaust survivor struggling to move her soul beyond the horrors she has undergone, is lyrically rendered in Jennifer Maisel's beautiful scenario. Maisel explores the way in which the legacy of the persecuted echoes down the ages to affect future generations."
Accessibly Live Off-Line - Recommended
"...The cast of the six other players, some appearing in multiple roles, work well with one another that do reflect for the life and times of Rebecca, thanks to Emily Chase's stage direction. It tells these episodes as a single act play. Unlike other single acts that can wrap up a story line within a hour's time, this performance holds a length of one hour, forty minutes. And unlike other stage sets that present itself without an intermission, this play keeps its pacing without the break of any continuity whatsoever. With such passing, an intermission isn't necessary and rightly so."
Theater Times - Recommended
"...With a cast of seven mesmerizing actors taking on different roles throughout the timeline, the play opens with the arrival of 19-year old Rebecca Blum to her father's apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on December 15, 1949. Zoe Yale is stunning as Younger Rebecca Blum and she looks fearful of everything no matter how hard her father Erich Blum (Arye Gross) tries to soothe her. A knock on the door sends her diving behind the arm of a sofa and tells us almost everything we need to know about all she has experienced in Auschwitz and Dachau (as the play proves over time, there is more she isn't telling)."
