My Son The Playwright Reviews

Los Angeles Times- Somewhat Recommended

"...Neither lacks for words, as they run through their grievance-filled monologues with a feverish mix of guilt and fury. Tanner’s language vividly captures the warped patterns of their thinking. But “My Son the Playwright” perhaps needs a little more tranquility for these recollections to make a more thorough transformation into art."

Stage and Cinema- Recommended

"...My Son the Playwright succeeds because it’s willing to be uncomfortable, not sensationalist discomfort but the slow, grinding kind that comes from watching people who understand their problems but can’t imagine solving them. Tanner has written something too messy and specific for easy consumption. The play offers no catharsis or redemption."

Stage Raw- Somewhat Recommended

"...With My Son the Playwright, now in its world premiere at Rogue Machine's intimate Henry Murray Stage, Tanner goes solo and unabashedly personal to explore the fragmented relationship between a father and his playwright son. It is a narrative that combines humor, pain and an open-ended sense of loss and sorrow. The play is structured in two acts: the first explores the attitudes and perceptions of the father, and the second presents the son's perspective."

Ticket Holders LA- Highly Recommended

"...My Son the Playwright is a phenomenal achievement, ironically both selfish and unselfish at the same time. Still, it's impossible to leave the theatre without feeling, although you've been privy to something that in lesser and less comedically genius hands than Justin Tanner's, as though you've been bombarded with more raw personal information than most people might want to absorb. I left not quite sure if I wanted to go home and write this review or to see if I could snag my monumentally talented though sometimes uncomfortably manic friend a prescription for Risperadone."