Los Angeles Times
- Recommended
"...The play's narrative chases its own tail, but maybe that's in the nature of the subject. Race is a mirage; the closer you try to get to it, the more elusive truth becomes. Messy, bold, desperately funny and deeply felt: "Neighbors" is worth getting to know."
Variety
- Recommended
"...Racial identity - or more specifically, what elements of black America's past are admissible in the definition of a modern African-American - is at the heart of Brenden Jacobs-Jenkins' combative and audacious "Neighbors." Jacobs-Jenkins poses an overwhelming number of race-based questions and surrounds them with the ugliest of racial stereotypes by making neighbors of a minstrel show troupe and a well-educated, mixed-race household. Every line, regardless of who is speaking to whom, has a polemical quality, and as hard as it is to watch at times, a few sharp performances give "Neighbors" a firm resolution."
LA Weekly
- Highly Recommended
"...It's hard to imagine a better production, under Nataki Garrett's staging. The two families are of different universes and performance styles. Yet Garrett meets the daunting challenge of having them all belong to a single performance. Much of this occurs in the tender scenes of friendship between the two families - between Jimmy and Melody, and between Zip and Jean. Amidst the robust ensemble, two women stand out with the kind of performances that have you pleading for their next scene - Daniele Watts' sassy, sexy Topsy, and Julia Campbell's mesmerizingly sweet, daffy and searingly smart Jean."
Backstage
- Highly Recommended
"...In Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' shockingly subversive play, smartly directed by Nataki Garrett in its West Coast premiere, a family of modern-day black minstrel performers moves in next door to an upwardly mobile African-American college professor candidate, Richard (Derek Webster), his white wife, Jean (Julia Campbell), and their teenage daughter, Melody (Rachae Thomas). The startling conflicts that ensue are driven by a touch of edgy surrealism, leading to savage marital battles that make the meltdown in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf'" seem like a Sunday afternoon picnic. Yet Jacobs-Jenkins' artistic vision here is thrillingly original. He's clearly an exciting new voice in American theater."
LA Theatre Review
- Highly Recommended
"...Provocative, inappropriate, lewd, crass, and offensive, Playwright Branden Jacob-Jenkins's play Neighbors pushes boundaries in its West Coast premiere. The "18 or older" recommendation by The Matrix Theatre Company is well earned due to Neighbors strong language, challenging discussion on race and identity, and graphic sexual moments. Director Nataki Garrett does not pull any of the punches in Mr. Jacob-Jenkin's writing, fully allowing Neighbors to create an atmosphere of shock, discomfort, and tension."
LAist
- Recommended
"...Jacobs-Jenkins has written a play that is heartfelt, ambitious, angry, outrageous and very funny, a play that has definite opinions but ultimately has both the white wife and the black husband equally uncertain what to do or think or say about what race means to their lives. It's such a strong piece that it's frustrating how unsatisfying the very ending of the show is. Up to that point, the show has been a powerhouse, strength upon strength, and then it abruptly concludes with something that feels like a cheap avant-garde gimmick from the 1960s, something that implies meaning but seems more like a playwright not having a ending that lived up to the rest of the show. Not only that, but then half of the cast doesn't come out for a curtain call, which serves no point but to rob deserving actors of their applause. That aside, this play is one of the most intelligent and accomplished things seen in Los Angeles theater for a long while."
Stage and Cinema
- Highly Recommended
"...Run, I say, don't walk, and hie thee to the Matrix Theatre if you're at all interested in seeing the work of a most adventurous young American playwright at the beginning of what is almost sure to be a brilliant career. His name is Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and his play, Neighbors, is perverse, scabrous, provocative, ugly, politically dangerous, complex, intense, maddening, infuriating, savagely ironic, hilariously funny, continuously surprising, and as innovative and transforming as an act of magic. Now you are seeing one thing. Now you are seeing another. You may stagger out of the theater, not sure what you have seen. But you will know at least that you have had an experience that will stick to you and keep its hold on you long after less messy theater experiences have faded from memory."
Stage Scene LA
- Recommended
"...Fortunately, in addition to its accomplished cast, Neighbors at the Matrix benefits from some of the best designers Los Angeles theater has to offer, beginning with John Iacovelli's imaginative set, which places identical twin tract homes on either side of the wide Matrix stage, joining them with a collage of matching three-dimensional cookie-cutter houses attached to the black brick upstage wall. J. Kent Inasy's lighting design focuses our attention, all the while enhancing Neighbors' comedic and dramatic moods. Costume designer Naila Alladin Sanders has gone to town creating the Crow family outfits in Technicolor hues with watermelons showing up just about everywhere. John Zalewski's sound design incorporates effectively chosen sound effects and old 78rmp recordings of classic vaudeville melodies. Kudos go also to Chuck Olsen's props, Sandy Huse's special effects, and Steve Rankin's exciting, realistically choreographed fights. Joe Morrissey is stage manager."
StageHappenings.com
- Highly Recommended
"...This will be one of the most talked about and controversial shows this season. The questions Branden Jacobs-Jenkins poses are unanswerable, but the dialogue it sparks is essential. Vital and full of verve, this is not merely an entertaining show, but one that shatters any pretense."
Examiner
- Highly Recommended
"...We're all neighbors, in a sense, and as the world becomes smaller, and relationships more complex, this play is a vivid example of neighbors intwined in true catharsis."
Buzzine
- Highly Recommended
"...Neighbors is new, it's original, it's hilariously entertaining yet disturbing in its subject - a new era of "post-racial" black America. And bravo to Joseph Stern of the Matrix for having the guts to bring this startling and provoking and, at the conclusion, disturbing play to the L.A. theater scene."
Campus Circle
- Recommended
"...The play undeniably crosses a lot of racial lines. Nataki Garrett directs this West Coast premiere to great effect. Visually, the show is tremendously pleasing. I don't believe one person in the audience could claim boredom. The show moves at a great pace as it hits on just about every racial stereotype. While the play does recognize African Americans' rights, it irrefutably steps on some toes. The major point of this play is to celebrate African Americans' heritage and how people perceive them. The only gripe I have about is that it perhaps goes a little too far by pointing fingers at how other races view African Americans. Other than that, "Neighbors" is beautifully executed. It's not easily described on paper. It is one of those shows you have to see to understand what all the fuss is about."
Socal
- Somewhat Recommended
"...First of all, let me say that although my first words are warnings rather than praise, I did appreciate this play, I just didn't – or maybe couldn't – enjoy it. The dialogue is well-written and thought-provoking. The acting is superb, intense and at times, so convincing, I actually feared a staged bloody nose was the real thing. But while powerful, the play thrusts several moments of extreme discomfort upon an unsuspecting audience, just jarring enough that it's nearly impossible to think of this play as "entertaining"."
