Los Angeles Times - Recommended
"...Directed with daffy flair by Sean T. Cawelti, "HYPERBOLE" purports to explain beginnings, but we don't learn anything new in these riffs on the Big Bang, the creation of Los Angeles or even the origin of sin (although Kristopher Lee Bicknell and Julia Garcia Combs work their naughty Adam and Eve costumes to excellent effect). What we do get is a succession of ingenious mask and puppetry work (by Katie Polebaum, Caitlin Lainoff and Dan Rae Wilson), set to a soundtrack of alt-pop. And there are those swimming sperm puppets. Which are really cute. "
Variety - Not Recommended
"...The busy, effects-driven revue "Hyperbole: Origins" speculates on the creation of diverse human endeavors without ever coming to grips with its own reason for being. Rogue Artists Ensemble's cutting-edge amalgamations of masks, puppetry, projections, music and sound FX have justly won acclaim when applied to adaptations of Neil Gaiman ("Mr. Punch") and Nikolai Gogol ("Gogol Project"). But the strung-together assortment premiering at Inside the Ford lacks a sense of forward motion or moment, impressing as less than the sum of its parts."
LA Weekly - Highly Recommended
"...As impressive as these technical elements are, they never outrun the stories themselves, each of which offers a quirky fable about some aspect of the human condition. The superb production values (overseen by tech director Daniel Geesing) include designer Katie Polebaum's expressive masks, so many of which capture the essence of a singular sentiment or passion, as well as Kerry Hennessy's imaginative costumes and John Noburi's indispensably animating audio design. A terrific seven-person ensemble displays amazing versatility in presenting this plethora of parables and yarns."
Backstage - Somewhat Recommended
"...Quality varies throughout the production, but when the company is clicking, as it does in the vignette titled "Origin of the Rabbit in the Moon," all of the audience's senses are excited, as puppets, video projections, music, costumes, and actors meld seamlessly. A few times, the concept is better than the execution, as the overwhelming number of sound and visual effects-and an intricate set designed by Logan Wince-leads to several miscues and clunky transitions. Also, 100 minutes pushes the limit for what's basically a wordless piece without plot. But there's a sense of adventure in "Hyperbole: origins" that continues to make Rogue Artists' productions worth experiencing, warts and all."
Edge - Recommended
"...Director Sean T. Cawelti stages the evening with emphasis on physicality. Though the list of collaborators and artists used in the overall evening looks endless, the end result is a cohesive and finely-honed stage production that attempts to answer the age-old questions that have plagued mankind since they stopped hanging out in trees and started walking upright ("Origin of Man.") The show is never preachy or religious, but employs its faux-scientific humorous milieu to plaintively explore creation myths from many world cultures."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"...If Hyperbole: Origins were to be reviewed as a play, I would tell you that I had no idea what the playwright was trying to say; since no writer is credited, we'll just assume that the Rogue Artists Ensemble is merely musing over the origins of things, such as music, fire, sin and even the audience. They call it "an original, adventurous celebration of myth, music, movement, mania and the connection between all of us." Well, maybe, but it felt like a series of collegiate-level pieces that use puppetry and music to tell stories and myths with the through line being, "How Stuff Begins.""
EyeSpyLA - Not Recommended
"...It is extravagant, i.e. wasteful and excessive in its paper-thin plot, playing on a theme about oddball origins and myths in lieu of any cohesive story. The exaggerated effects with puppetry, video, music and masks, while interesting and somewhat impressive, fail to connect to anything beyond its self-referential conceit. Taking a cue from its title, the show fails to live up to its own aggrandizement and comes across as just a lot of hype."
StageHappenings.com - Recommended
"...Musically they use music contributed by such artists as Animal Collective, Josiah Wolf, The Very Best Deerhoof, Oh No Ono, the Ditty Bops and others. What we get are basically a series of sketches where the origin of life, humanity, creation, and connectiveness are explored through this Machine out of which pour strange creatures, filmed sequences, lights, sounds, all set off by a magic red button which the main characters. Included in the cast are Kristopher Lee Bicknell, Julia Garcia Combs, Brian Kuwabara, Alex Levin, Shannon MacMillan, Diona Reasonover, and Thu Tran with understudies Christina Aimerito, Gedaly Guberek. Some of the sections fell flat but others were very beautiful, especially those involving myths of creation. After a while there was certain sameness about some of the sections but overall I found it creative and bold."
Campus Circle - Highly Recommended
"...The Rogue Artists Ensemble wrote this unique production with contributions from Miles Taber, Nina Silver and the director Sean T. Cawelti, a UC Irvine drama department graduate. "HYPERBOLE: origins" features an all-star cast who eloquently graces the stage in multiple roles throughout the show, yet allows for those in attendance to become part of the production as well."
Socal - Recommended
"...Despite being a labor of love that gestated for over three years, Hyperbole retains the freshness of workshop based, spontaneous theatre games and the kind of zany ingenuity born of raiding the cupboards to turn brooms into wings and rubber bands into musical instruments. The end result is highly chaotic, endearing and entertaining."
