LA Daily News
- Highly Recommended
"...The play feels modern yet wafts the audience back to a 19th-century summer in the Russian countryside where we watch what fools these mortals be. Its one minor disappointment is the theater's stage, which allows the audience to see actors maneuvering curtains and doors to exit and enter the playing space."
Stage and Cinema
- Highly Recommended
"...Director Andrew Paul does a wonderful job staging the action with purpose and clarity. In his program note he acknowledges his lack of enthusiasm for Turgenev, but he finds Marber's adaptation thrilling and relevant. Paul's excitement and estimable skill is evident throughout. I do suspect, however, that he could do one hell of a job with Brian Friel's more faithful adaptation, or the Emlyn Williams version. He gets these people."
LA Splash
- Recommended
"...The first act was a bit slow as each of the 13 characters made his entrance and showed a sample of his style. However, the second act more than made up for any sluggish spots in the first. Kudos to the duet between physician Shpigelsky (Harry Groener) and Lizaveta (Dawn Didawick), which kept the audience roaring as the doctor listed his each and every fault in his marriage proposal to a spinster who might just take him up on it - or not. Perhaps the fact that the couple are married in real life added that extra soupcon of fun. THREE DAYS IN THE COUNTRY manages to poke fun at the estate's residents - but with a bittersweet quality and a compassion for their humanity. Perhaps it also reminds us that people are people, regardless of time, place, and circumstances."
Stage Scene LA
- Highly Recommended
"...Unrequited love has rarely been as delightful to witness as it is in Three Days In The Country, playwright Patrick Marber's tasty new "version of" Ivan Turgenev's considerably older (by about a hundred seventy years), longer (by an hour and a half), and stodgier (or so I'm told) A Month In The Country, and a glorious return to partner-cast form for L.A.'s creme-de-la-creme Antaeus Theatre Company."
On Stage Los Angeles
- Highly Recommended
"...Andrew Paul's direction is crisp, allowing the skills of the actors to carry the story along. Three Days is an excellent take on a stylized glimpse into the lives of mid 19th Century Russians in love."
Cultural Weekly
- Highly Recommended
"...So enjoy this partner casting while it lasts. You don't have to attend a performance by both casts every time, but if what's on stage satisfies you enough to spur thoughts of a return visit, do it with the second cast."
Gia on the Move
- Recommended
"...With its oddball charms, although not without a slight lack of chemistry or awkwardness within the Blunderers casting, the play exudes plenty of sass and spirit. There are as many truths embedded in the story as there are delights and of course, as many blunders. Instance upon instance in this merry-go-round, is someone in love with someone else who is in love with someone else or even the same person."
KCRW
- Recommended
"...Like most Antaeus productions, this one is "partner cast" meaning there are two full casts who alternate performances: it's one of Antaeus' foibles that make them as an ensemble almost undirectable. With the director outnumbered two to one on every role, it comes down to a particular cast deciding they want to be in the same play - a decision Antaeus doesn't always make. Happily, the cast I saw headed up by Nike Doukas and Leo Marks are all working to the same end."
Stage Raw
- Somewhat Recommended
"...But the most authentic portrayals are by Mendoza as the charming and cryptic Belyaev, and Dupree's cameo as the come-hither servant girl ready to play in the hay. Separately and together, they exude a truth in too short supply elsewhere."
Haines His Way
- Recommended
"...Director Andrew Paul has a deft touch and all the comic moments Marber has written are delightfully enacted by the company. The cast imbues these Russians with real passion as they struggle with all the various permutations of love. It's a rollicking good time led by the superb Doukas who commands the stage every moment. She is given good support by Leo Marks as Rakitin, a family friend who has been hopelessly carrying a torch for her for many years. Shimerman and Knight are delightful in what might just be the funniest proposal scene ever written. The large cast is not as sharp as we have come to expect with Antaeus, but there are no major disappointments to be seen. As usual with Antaeus, the roles are double cast so you may see different actors depending on the performance you attend."
On Stage and Screen
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Natalya is nearly impossible to root for as a character, given that she destroys nearly every meaningful relationship in her life on what is essentially a whim, and her actions quickly grow tiresome. Even the central love triangle, or love polygon if you will, ultimately comes across as women acting rashly and irrationally while a man stands innocently at the center. The whole of Three Days in the Country is ultimately less than the sum of its parts. While certain storylines and performances are very entertaining, the production as a whole falls a bit flat, although those looking for an occasionally whimsical romantic comedy may find it appealing."
Peoples World
- Recommended
"...The fine cast, directed by Andrew Paul, breathes these roles. Aside from the leads in the play I would single out Harry Groener as Dr. Shpigelsky and Dawn Didawick as the elderly Lizaveta, a household hanger-on and indulger in spirits and snuff, who is Kolya's piano teacher. They have a comically touching scene in which a ham-handed marriage proposal is proffered, which she mulls over for most of the second act before she sensibly yet also rather hopelessly pronounces, "I can live with my unhappiness. I don't want to live with yours.""
Broadway World
- Recommended
"...Marber has ever so cleverly encapsulated the plethora of love, from the purity of young love sans any ulterior motives, to the business contractual arrangements of a passionless marriage, to a later-in-life practical approach (fueled by earned knowledgeable wisdom) for a co-habitation. Marber has embedded lots of details in passing exposition making sense of why or why not something is or isn't questioned or commented on. You might be confused. But you'll enjoy figuring it all out. For example, the probability of an arranged marriage between an older gentleman of wealth to a virginal teenage girl would not play in modern day sensibilities. Or would it'"
