Remarkable... an absurdist comedy of a fresh, exciting elevation.  Julien Schwab has built a puzzle box of the first order, employing a clutch of metatheatrical techniques in skillful service to a comedy that is past clever and making its way toward brilliant.   David Esler’s set is virtually a character itself.  Not only is the fourth wall partly removed, so is the third dimension: the apartment is primarily an architect’s floor plan, with taped lines indicating rooms, and furnishings more suggested than real.  When Penny gazes into a mirror, she is looking straight at us — a reminder of theater’s essence.

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–Daniel M. Gold, New York Times  (Critics' Pick)          

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In Julien Schwab's surreal comedy, nimbly directed by Nicholas Cotz, the meta twists keep coming ... The more nuts things get (and they get pretty nuts), the more fun this light, whimsical, very well-acted play about the imagination is.

–"Talk of the Town" capsule review, The New Yorker          

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Julien Schwab's rogerandtom is a fun, metaphysical romp.  [With] the audience seated on two sides of the playing area depicting the outline of a New York City apartment, there are no walls, fourth or otherwise -- just vertical wires and pieces of tape signifying its contours.  The performers go through their complex paces with admirable commitment, and director Nicholas Cotz does an excellent job of making the complex action coherent.   ★★★☆

–Frank Scheck, New York Post          

 

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Julien Schwab's crafty, poignant bottled playlet is a small, cool gem in the hot miasma of summer:  it's down the rabbit-hole, and if the hole kinda bends back on itself, that's part of the point — family as an endless emotional recursion, where the lines between love, playacting and self- deception dissolve entirely.

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–Scott Brown, New York / Vulture          

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A three-person existential juggling act that shifts between profundity and screwball yuks.  In the wrong hands, or dragged out too long, this material would grate.  But Schwab’s script is short and punchy, and director Nicholas Cotz and his cast sell it — this little metacomedy generates enough deep thought to put me in mind of Pirandello.   ★★★★☆

–Jenna Scherer, Time Out NY (Critics' Pick)          

 

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A totally satisfying lab for looking at how plays work and how life works, at the same time.  It engages your mind in a puzzle ... while at the same time saying, "See, puzzles help you think about people".  It's this moment of self-reflection that most Western plays are attempting, in some way, to capture.  Rogerandtom pulls these moments off in a way that is particularly funny and effective.  ...Makes a heavy-duty case for theater.

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–Matthew Maher, quoted by Lizzie Simon, Wall Street Journal feature          

 

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A play as much about theater as anything, Julian Schwab's pomo drama flattens the fourth wall to bring actors and audience into the same quizzical space.

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–Alexis Soloski, Village Voice  (Voice Choice)          

 

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Following who any one of the three figures is in this curious cross between a Jorge Luis Borges short story and Gaslight is a large part of what amuses patrons so constantly. ... It's almost as if David Esler's eye-catching set ... has turned into a maze from which only the savviest spectators will emerge fully informed about the goings-on.

–David Finkle, Huffington Post          

 

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Stepping into HERE's upstairs space is a little like entering a funhouse ... an effect that is certainly intended:  the creative team behind rogerandtom wants you to be disoriented.  Under the steady direction of Nicholas Cotz, the three actors do a fine job navigating this Twilight Zone-esque story. Even though we're through the looking glass, it's all crystal clear.

–Zachary Stewart, Theatermania.com          

 

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Rogerandtom  turns on David Esler’s puzzle of a set, a three-dimensional version of the blueprints of a very small apartment.   Schwab’s cleverness is matched only by his adroit portraits of three young people who slowly reveal themselves and their relationships as they step in and out of one play and into another, skillfully helped by the set, Nastassia Jimenez’ lighting, and the clever sound design of Chris Rummel and Erik T. Lawson.  Laughs alternate with surprisingly moving moments and lucidity comes up against opacity.  This mini-comedy/drama is meaningful and full of life.

–Joel Benjamin, TheaterScene.net          

 

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Stretching the boundaries of theater ... akin to an erector set where you can build any which way you please, or just tear it apart and start again.  Skillfully directed by Nicholas Cotz, we can’t help but be caught up in the cleverness of the play. ... The set by David Esler clearly breaks the fourth wall... the audience is seated on opposite sides of the set, [creating a] mirrored see-through effect similar to what is about to transpire on the set.

–Sandi Durell, TheaterPizzazz.com          

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Schwab doesn’t just break the fourth wall, so much as dance the jitterbug on top of it... not an easy feat to pull off.  But the cast and crew do so magnificently.  David Esler’s set design is, like the play, simple and complex all at once, revealing so much about theater itself that one starts to appreciate the importance of Set in a brand new way. ...  An absolute delight.

–JK Clarke, Times Square Chronicle          

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The thought-provoking and hilarious events are in constant supply ... like Inception and The Twilight Zone meeting Abbott and Costello.  [Actors] Suzy Jane Hunt, Eric T. Miller and Richard Thierot [are] all spot on... believable and captivating, in a well-oiled machine of a production.

–Shoshana Roberts, Theatre Is Easy          

(recommended: Best Off-Broadway)          

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Julien Schwab's exceedingly clever puzzle of a play ... shatters the fourth wall into many pieces and reveals even to its characters that they can't trust their own reality.  The apartment [is] ingeniously imagined by David Esler.  This is one of the more novel Off-Broadway pieces on display at the moment.

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–Samuel L. Leiter, Theatre's Leiter Side          

 

 

Smart, funny, and — in the end — surprisingly touching.  Much credit needs to go to the director Nicholas Cotz, and to the splendid cast.  [There is] something odd and dream-like about the set, very cleverly designed by David Esler.  Rogerandtom is an original and solid work, and Mr. Schwab shows himself to be a playwright to be reckoned with.

–Howard Miller, Upstage/Downstage          

 

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If you are looking for something a bit different, head to HERE in SoHo for Personal Space Theatrics' revival of Julien Schwab's Pirandellian comedy.  First off, the clever set design by David Esler will grab your attention: a typical urban apartment suggested by room outlines taped to the floor with a few furnishings including a sofa, a toilet and sink, a miniature bed and taut vertical wires to indicate each room's corners. ... The actors are uniformly excellent, the direction by Nicholas Cotz is assured, and the attempt to stray from the tried-and-true was refreshing.

–Robert Sholiton, Bob's Theater Blog          

 

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What's timeless and ever-intriguing about rogerandtom is its metatheatric nature — beginning in Julien Schwab's outstanding script, carried out through Nicholas Cotz's direction, David Esler's set, and the spot-on performances of Suzy Jane Hunt, Eric T. Miller and Richard Thieriot.  Amidst the trio onstage, Esler's modernist set has all the bare essentials ... [but] everything else is imaginary ... this set becomes one of many metaphorical elements to unfold and point out the absurdities of the theater that we all accept as real.

–Jennifer Thompson, Eye on the Arts          

 

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Rogerandtom is a smart, provocative production that effortlessly communicates innumerable themes all with a good-hearted laugh. ... The production’s success lies in the well-developed script, but also in the ensemble’s strong performances. ... Finally, I must mention the exquisitely simple set design by David Esler — in a perfectly meta fashion, the apartment is constructed by a simple floor plan.

–Sarah Lucie, Show Business Weekly          

 

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There’s more to rogerandtom than a clash between fiction and reality — there’s a meditation on the choices we make, the ways in which we communicate, and the persistent strength of illusion.  ... David Esler’s set is exceedingly smart, using tape to represent the floorplan and then playing around with the scale size of actual objects — like a half-size bed and refrigerator — to give the entire affair a dollhouse-like artificiality/foundation.

–Aaron Riccio, ThatSoundsCool          

 

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Julien Schwab has written one of the most cleverly constructed plays that Iʼve seen in a long time.  The writing and direction is brilliant and the production is flawlessly executed.  I highly recommend checking this one out before it slips into a reality that weʼre not privy to.

–Richard Hinojosa, NYTheatre.com          

(recommended on the Hot List)          

 

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Rogerandtom is a mindblowing Twilight Zone where there is no fourth wall ... Keeps you on your toes as it smartly deceives you and makes you think.  The set design by David Esler helps set the stage for the perfect journey to nowhere.

– Times Square Chronicle          

 

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It is exciting to see a meta-play about more than its own cleverness.  Rogerandtom transcends the structural ploy to become a play about the ways we are all actors, onstage and off.

–Alexander Tsebelis, Washington Square News          

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 Julien Schwab's mind-bending rogerandtom shoots into the top five best-reviewed plays in NYC [on, Off, or off-Off Broadway], with a solid A grade.

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– StageGrade.com (theatre-review aggregator)