Home » Stage » Stage Review
How do you make a phone call? You pick up a hefty black earpiece and dial a number on a hefty black stand. You can't take pictures with this device. Furthermore, it's a party line. Strangers share the line and can be heard listening in. I'm showing my age. But I bring this up apropos of Southern Rep's excellent production of Stephen Karam's Speech & Debate. The play is about high school today, and while the high school in question is not the sort with a metal detector at the door, some things about scandal and high school social mores never change.
by Dalt Wonk
Gambit Weekly / Best of New Orleans 9/23/08
Liann Pattison: A class act in Southern Rep's 'Speech & Debate' (Interview)
The flashier roles in Stephen Karam's delirious/serious comedy "Speech & Debate" are those of its misfit teenagers: Natalie Boyd as vengeful, frustrated thespian Diwata, Sean Knapp as Howie, who is gay and out there but has a surprising social conscience, and Sean Glazebrook as Solomon, an oh-so-earnest high school reporter with a few issues of his own to work out. But there's another player sharing the stage with them in two skillfully delineated roles, whose mature, natural acting style helps ground the play in reality... and allows her younger colleagues to shine. "I do what I always try to do," Liann Pattison said, "and that is to serve the play.
by David Cuthbert
The Times-Picayune 10/02/08
GREAT 'DEBATE: Southern Rep opens its season with a funny play that has something to say
I have seen Stephen Karam's audacious, awesome comedy "Speech and Debate" twice now and am available, even eager to see it again.
It is intelligent, insightful, cleverly plotted contemporary playwriting. Its main characters are three colorful, contrasting, teenage misfits who find a way to make a meaningful noise in an adult world that doesn't want to hear from them -- unless they're answering a proposition in an Internet chat room or helping an author plug her book on NPR.
by David Cuthbert
The Times-Picayune 9/19/08
'Speech & Debate' hold-over, almost over
Popular 'Speech & Debate' was held over until this weekend when it stages final performances.
by David Cuthbert
The Times-Picayune 10/09/08
Southern Rep season-opener 'Speech & Debate' extended
I have seen Stephen Karam's audacious, awesome comedy "Speech and Debate" twice now and am available, even eager to see it again.
It is intelligent, insightful, cleverly plotted contemporary playwriting...It's a play of abundant humor, with a serious subtext that sustains interest. At Southern Rep, director Aimee Hayes makes a smashing debut as artistic director in a production that teases and coaxes the play's truths, questions and complexities onto the stage through fresh, committed performances by a uniformly fine cast.
by David Cuthbert
The Times-Picayune / NOLA.com 9/19/08
New kid on the block: Sean Knapp gets himself noticed in 'Speech & Debate' at Southern Rep
Sean Knapp has an audition piece that gets him noticed at theater tryouts. "I do a 'Vagina Monologue,'" he said, "'My Angry Vagina.'"
by David Cuthberg
The Times-Picayune 9/15/08
Free 'Speech & Drama' at Southern Rep
A new local theater season begins this week in the best possible way: free tickets to a promising play by an exciting young playwright. The theater is the adventurous Southern Rep, which specializes in new plays, the playwright is 28-year-old Stephen Karam and the play is "Speech & Debate, " a comedy about free speech and three high school misfits determined to make their voices heard.
by David Cuthbert
The Times-Picayune / NOLA.com 8/29/08