Total Rating: 
****
Opened: 
February 2003
Ended: 
Winter 2003
Country: 
USA
State: 
New York
City: 
New York
Company/Producers: 
LAByrinth Theater Company
Theater Type: 
off-Broadway
Theater: 
Harold Clurman Theater
Theater Address: 
412 West 42nd Street
Phone: 
(212) 279-4200
Author: 
John Patrick Shanley
Director: 
John Patrick Shanley
Review: 

Dirty Story, written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, is brilliant, funny, scintillating, engrossing, enchanting. Shanley's a unique dramatist who pours out ideas of real intellectual import, with a touch (almost) of Thomas Harris and a bit of Hellzapoppin thrown in. It's a study of narcissism in a writer, partly Absurd Theater, full of theatrical surprises, with a superb cast, each with a vividly unforgettable character: David Deblinger, Florenzia Lozand, Chris McGarry, Michael Puzzo, all playing archetypes: Artist, Worker, Cowboy, Bartender. Shanley's theatrics take you on a trip, and expand the limits of what can be done. Set by Michelle Malavel, costumes by Mimi O'Donnell and lighting by Jeremy Morris fully fulfill Shanley's vision. The play stands on the shoulders of Brecht and is the most oblique anti-war statement in town.

Cast: 
David Deblinger, Florenzia Lozand, Chris McGarry, Michael Puzzo
Technical: 
Costumes: Mimi O'Donnell; Lighting: Jeremy Morris; Set: Michelle Malavel.
Critic: 
Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed: 
March 2003