DEAD LAWYERS

Produced in Los Angeles at Sacred Fools, in New York at EndTimes and Playwrights Horizons, at UCSD, and University of California-Berkeley.  

LA Weekly: “Playwright George Larkin cannibalizes various genre conventions with mistaken identities, elevating the whodunit spoof to new levels of hilarity.  He keeps the action moving, the jokes zooming and the pratfalls flying at a breathless pace, with the energetic cast delivering uniformly strong comic performances.”  

Ventura Country Star & San Bernadino Sun: “With this and dozens of other attorney jokes, the play Dead Lawyers is a hysterical send-up of Agatha Christie whodunits and door-slamming farces with more egotistical lawyers than an O.J. trial...  A raging storm, a washed-out bridge and a secluded time-share house in the Hamptons provide the ideal setting for this comic mystery.”  

Backstage West:  “(A) fun show based on the Agatha Christie premise of a house, cut off from civilization by a storm, containing a mysterious corpse and a number of terrified occupants... Only the addition of deceased IRS auditors could make for a more appealing premise.”  

 Daily Californian: “George Larkin’s Dead Lawyersis a delightfully spoofalicious play.”

GRIMM

Three plays of Grimm folks tales for the stage, produced at the Met Theatre.  Combined, the shows were nominated for nine prestigious L.A. Weekly Awards and received three Backstage West honorable mention Garlands. The shows were Backstage West Critic’s Picks and recommended by the L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Times: “George Larkin's third slate of adult takes on tales by folklore's cautionary brothers is a vivacious volume earmarked by wry designs and spry playing.”

The Los Angeles Times: “Grown-up Grimm pulls no punches! George Larkin’s slate of adult takes on tales by folklore’s cautionary brothers is a vivacious volume earmarked by wry designs and spry playing.”  

Backstage West: “Elegantly penned by George Larkin, Infinite Cinderella weaves together variants on the happily-ever-after tale of a pure girl and her prince, beloved over ages and cultures...” 

Accessibly Live: “(The stories) are full of horrible death and sorrow, getting rather creepy in nature...  It’s funny, sad, cruel, and still holds its ironic charm. It's again one-part Fractured Fairy Tales, one part Saturday Night Live, and all entertaining.”

The Maestro Entertainment Magazine: “George Larkin has created an edgy and imaginative experience in modern theater.”

Accessibly Live: “There’s a production at The MET Theatre in Hollywood that should not be missed!..  Check it out -- and maybe have a nightlight ready for sleeping afterward.”

PERVERSE TONGUE

Performed at the Met Theatre in Los Angeles.  A dark look at America after a plaque.

 Los Angeles Loyolan:  “Thought provoking play details dark version of the future with religious extremism.  The story is, needless to say, completely intriguing and touching, yet sustains a sense of uneasiness with the audience. As farfetched as it seems, this extreme scenario seems all too possible.   It’s dangerous territory, as Larkin warns to be cautious upon viewing his play.”

The Play Review: “In the past few weeks there have been several reviews here that deal with the ominous future and the possible change of human values. From Ray Bradbury'sFahrenheit 451to George Orwell's Animal Farm, we see repression, totalitarianism and power hungry regimes that feed on their own corruption. Now we have The Perverse Tongue, about as imaginative and thought provoking as they come. George Larkin has come up with a premise in this compelling drama that is at once chilling and plausible... Larkin's story is so gripping and uniquely presented that it's definitely worth a look, especially since the US has recently had preacher politicians running for President. “

Entertainment Today: “What makes Larkin’s story compelling is its plausibility.”

NAKED HOLIDAYS

One-act play produced in Los Angeles at Sacred Fools and five times at EndTimes in NYC.

LA Weekly: “George Larkin’s ‘The Naked Holidays Opening,’ directed gleefully by Alexander Yannis Stephano, is the pick of the show.  A multicultural melange outlining the contrasting traditions of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa with a debunking of Christian traditions, climaxing in a semi-clothed chorus line.”

LA Times (from page one of the Calendar Section): “Most of the clothes come off near the end of George Larkin’s frisky musical introduction, which also establishes that the holidays in question include Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and solstice celebrations, as well as Christmas. The show pokes fun at its own ethnic nondiversity by enlisting an unwilling white guy (Jeff Benninghofen) to explain Kwanzaa.”

Not all of the seven vignettes that follow are especially raw. 

Theatre Mania: "Originally conceived by the Sacred Fools Theater Company of Los Angeles, Naked Holidaysis a darkly comic Yuletide bacchanalia fit for Samson himself. George Larkin's opening is a boisterous reaction to some of the most popular holiday images; delving into the hilarious customs of our best loved winter holidays, and the pagan traditions celebrated nowadays as Christmas. Yet not even the Olympics delivers like this multicultural melange which climaxes in a scantily clad routine that looks a lot like Christmas.”