Left quad. Right quad. Lunge. A girls indoor soccer team warms up. From the safety of their suburban stretch circle, these 16- and 17-year-olds navigate big questions and wage tiny battles with the ferociousness of a pack of adolescent warriors. New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley calls Sarah DeLappe’s extraordinary debut play “theater that keeps you on the edge of your seat.” Co-winner of the American Playwriting Foundation’s inaugural Relentless Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Yale Drama Series Prize. March 16 through April 22: Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 4 p.m., and Mondays at 8 p.m.; The Echo Theater Company, Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039; Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays: $34; Monday night performances are $20 in advance, and Pay-What-You-Want at the door (subject to availability); 310-307-3753; www.EchoTheaterCompany.com.
The Wolves
Critics
LemonMeter
Reviews: 13
Reviews
It's evident that the director and writer carefully treats each persona with the utmost of respect. The underlying, yet overlying theme of the show is loss, a shocking tragedy that occurs midway through, which ultimately brings the blossoming young women closer together and finally bonded...
A striking performance, not to be missed.
It is miraculous that in 90 short minutes DeLappe manages to capture such a realistic portrait of American female adolescence and Dietze and her cast can bring it to life with such delight, honesty and heart.
This Pulitzer Prize finalist is funny, insightful and very entertaining.
DeLappe's script is every bit as original and effective as reports indicated. The majority of the scenes take place during the team's pre-game warmups. Overlapping dialogue thrusts us into the lives of these young women as they chatter about classes, tampons, boys, and their chance to attend the national championship. DeLappe cleverly crafts these seemingly banal lines in a way that seamlessly reveals the characters and their concerns.
What begins as a funny, sometimes searing, indictment of gossiping, belonging, and clique-like behavior (with incredibly tight workout choreography but stretching that looks fake) wears on our nerves after 30 of these 90 minutes because it's all muscle and no bone to hold it up.
The nine young actors are an amazing ensemble and an utter joy to behold. I believe this cast will be nominated come awards season.
Dietze's ensemble production is vivid with idiosyncratic color. And we hear every syllable of confusion and regret...
How does she quietly pull off this feat? By revealing universal tragicomic truths in ordinary jock-girl existence. To paraphrase Chekhov, characters are just kicking around a ball and shooting the breeze, but at the same time their happiness is being created, or their lives are being torn up.
The excellent cast - directed by Alana Dietze - perfectly captures the arrogance and awkwardness of adolescence.
There is a Great Purpose here somewhere, and no one can fault the actors for their extraordinarily energetic dedication to trying to make this work. I don't envy the director, who had the complicated job of keeping the volatile pin-ball dialogue moving along coherently while soccer balls are being kicked around. The Wolves is not so much a play, but a slice of life, a collective atmosphere and environmental snapshot of girls' sports. But almost all of that Great Purpose is overwhelmed by far too much hyperactivity both physical and verbal, sweat and busy-ness, and wasted time that fails to contribute to the drama.
You go on a ride with these girls and through their lives you see their world - and see it shattered. You'll laugh with them, you'll cringe with them, and ultimately you'll probably weep with them.
And if you've got a teenager in your life, this is a great excuse to take them to the theater. You'll both laugh, you'll both feel uncomfortable - and you might gain a little window into each other.
It's both remarkable and unnerving when a writer, director, and cast work in tandem so effectively that you leave the theater feeling like you know the characters personally. It's a rare magic, currently happening in Atwater Village, where Echo Theater Company is staging Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves.
Echo Theater Company has not only scored a major coup in snagging the Los Angeles Premiere rights to Sarah DeLappe's 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist The Wolves, the extraordinary production Echo has mounted of DeLappe's Altmanesque eavesdropping on six Saturdays of teen-girl soccer warmups will surely be remembered as one of 2019's best.
DeLappe's writing is both skillfully detailed and easily organic. Rarely does any piece of exposition feel forced, which is quite a feat considering that at least an entire week passes between each scene. But necessary new information is revealed in ways that are suspenseful and surprising, and it does not take long at all to get a clear sense of the types of people all nine girls are, and the roles they all play within the group. There are so many dynamics and subtleties that I would have happily watched these characters for longer than the 90 minutes we are given with them.
It's evident that the director and writer carefully treats each persona with the utmost of respect. The underlying, yet overlying theme of the show is loss, a shocking tragedy that occurs midway through, which ultimately brings the blossoming young women closer together and finally bonded...
A striking performance, not to be missed.
It is miraculous that in 90 short minutes DeLappe manages to capture such a realistic portrait of American female adolescence and Dietze and her cast can bring it to life with such delight, honesty and heart.
This Pulitzer Prize finalist is funny, insightful and very entertaining.
DeLappe's script is every bit as original and effective as reports indicated. The majority of the scenes take place during the team's pre-game warmups. Overlapping dialogue thrusts us into the lives of these young women as they chatter about classes, tampons, boys, and their chance to attend the national championship. DeLappe cleverly crafts these seemingly banal lines in a way that seamlessly reveals the characters and their concerns.
What begins as a funny, sometimes searing, indictment of gossiping, belonging, and clique-like behavior (with incredibly tight workout choreography but stretching that looks fake) wears on our nerves after 30 of these 90 minutes because it's all muscle and no bone to hold it up.
The nine young actors are an amazing ensemble and an utter joy to behold. I believe this cast will be nominated come awards season.
Dietze's ensemble production is vivid with idiosyncratic color. And we hear every syllable of confusion and regret...
How does she quietly pull off this feat? By revealing universal tragicomic truths in ordinary jock-girl existence. To paraphrase Chekhov, characters are just kicking around a ball and shooting the breeze, but at the same time their happiness is being created, or their lives are being torn up.
The excellent cast - directed by Alana Dietze - perfectly captures the arrogance and awkwardness of adolescence.
There is a Great Purpose here somewhere, and no one can fault the actors for their extraordinarily energetic dedication to trying to make this work. I don't envy the director, who had the complicated job of keeping the volatile pin-ball dialogue moving along coherently while soccer balls are being kicked around. The Wolves is not so much a play, but a slice of life, a collective atmosphere and environmental snapshot of girls' sports. But almost all of that Great Purpose is overwhelmed by far too much hyperactivity both physical and verbal, sweat and busy-ness, and wasted time that fails to contribute to the drama.
You go on a ride with these girls and through their lives you see their world - and see it shattered. You'll laugh with them, you'll cringe with them, and ultimately you'll probably weep with them.
And if you've got a teenager in your life, this is a great excuse to take them to the theater. You'll both laugh, you'll both feel uncomfortable - and you might gain a little window into each other.
It's both remarkable and unnerving when a writer, director, and cast work in tandem so effectively that you leave the theater feeling like you know the characters personally. It's a rare magic, currently happening in Atwater Village, where Echo Theater Company is staging Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves.
Echo Theater Company has not only scored a major coup in snagging the Los Angeles Premiere rights to Sarah DeLappe's 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist The Wolves, the extraordinary production Echo has mounted of DeLappe's Altmanesque eavesdropping on six Saturdays of teen-girl soccer warmups will surely be remembered as one of 2019's best.
DeLappe's writing is both skillfully detailed and easily organic. Rarely does any piece of exposition feel forced, which is quite a feat considering that at least an entire week passes between each scene. But necessary new information is revealed in ways that are suspenseful and surprising, and it does not take long at all to get a clear sense of the types of people all nine girls are, and the roles they all play within the group. There are so many dynamics and subtleties that I would have happily watched these characters for longer than the 90 minutes we are given with them.