... and they are in agreement on one thing (if not a few)...
Lissa Brennan’s play Hoard and the entire creative team from off the WALL productions and nancy manocherian’s the cell theatre (including actors, directors, stage crew, and playwright) capture with heart and exacting precision the unnerving unraveling of perfect strangers, Viv and Claire.
Although Claire was hired to help Viv ‘declutter’ her home, Claire’s ‘helping’ and Viv’s ‘rebuffing’’ seems to inadvertently (or perhaps purposefully?) cause harm to the other. Heart breaking, real, messy and tragic, Hoard is the cumulative work of generous, brave and talented artists.
photo credit: Heather Mull
See below for excerpts from the latest reviews:
Playwright Lissa Brennan, known to many Pittsburgh theater fans for her ferocious acting, has cooked up a hot one here…To say that the feather dusters begin to fly is putting it mildly. By the end of Hoard’s 90 minutes, both women are moved and shaken, and so is the audience.
This is not a neat or tidy play. It is brutal and raw with two actors whose chemistry has been well established circling around one another in an orchestrated emotional and psychological dance…
Both actors (Virginia Wall Gruenert and Erika Cuenca) fully embodied each character, not breaking even when their counterpart was delivering a long monologue. They both gracefully tackled the test of being on stage and in character for nearly 100 minutes straight.
...Virginia Wall Gruenert and Erika Cuenca are unequivocally the performers two-person shows should be created for—impassioned, invested and thrilling from start to finish.
… Hoard could not have been taken on by a more gifted and innovative artistic team and pair of performers, and the experience of the show is one that should not be missed.
Hoard will head to New York City for another three week run beginning April 2nd at nancy monocherian’s cell theatre, the collaborative partner in this production. Hoard will remain at Carnegie Stage for two more weeks.
Turn off the TV, put down that phone, get off your butt and come down to Carnegie to support some incredible artists sharing some incredible work. Artists need their work to be seen in order to stay alive; you might need it too.
Hoard
March 6- March 21
Tickets @ carnegiestage.com
Pittsburgh's alternative theater company
equal, diverse, inclusive
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