Houston Press

This bare bones outline doesn't begin to hint at the play's--and the production's--riches. Maher has written most of it in metered, rhyming verse, some of which sounds truly Shakespearean. But, lest ye tremble, he's also made it great fun. ... I laughed, gasped, and scratched my head. A great night of theater.

Catastrophic Theatre's magnificent world-premiere production of Bluefinger: The Fall and Rise of Herman Brood, written and directed by Jason Nodler, and featuring a blistering performance by Matt Kelly in the title role, could easily be the next smash hit on Broadway. Bluefinger is a once-in-a-lifetime, invigorating magical mystery tour of rock's most quintessential wild man. Catastrophic Theatre has outdone itself.

Civilization is a ruse. Down in our guts, we're all just bloodthirsty animals. That's the truth devouring audiences of Catastrophic Theatre's remount of Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's hilariously gory Hunter Gatherers ... The ridiculous trappings of civilization are put away to make room for the primal desires that keep humans connected to their animal hearts — sex, violence, domination, the urge to procreate ... Through all this is director Jason Nodler's marvelous grasp of every comedic possibility in this script ... The show is good and nasty fun.

Once again the original thinkers at Catastrophic Theatre are proving themselves to be the masters of all things strange, disquieting and ultimately mesmerizing ... The story follows a small group of revelers through a night of highballs and honest conversation unlike any you've ever heard, unless you've been to hell and back. Dolled up in suits, silk and shiny shoes, these four men and three women drift about the small party clinking their ice cubes against crystal while engaging in what should be small talk, but in fact turns into the secret horrors of the human condition. [...] And somehow much of this is horrifyingly hilarious - when it's not raising the hairs on the back of your neck. Directed by Jason Nodler with the dangerous and exacting patience of a snake, this show is both intellectually stunning and emotionally unnerving as it snatches evil out from its hiding place and holds it up to the dazzling light.