"Trial by Water is a beautifully written script and is cleverly acted with moments that are as heartwarming as they are heartbreaking. Highly Recommended!"
Mary Kroeck, Newcity Chicago
"Real-life suffering usually translates badly to the stage—writers lay on 'this really happened' earnestness as we overload our empathy circuits with other people's agony. It's why good plays about torturers abound, and good plays about victims do not. With the stunningly produced Trial by Water, Qui Nguyen's harrowing retelling of the Vietnamese Bolinao crisis, we finally get a piece about pain that hits like an oncoming wave—rushing, real, and overwhelming. If you can stomach the blood, this is tour-de-force theatre! Nguyen is best known for making chop-socky gorefests with his group the Vampire Cowboys, but his real strength may be in horrors of the everyday kind. A Critic's Pick!"
Helen Shaw, Time Out New York
"Trial by Water is a haunting journey into the true heart of darkness. Based upon a real-life story, Qui Nguyen's brilliant new play, Trial by Water, takes the audience on an unsettling journey that tests the limits of humanity and morality with a disturbingly uncomfortable ending so powerful it leaves its audience as changed as Hung [the main character] himself."
Sean O'Donnell, Show Business Weekly