Amerissiah by Derek Ahonen

"Truly thought provoking and frequently hilarious."

"Ahonen stirs everything together with gusto and a delicious incongruity."

"Ahonen is a playwright who is obviously loaded with talent. The atmosphere at this production is charged and heady."

"Amerissiah may surprise those who have grown to love the hectic hilarity of Ahonen's other works. Messianic zeal, the duties of fathers and the post-belief vacuum all figure here, and the balance tips away from zaniness and toward sincerity. Nobody else weds old-fashioned realist structure to working class-hero lunacy quite like this."

"Ahonen mixes satire, farce, and kitchen sink drama in a style that is entirely his own -- and a gift to actors and audiences. A latter day Odets."

"Amerissiah displays Ahonen trademarks: characters eking out a living on America's fringes, outre dysfunctions, extreme physicality, foul-mouthed humor. But Ahonen's work is more than low-brow provocation wrapped in white-trash aesthetics. He has affection for all his characters, including the Ricewater family of Amerissiah."

"For this uniquely messed up American family, there is a uniquely American savior in Barry, the kind of Christ figure that can promise to get to heaven and make it impossible for those on Earth to cheat in sports."

"...proof that some of the very best stuff in the theater is nowhere near Broadway."

"The situations and characters...are appalling and over-the-top and funny and often startlingly convincing; they reflect back aspects of ourselves in a kind of funhouse mirror -- the best kind of theatricality."