The Evildoers
Cast Requirements
2 Men
2 Women
Press
"Slashingly funny...Mr. Adjmi is certainly skilled at writing dialogue that both captures and softly lampoons the fluid eloquence and showy wit that perfumes the air at Manhattan restaurants and dining rooms."
The New York Times
"A culmination of the last four centuries of theater, playing with theatrical forms from Jacobean tragedy to drawing-room comedies, while adding its own very modern twists... You’ll need someone to stabilize you when you walk out of the theater shaking. But drag a friend, an enemy or a professor along for perhaps the most thought-provoking stage production you’ll encounter this year."
Sarah Wolf, Yale Daily News
The world premiere of David Adjmi's The Evildoers will open your eyes to a new level of depth perception in the study of human relationships. And you'll keep them open (maybe joined by a mouth) right to the final moment of the play. Filled with exquisite metaphor.. a great theatre piece."
Tom Nissley, Connecticut Critics' Circle
"The Evildoers has received some of the most enthusiastic reviews of the season... Adjmi is a playwright to watch--and support."
Hartford Courant
"There is something of the weltgeist of our terrorized planet on ugly, jaw-dropping display in this world premiere production of the play.... a dynamic night of theater ... a singular new voice."
Christopher Grobe, New Haven Independent
"An anxiety attack of a play... Adjmi is clearly a writer with a distinct voice, style and ambition. In “The Evildoers” he attempts nothing less than a reality check for the post-Baby Boom generation as it hits middle age... The playwright tears down the facade that masks veneer upon veneer with stinging detail, idiosyncratic loopiness and shocking incident."
Frank Rizzo, Variety
"...an adventurous and provocative new work not easily ignored. I haven't always been kept this anxious during a production at Yale. I welcome the stress. The Evildoers is not for the Neil Simon crowd or the faint of heart but playwright Adjmi is clearly a writer worth watching."
Tom Holehan, Connecticut Critics' Circle
"Jean-Paul Sartre and the Old Testament collide in The Twilight Zone...The Evildoers keeps its audience alternately amused, amazed, and downright horrified."
Amy J. Barry, CT Critics Circle
"... there's a fierce talent here, a willingness to go out on a limb and progress from realism to a kind of magic realism where nothing is as it appears to be... The Evildoers is difficult but cannot be ignored... Playwright Adjmi is, at this point, more than promising."
New Haven Advocate
Production and Development History
Workshops: MCC Theater (Ovid Grant for New Writing, 2005); Royal Court Theatre (2008); Sundance Institute Theatre Lab (2006).
World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre (2008).