Carnival Round The Central Figure
CARNIVAL ROUND THE CENTRAL FIGURE is steeped in the absurd the man's face is caked with white makeup, and a menacing nurse sits nearby, holding a needle about three feet long. Yet like much in this clever and confounding meditation on dying, what is unusual can also be affecting. CARNIVAL is a funny and beguiling 100 minutes, aimed at those eager for an experimental look into its themes. In the end the play merely reminds us of the obvious: we re all destined to die. Yet it's a message that bears repeating. Such great truths are too often ignored, and are best told with a nervous laugh. --The New York TimesComedies don't come much darker than Diana Amsterdam's CARNIVAL ROUND THE CENTRAL FIGURE, a hard-core but justified lampooning of the strange etiquette we adhere to when watching loved ones pass away. Amsterdam's relentless script makes a glib burlesque out of the oblique religious platitudes, idle chitchat, and straight-up dishonesty we typically inflict upon the dying. --BackstageCARNIVAL ROUND THE CENTRAL FIGURE will certainly strike a powerful chord... --New York PostComedies don't come much darker than Diana Amsterdam's CARNIVAL ROUND THE CENTRAL FIGURE, a hard-core but justified lampooning of the strange etiquette we adhere to when watching loved ones pass away. Amsterdam's relentless script makes a glib burlesque out of the oblique religious platitudes, idle chitchat, and straight-up dishonesty we typically inflict upon the dying. --BackstageCARNIVAL ROUND THE CENTRAL FIGURE will certainly strike a powerful chord... --New York Post