Turning Off the Morning News

Rachel Nicks & Robert Sella

Kristine Nielsen, Rachel Nicks, Robert Sella, Jenn Harris, & Nicholas Podany

Nicholas Podany, Kristine Nielsen, John Pankow, Robert Sella, Jenn Harris, & Rachel Nicks

“Upon entering McCarter Theatre Center's Berlind Theatre we find ourselves immediately confronted by Beowulf Boritt's colorfully skewed set. And by skewed, I mean literally skewed: All of the houses onstage are slanted on the sides, giving an otherwise normal American suburb the feel of a Norman Rockwell canvas refracted through a Looney Tunes funhouse mirror. This preceding stage image turns out to be a harbinger of the insanity to come.” ~Kenji Fujishima, Theatremania

“Set against the backdrop of Beowulf Boritt's meticulously benign suburban sprawl with its bright, cartoonish color palate.” ~Patrick Maley, NJ.com

“Designer Beowulf Boritt cleverly gives the set a bright, cheerful, cartoonish look, and frames it in a way that makes it look like we’re watching the action on television.” ~ Jay Lustig , NJArts.net

“The 90-minute play moves quickly, helped by the efficient novelty of the set by Beowulf Boritt.” ~ Sarah Vander Schaaff, BroadwayWorld

“Beowulf Boritt’s set design is a clever arrangement of houses with a turntable that allows fluid shifts between the two living rooms.” ~ Liz Keill, TAPintoNJ.com

“Beowulf Boritt’s sets and Jennifer von Mayrhauser’s costume designs use a color palette consisting mostly of yellow, red, and blue. Appropriately, this gives the production the look of an early color television show — or a Sunday comic strip. It also evokes a falsely cheerful mood that makes the dark undercurrents more disturbing.” ~ Donald H. Sanborn III, Princeton Town Topics

Scenic designer Beowulf Boritt, who also did this season’s Stones in His Pockets, has created a satiric set full of cookie-cutter beige houses with perfectly trimmed emerald green lawns, framed by a bright blue TV screen-shaped proscenium. ~Allen Neuner, Out in NJ.com