"The Graves' version, striped down to three characters from Moliere's eleven, mercifully is much easier to follow and the characters are more rounded...but Moliere's dialogue and ideas are evident throughout, even if the ending is very different...The audience, arranged along three sides, becomes complicit in...this thoroughly modern retelling of Moliere's biting farce... "

"Darren Bridgett's finely nuanced Alan is exactly the sort of guy you don't want to take to a party...Deborah Fink's Celia is... bright and vivacious...Fink manages sparkly and despondent with equal ease...Roberto Robinson plays Phil here - smooth, urbane, and very seductive...Robinson and his lovely voice are great in this part...Graves and Central Works may have reduced the farcical nature of the work, but in return their characters are real and the story more balanced. This Misanthrope may hate all humanity, but audiences will appreciate its humor, excellent acting, and evocative surroundings."
--Lisa Drostova, East Bay Express

"From the first minute, when we find (Alan) swigging antacid to counteract his bile, and hissing with disgust and contempt of the world, we wait for his explosion. We wait an hour for this pot to boil; when it does, it does not disappoint. Then Bridgett is awesome, he it terrible, he could stare an Old Testament prophet out of countenance... "
--Amir Shadi, Theatreworld

"The Central Works distillation of the original retains Moliere's elements of distrust and betrayal...Central Works decided to drop verse, a convention of the period, for crisp and trenchant straight-talk. It makes the themes more accessible...It enhances modern immediacy through a new plot circumstance - a suspected murder... And it loses the poetry, which, unless expertly voiced, has a tendency to get sing-songy, anyway. This is all together a tight and incisive new play from old roots."
--Jack Tucker, West County Times