How to Make Friends and Then Kill Them – Location, Tickets, Reviews
The ominous title of this play may seem like a funny gimmick to attract attention, but How to Make Friends and then Kill Them is actually an accurate description of this dark, dark comedy by Halley Feiffer at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.
Spanning many years, the play traces the unhealthy and often cruel relationship between dominant yet insecure Ada, her far-too-adoring sister Sam, and their naive and sickly “friend” Dorrie. The three, very different but similarly rejected, girls cannot break their toxic, codependent bond, even as terrible events test their connection. As it turns out, there are many ways to “kill” a person.
The dynamic of control, jealousy, and manipulation is repeated as the girls grow up and become troubled adults. In excellent, deliberately-exaggerated, almost-grotesque performances, the three actresses make this downward spiral a visceral nightmare.
The pattern and consequences of their behavior is demonstrated too literally and too frequently throughout the performance which by the end is a little exhausting, but as a result How to Make Friends and then Kill Them leaves quite an impact.
LOCATION
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
224 Waverly Place
New York City
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RUNNING TIME
1 hour 30 minutes, no intermission
TICKETS
$10-$55 (click here for tickets)
DATES
Extended through December 14, 2013
REVIEWS
New York Times
We’re Buds, Right? It’s Hard to Tell.
New York Post
When mean gals become best pals
TheaterMania
Halley Feiffer’s new comedy is dark with a capital-D.
New York Theatre Review
[How to Make] Friends… is fairly clear, sometimes even too obvious. Much of the clumsiness is due to Fagan’s direction. He immediately sets a tone of false shrillness and manic whimsy, which leaves the show with nowhere to go.
AndrewAndrew
Video Review
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written by Halley Feiffer
Directed by Kip Fagan
Featuring Katya Cambell, Keira Keeley, and Jen Ponton
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater: How to Make Friends and then Kill Them