What the Critical People Have Said
--WRITING/DIRECTING--
Nytheatre.com:
2011 People of the Year - "Nat Cassidy is an actor, director, and playwright of surprising range and depth."
I AM PROVIDENCE (Nat's one-man show)
Nytheatre:
"A deliciously creepy evening full of surprise and frisson ... Very learned and highly entertaining [with] exciting and daring risks ... Nat Cassidy and Greg Oliver Bodine have devised an evening that puts us smack in Lovecraft’s territory of the weird and wild ... Clever writing complemented by excellent sound and light make for a most entertaining evening ... A near-perfect horror fest... The audience, breath held, hang[s] on every sound and word. This is pure storytelling."
—Nita Congress
The Village Voice:
"Nat Cassidy is obviously a talented performer and writer!"
Tor.com:
"Truly amazing ... Things at the Doorstep [is] an unexpectedly brilliant mediation on the use and function of horror, on H.P. Lovecraft himself, on the supernatural, on storytelling, on death, on hope. ... A play creepy and magical enough to do old H.P. proud. ... I'm still thinking about it, days later."
Theatre Is Easy:
"Successful for so many reasons ... A true treat ... Entertaining, educational and strangely unsettling. Any fan of horror in general shouldn't miss this show ... Riveting."
—Weston Clay
The Rejectionist:
"It is the most delightful thing we have ever seen anyone pull off on a stage, anywhere, ever, and if you are in New York you must go see it. You must. You REALLY MUST. Go. GO."
—The Rejectionist
THE ETERNAL HUSBAND
"Nat Cassidy's starkly original adaptation of Dostoevsky's The Eternal Husband is, amazing, unforgettable. Charles E. Gerber's Older Man of the title is absolutely electrifying. Arthur Aulisi's Younger Man, Elyse Mirto's wife Natalya, and Karen Sternberg's ex-girlfriend Claudia, combine to generate heat that is pure brilliance. THIS IS 75 MINUTES YOU MUST NOT MISS!" - Joe Franklin, BLOOMBERG RADIO
"The Eternal Husband is a well-executed noir drama, staged simply and with utmost confidence by writer/director Nat Cassidy ...The material is startlingly well structured ... the cast is stellar ... Certainly, among the shows I've seen thus far in this year's festival, The Eternal Husband offers the most enjoyable night of theater. I can't wait for Cassidy's next creation." - NYTHEATRE.COM
"Nat Cassidy's The Eternal Husband has pretty much everything. Moments of sheer terror mixed with darkly funny humour; a romantic core with a violent exterior. But my gosh does it work. Running at a mere seventy five minutes there isn't a dull moment. Yet, it is not just the excitement that is so impressive but the careful layers of thoughtful philosophy. ... Cassidy makes the material work on its own terms, pacing things beautifully, letting the shocking conclusion breathe rather than overwhelm. ... The skilled cast conjures fully formed characters ... An impressive piece of work by any standards. I'd love to see Cassidy's adaptation given a slightly more polished production, the scope for terror could only increase, but at the tiny La MaMa theatre this is still, in every way, worth a look." - THE TYRO THEATRE CRITIC
"All the roles are well played, especially, I thought, that of Claudia (Karen Sternberg), a friend and former lover to [the private detective]. Elyse Mitro’s adulterous and castrating Natalya is eminently believable as the sort of woman an eternal husband is drawn to, as a moth to the flame ... The Eternal Husband is noir to the nth!" - BROADWAY WORLD
ANY DAY NOW (written & directed by Nat Cassidy)
Playbill:
Nominated for Outstanding Director (Nat Cassidy) and Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role (Elyse Mirto) for the 2009 New York Innovative Theatre Awards!
Playbill:
Winner, Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role (Elyse Mirto)!
Nytheatre.com (starred review):
"The first act mostly feels neatly off-kilter, with the audience never quite sure whether to laugh or to gasp. Cassidy packages his supernatural theme with such naturalistic aplomb that he evokes David Lynch, particularly the very first episode of Twin Peaks, where you were trying to decipher the creator's intent while increasingly jaw-dropping weirdness unfolded uncontrollably before your eyes. . . . Cassidy's direction is splendid, sustaining the heightened, off-balanced naturalism beautifully throughout. His cast of seven is superb: Elyse Mirto and Paige Allen are excellent as April and Beverly (with Mirto doing a remarkable transformation of her character as the events of the story wear her down); Anna O'Donoghue is very convincing as the college-dropout Jackie; Tim Ewing and Arthur Aulisi are invaluable as the sisters' husbands (Ewing plays the henpecked David with enormous dignity, while Aulisi makes the about-to-be-divorced Josh enormously likable and ineffably sad); and Waltrudis Buck and Anthony Spaldo anchor the play as the parents. Spaldo's role is almost entirely silent and he is spectacularly convincing as a specimen of the undead just a few feet away from the spectators. Any Day Now is further evidence of Cassidy's talent and intelligence as playwright and director. . . . It's a long evening, but one filled with surprises and rewards."
—Martin Denton
The Fab Marquee:
"Any Day Now goes from being just an entertaining evening of theatre to...well, something GENIUS. Because you're being thrown for a loop from the moment the lights come up...and are entertained for all three acts. [A] great play for a myriad of reasons . . . one that is full of laughs in the right spots. [P]laywright/director Nat Cassidy [does a] wonderful job. . . . [The play] delivers, with a surprising ending that holds the audience in the palm of its hand. . . [E]xceptional . . . [Keeps] the audience fascinated for three hours. This is like Sam Sheppard meets George Romero....with more emphasis on the former artist than the latter."
—Dianna Martin
Show Business Weekly:
"A vibrant drama, centering on a family whose patriarch returns from the dead during a pandemic of unexplained resurrections. The family members seek to both relate and deny the significance of their own ordinary problems — elderly dementia, closet homosexuality, alcoholism — to the global implications of the zombie appearances. [A] gritty family drama heightened by a clever allegory for larger social issues. . . . [T]he play's themes are compelling and clear."
D.C. Theatre Scene:
"Any Day Now, written and directed by Nat Cassidy, drew me on a cold and wet Saturday night in January. I don't often get to cover off/off Broadway, for there is something going on there almost daily and nightly, but I'm glad I came down to see this. . . . [Cassidy] has a gift for dialogue and characterization. . . . Not your usual run-of-the-mill family comedy (or drama, for that matter). But Mr. Cassidy has directed his play well, and cast it soundly with actors who bring conviction to it, and fill it with humor and pathos. It's a fine cast of seven, an ensemble that plays as though it were in the middle of a long run, which is meant as high compliment indeed. . . . [T]ight, suspenseful and scary."
—Richard Seff
THE RECKONING OF KIT & LITTLE BOOTS
Playbill:
Nominated for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Full-Length Script (Nat Cassidy), and Outstanding Actor in a Lead Role (David Ian Lee) for the 2009 New York Innovative Theatre Awards!Playbill:
Winner, Outstanding Full-Length Script (Nat Cassidy)!
Nytheatre.com:
"Caligula is a fab character, and an irresistible one, and David Ian Lee seems to be having a blast bringing him to life. He gets to recount anecdote after anecdote of Caligula's astonishing, depraved, mythic existence: how his grandmother Livia murdered her own husband and tricked Caligula into murdering his own father; how (and why) Caligula tried to have his horse elected to the Senate; how the great love of Caligula's life was his sister Drucilla. Cassidy seems particularly fascinated by the sexual excesses of this character, and descriptions of acts of incest and more pepper Caligula's accounts of his life here.
"But fun in its way as this all is, the heart of Cassidy's play—and the best parts of it—have nothing to do with the Roman emperor. Marlowe is the play's protagonist, after all, and it is what he learns from his experiences with his roommate Thomas Kyd (also a playwright, though a lesser one: he wrote The Spanish Tragedy), his comrade William Shakespeare, and his employer Sir Francis Walsingham that really fuel this Reckoning.
"What I liked best about the play is the way that Cassidy contemporizes Marlowe's existence without in any way diminishing it. Kit is a twentysomething overgrown kid, grappling with the same kinds of things not-quite-mature twentysomething wannabe-artists grapple with in 2008. His roommate is a slob and, worse, has just had a huge hit show even though everyone knows he's an inferior talent. His pal William (whom he helped by ghost-writing parts of his first hit play) seems unable to do wrong, career-wise, even though he's a bit of a klutz and lacks Kit's university education and sophistication. His day job (as a spy, for the Queen's henchman Walsingham) is a major headache and a time-stealer (and there may be a bit of sexual harassment going on as well). And his failed romance with an actor...well, he just doesn't want to talk about it.
"Cassidy nails what's universal about a character like Marlowe; and when the focus stays on what Marlowe can and should be learning from his chaotic life, Reckoning is at its strongest. The contrast between Marlowe's academic approach to writing and Shakespeare's unexplainable writing-from-the-heart is particularly central to Cassidy's theme . . . Cassidy himself plays Marlowe, and he's terrific . . . One thing's certain: there's talent aplenty on display here. Cassidy is clearly a young theatre artist to watch."
—Martin Denton
Jamespeak:
"This incredibly fun show about the death and legacy of Christopher Marlowe (sort of) and his failed attempt to write a play about Caligula came from the same creative duo that helped create Sleeper (Nat Cassidy and David Ian Lee). Marlowe is working on a drama about Caligula when an assassin plunges a knife into Marlowe's eye. As Marlowe dies, he revisits his own life and Caligula's (who died at the same age as Marlowe). In addition to being well acted by Cassidy and Lee as Marlowe and Caligula, respectively, with a delightful turn by Keith Foster who portrays William Shakespeare as a sweet-natured naïf, The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots is a very inventive and funny play that gives Marlowe the Charlie Kaufman treatment."
—James Comtois, #6 in his "Top 10 of 2008"
SLEEPER (directed by Nat Cassidy)
Nytheatre.com:
"Sleeper written by David Ian Lee and directed by Nat Cassidy, is an enormously serious play about, principally, the need for forceful and positive political action in America. . . . Lee's point is very well taken; and in this critical election year, much of what's on his mind should be on the minds of many. . . . [There are] solid performances. Cassidy's direction shrewdly balances moments of humor with the mostly grim situations and issues of the play, and keeps things fluid throughout. SLEEPER is laudable for its ambition and its serious sense of purpose."
—Martin Denton
"A lot of it is funny, and all of it is suspenseful. The cast is crazy good. The direction keeps everything light and fast, which is essential in a play this intense. It's definitely one of those major commitment plays (in terms of emotions, time, and intellectual heavy lifting), but it's worth it, and you should see it."
—Mac Rogers www.slowlearner.typepad.com
"Rarely does Indie Theater successfully lay claim to the same territory as Angels in America and Syriana, but Sleeper does. Dynamically directed by Nat Cassidy, the performances are uniformly superb. The dialogue is intelligent, full of humor and horror. I love theater that shocks me out of complacency, and Sleeper does that and more."
—Vincent Marano, Playwright (La Vigilia, Note to Self)
'This is the kind of theatre we need to be producing in New York: It's relevant (politically and socially) and very well done.'
—Norah Turnham, Producer & Director
Jamespeak:
One of the things that saves Sleeper from being merely a position paper against the Bush administration's foreign policy is that it is populated with well-rounded, believable characters, not archetypes or mouthpieces. Right-wing characters are smart and sympathetic, left-wing characters are phony and hypocritical. A visceral and cerebral show that deals with the political as well as the personal, and astutely explores why and how there's often a divide between the two."
—James Comtois, #7 in his "Top 10 of 2008"
2011 People of the Year - "Nat Cassidy is an actor, director, and playwright of surprising range and depth."
I AM PROVIDENCE (Nat's one-man show)
Nytheatre:
"A deliciously creepy evening full of surprise and frisson ... Very learned and highly entertaining [with] exciting and daring risks ... Nat Cassidy and Greg Oliver Bodine have devised an evening that puts us smack in Lovecraft’s territory of the weird and wild ... Clever writing complemented by excellent sound and light make for a most entertaining evening ... A near-perfect horror fest... The audience, breath held, hang[s] on every sound and word. This is pure storytelling."
—Nita Congress
The Village Voice:
"Nat Cassidy is obviously a talented performer and writer!"
Tor.com:
"Truly amazing ... Things at the Doorstep [is] an unexpectedly brilliant mediation on the use and function of horror, on H.P. Lovecraft himself, on the supernatural, on storytelling, on death, on hope. ... A play creepy and magical enough to do old H.P. proud. ... I'm still thinking about it, days later."
Theatre Is Easy:
"Successful for so many reasons ... A true treat ... Entertaining, educational and strangely unsettling. Any fan of horror in general shouldn't miss this show ... Riveting."
—Weston Clay
The Rejectionist:
"It is the most delightful thing we have ever seen anyone pull off on a stage, anywhere, ever, and if you are in New York you must go see it. You must. You REALLY MUST. Go. GO."
—The Rejectionist
THE ETERNAL HUSBAND
"Nat Cassidy's starkly original adaptation of Dostoevsky's The Eternal Husband is, amazing, unforgettable. Charles E. Gerber's Older Man of the title is absolutely electrifying. Arthur Aulisi's Younger Man, Elyse Mirto's wife Natalya, and Karen Sternberg's ex-girlfriend Claudia, combine to generate heat that is pure brilliance. THIS IS 75 MINUTES YOU MUST NOT MISS!" - Joe Franklin, BLOOMBERG RADIO
"The Eternal Husband is a well-executed noir drama, staged simply and with utmost confidence by writer/director Nat Cassidy ...The material is startlingly well structured ... the cast is stellar ... Certainly, among the shows I've seen thus far in this year's festival, The Eternal Husband offers the most enjoyable night of theater. I can't wait for Cassidy's next creation." - NYTHEATRE.COM
"Nat Cassidy's The Eternal Husband has pretty much everything. Moments of sheer terror mixed with darkly funny humour; a romantic core with a violent exterior. But my gosh does it work. Running at a mere seventy five minutes there isn't a dull moment. Yet, it is not just the excitement that is so impressive but the careful layers of thoughtful philosophy. ... Cassidy makes the material work on its own terms, pacing things beautifully, letting the shocking conclusion breathe rather than overwhelm. ... The skilled cast conjures fully formed characters ... An impressive piece of work by any standards. I'd love to see Cassidy's adaptation given a slightly more polished production, the scope for terror could only increase, but at the tiny La MaMa theatre this is still, in every way, worth a look." - THE TYRO THEATRE CRITIC
"All the roles are well played, especially, I thought, that of Claudia (Karen Sternberg), a friend and former lover to [the private detective]. Elyse Mitro’s adulterous and castrating Natalya is eminently believable as the sort of woman an eternal husband is drawn to, as a moth to the flame ... The Eternal Husband is noir to the nth!" - BROADWAY WORLD
ANY DAY NOW (written & directed by Nat Cassidy)
Playbill:
Nominated for Outstanding Director (Nat Cassidy) and Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role (Elyse Mirto) for the 2009 New York Innovative Theatre Awards!
Playbill:
Winner, Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role (Elyse Mirto)!
Nytheatre.com (starred review):
"The first act mostly feels neatly off-kilter, with the audience never quite sure whether to laugh or to gasp. Cassidy packages his supernatural theme with such naturalistic aplomb that he evokes David Lynch, particularly the very first episode of Twin Peaks, where you were trying to decipher the creator's intent while increasingly jaw-dropping weirdness unfolded uncontrollably before your eyes. . . . Cassidy's direction is splendid, sustaining the heightened, off-balanced naturalism beautifully throughout. His cast of seven is superb: Elyse Mirto and Paige Allen are excellent as April and Beverly (with Mirto doing a remarkable transformation of her character as the events of the story wear her down); Anna O'Donoghue is very convincing as the college-dropout Jackie; Tim Ewing and Arthur Aulisi are invaluable as the sisters' husbands (Ewing plays the henpecked David with enormous dignity, while Aulisi makes the about-to-be-divorced Josh enormously likable and ineffably sad); and Waltrudis Buck and Anthony Spaldo anchor the play as the parents. Spaldo's role is almost entirely silent and he is spectacularly convincing as a specimen of the undead just a few feet away from the spectators. Any Day Now is further evidence of Cassidy's talent and intelligence as playwright and director. . . . It's a long evening, but one filled with surprises and rewards."
—Martin Denton
The Fab Marquee:
"Any Day Now goes from being just an entertaining evening of theatre to...well, something GENIUS. Because you're being thrown for a loop from the moment the lights come up...and are entertained for all three acts. [A] great play for a myriad of reasons . . . one that is full of laughs in the right spots. [P]laywright/director Nat Cassidy [does a] wonderful job. . . . [The play] delivers, with a surprising ending that holds the audience in the palm of its hand. . . [E]xceptional . . . [Keeps] the audience fascinated for three hours. This is like Sam Sheppard meets George Romero....with more emphasis on the former artist than the latter."
—Dianna Martin
Show Business Weekly:
"A vibrant drama, centering on a family whose patriarch returns from the dead during a pandemic of unexplained resurrections. The family members seek to both relate and deny the significance of their own ordinary problems — elderly dementia, closet homosexuality, alcoholism — to the global implications of the zombie appearances. [A] gritty family drama heightened by a clever allegory for larger social issues. . . . [T]he play's themes are compelling and clear."
D.C. Theatre Scene:
"Any Day Now, written and directed by Nat Cassidy, drew me on a cold and wet Saturday night in January. I don't often get to cover off/off Broadway, for there is something going on there almost daily and nightly, but I'm glad I came down to see this. . . . [Cassidy] has a gift for dialogue and characterization. . . . Not your usual run-of-the-mill family comedy (or drama, for that matter). But Mr. Cassidy has directed his play well, and cast it soundly with actors who bring conviction to it, and fill it with humor and pathos. It's a fine cast of seven, an ensemble that plays as though it were in the middle of a long run, which is meant as high compliment indeed. . . . [T]ight, suspenseful and scary."
—Richard Seff
THE RECKONING OF KIT & LITTLE BOOTS
Playbill:
Nominated for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Full-Length Script (Nat Cassidy), and Outstanding Actor in a Lead Role (David Ian Lee) for the 2009 New York Innovative Theatre Awards!Playbill:
Winner, Outstanding Full-Length Script (Nat Cassidy)!
Nytheatre.com:
"Caligula is a fab character, and an irresistible one, and David Ian Lee seems to be having a blast bringing him to life. He gets to recount anecdote after anecdote of Caligula's astonishing, depraved, mythic existence: how his grandmother Livia murdered her own husband and tricked Caligula into murdering his own father; how (and why) Caligula tried to have his horse elected to the Senate; how the great love of Caligula's life was his sister Drucilla. Cassidy seems particularly fascinated by the sexual excesses of this character, and descriptions of acts of incest and more pepper Caligula's accounts of his life here.
"But fun in its way as this all is, the heart of Cassidy's play—and the best parts of it—have nothing to do with the Roman emperor. Marlowe is the play's protagonist, after all, and it is what he learns from his experiences with his roommate Thomas Kyd (also a playwright, though a lesser one: he wrote The Spanish Tragedy), his comrade William Shakespeare, and his employer Sir Francis Walsingham that really fuel this Reckoning.
"What I liked best about the play is the way that Cassidy contemporizes Marlowe's existence without in any way diminishing it. Kit is a twentysomething overgrown kid, grappling with the same kinds of things not-quite-mature twentysomething wannabe-artists grapple with in 2008. His roommate is a slob and, worse, has just had a huge hit show even though everyone knows he's an inferior talent. His pal William (whom he helped by ghost-writing parts of his first hit play) seems unable to do wrong, career-wise, even though he's a bit of a klutz and lacks Kit's university education and sophistication. His day job (as a spy, for the Queen's henchman Walsingham) is a major headache and a time-stealer (and there may be a bit of sexual harassment going on as well). And his failed romance with an actor...well, he just doesn't want to talk about it.
"Cassidy nails what's universal about a character like Marlowe; and when the focus stays on what Marlowe can and should be learning from his chaotic life, Reckoning is at its strongest. The contrast between Marlowe's academic approach to writing and Shakespeare's unexplainable writing-from-the-heart is particularly central to Cassidy's theme . . . Cassidy himself plays Marlowe, and he's terrific . . . One thing's certain: there's talent aplenty on display here. Cassidy is clearly a young theatre artist to watch."
—Martin Denton
Jamespeak:
"This incredibly fun show about the death and legacy of Christopher Marlowe (sort of) and his failed attempt to write a play about Caligula came from the same creative duo that helped create Sleeper (Nat Cassidy and David Ian Lee). Marlowe is working on a drama about Caligula when an assassin plunges a knife into Marlowe's eye. As Marlowe dies, he revisits his own life and Caligula's (who died at the same age as Marlowe). In addition to being well acted by Cassidy and Lee as Marlowe and Caligula, respectively, with a delightful turn by Keith Foster who portrays William Shakespeare as a sweet-natured naïf, The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots is a very inventive and funny play that gives Marlowe the Charlie Kaufman treatment."
—James Comtois, #6 in his "Top 10 of 2008"
SLEEPER (directed by Nat Cassidy)
Nytheatre.com:
"Sleeper written by David Ian Lee and directed by Nat Cassidy, is an enormously serious play about, principally, the need for forceful and positive political action in America. . . . Lee's point is very well taken; and in this critical election year, much of what's on his mind should be on the minds of many. . . . [There are] solid performances. Cassidy's direction shrewdly balances moments of humor with the mostly grim situations and issues of the play, and keeps things fluid throughout. SLEEPER is laudable for its ambition and its serious sense of purpose."
—Martin Denton
"A lot of it is funny, and all of it is suspenseful. The cast is crazy good. The direction keeps everything light and fast, which is essential in a play this intense. It's definitely one of those major commitment plays (in terms of emotions, time, and intellectual heavy lifting), but it's worth it, and you should see it."
—Mac Rogers www.slowlearner.typepad.com
"Rarely does Indie Theater successfully lay claim to the same territory as Angels in America and Syriana, but Sleeper does. Dynamically directed by Nat Cassidy, the performances are uniformly superb. The dialogue is intelligent, full of humor and horror. I love theater that shocks me out of complacency, and Sleeper does that and more."
—Vincent Marano, Playwright (La Vigilia, Note to Self)
'This is the kind of theatre we need to be producing in New York: It's relevant (politically and socially) and very well done.'
—Norah Turnham, Producer & Director
Jamespeak:
One of the things that saves Sleeper from being merely a position paper against the Bush administration's foreign policy is that it is populated with well-rounded, believable characters, not archetypes or mouthpieces. Right-wing characters are smart and sympathetic, left-wing characters are phony and hypocritical. A visceral and cerebral show that deals with the political as well as the personal, and astutely explores why and how there's often a divide between the two."
—James Comtois, #7 in his "Top 10 of 2008"
