Reviews of Construction of the Human Heart
Lisa Thatcher - 24 April 2014
It is this remarkable experience that makes Construction of the Human Heart an essential experience for any Sydney theatre lover. One can be assured Apocalypse Theatre Company have made a production worthy of the words, the actors and the audience passionate about their theatre.
Kevin Jackson's Theatre Diary - 20 April 2014
We are presented with the construction, or rather the struggle with the construction of a play, that reflects the human hearts of these co-authors, who have suffered a joint tragedy. Here, in front of us, they transmute that life pain with an act of craft practice, into an attempt to create art.
Arts Hub - 18 April 2014
As Her, Cat Martin gives a stellar performance of contained grief, a mother clinging to the therapy of the word. Michael Cullen has less to do as He. He is more the observer of her emotional arc (or an actor in her writing?) but both are rigorous and true, and ably skilled as they engagingly play out this heightened page-throwing reality.
Theatre Red - 18 April 2014
Director Dino Dimitriadis allows a splendid simplicity, and with masterful restraint creates a space where actors Cat Martin and Michael Cullen can deliver superb performances of Mueller’s provocative script.
Dinner & A Show - 18 April 2014
But the draw card for this production is the performances. Cullen and Martin have a real chemistry on stage. They both manage to capture that ever so slightly pretentious, faux-intellectual quality of the would-be, brilliant playwright.
Syke On Stage - 18 April 2014
But in the right hands, as here (directed by Dino Dimitriades), with the emotional trajectory ramped-up steeply in the final quarter or so of this sixty-five minute, one-act work, it transforms into something palpably affecting, thanks in no small measure to carefully calibrated performances from both Cullen and, especially, Martin.
Theatre from the Backseat - 19 April 2014
What sets Construction of the Human Heart apart is the fact that, although it features writers, it is not really about them. Instead, it’s about stories, about scripting: about the way we script the narratives of our own lives, how we use stories to save us, and how we construct our own emotional worlds, our human hearts.
Suzy Goes See - 18 April 2014
Ross Mueller’s script is intriguing, seductive, and powerful. Its structure is sophisticated and intelligent, but the emotions it conveys is familiar and immediate. It pleasures the mind with challenging elements, and a whole lot of wit, but it devastates the heart with the truths and emotions it portrays.