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...the journey that takes us there is paved with remarkable storytelling. In this production, the playwright’s idea, director Laley Lippard’s creative vision, the simple but effective stagecraft … and the actors’ wonderfully textured performances join forces to create something greater than the sum of these extraordinary parts...Director Lippard knows just when to let Coble’s words speak for themselves and when to bolster their emotional impact with theatricality… Lippard also delivers an exceptional cast of local actors.” - Cleveland Jewish News

New York Times BEST OF 2019 Readers’ Picks
THE HIT SHOW OF THE YEAR DC Theatre Scene
STAFF PICK BEST OF THE YEAR DC Metro Theater Arts

It is possible for a good solo show to deliver some of the greatest magic in theater… Daugherty and director Laley Lippard have something special here. The Smuggler mixes pulpy crime story, slapstick comedy, and gut-punch social commentary, shakes them up, then pours out into an explosive cocktail that deserves to be enjoyed slowly.  - DC Theatre Scene

With its timely story and singular, authentic presentation, "The Smuggler" is an arresting and memorable night of theater in the most perfect of settings, raising the bar for site-specific theater going forward. 
- BroadwayWorld

This has to be one of DC’s coolest site-specific shows ever. And on top of the kick of the spirited ambiance, Solas Nua’s The Smuggler is a spellbinding, up-close-and personal drama about the struggle for survival and self-worth of documented and undocumented immigrants in America today. Laley Lippard’s direction is a marvel… particularly in Daugherty’s dramatic use of the space … (an) inspired use of … mixology, and an emotional arc that modulates through multiple octaves of meaning… It’s a first-rate fusion of play, place, and player that those fortunate to get into will be reminiscing about over drinks years from now. - DC Metro Arts

the one-woman show is everything... hilarious, emotional, sometimes heartbreaking yet uplifting as she perseveres… expertly directed by Laley Lippard … powerful and enthralling… the extraordinary Michelle Azar who is a revelation as the legendary jurist carrying the show effortlessly...It is truly a visually stunning production...a must see. - Broadway World

enthralling narrative of a trailblazing jurist...production is first rate. - CL Tampa Bay

It's all a fascinating plunge into very heady material, and it could fall apart without the finely modulated performances under the tight direction of Laley Lippard...The performers are given a splendid playground surrounded by audience seating... projections dance accompaniment not only on screens set in four corners of the theater space but also on the floor, illuminating a border of white squares that serve as the visual ropes for this DNA-soaked boxing ring. - CleveScene

(The Effect is) bolstered by a theatrically complex and provocative production...under Laley Lippard’s ever-engaging direction...this production (is set) within an in-the-round medical theater, which Lippard’s clever staging handles beautifully. This outstanding production of a play that needs one is a defining event for Dobama Theatre. - The News-Herald

Directing this piece is the fierce Laley Lippard...Her vision is clear, precise, and emotionally compelling. Through this inspired vision, the technical team takes flight... Cameron Michalak creates a clinical masterpiece. Marcus Dana infuses precise lighting to create an intense atmosphere... visually notable are the crafted and intricate scene changes executed by crew members, who double as clinic assistants. A marvel of artistic traffic...The culmination of the sexual dance between these two is riveting… There are also enough triggers to send me to CVS for the next few months. The play also holds a surprise twist this is delivered with stark frankness and truth… As many people who have to take a drug to help them through adversity say, "this shit is good" So is this play.” - Cleveland Stage Alliance

[The play] shivers with timely questions... director Laley Lippard and her cast succeed in... the play’s poignancy and lyricism… terrific, expertly calibrating the fluctuations of Eithne’s fear, exasperation and grit…achieving particular vividness. - The Washington Post

ingenious staging… [Lippard] devised a wondrous aural world that successfully positions patrons in the middle of literal and metaphorical fields… the best English-language oncology play since Wit, Margaret Edson’s 1999 Pulitzer Prize winner. - Washington City Paper

emotional authenticity...realistically depicts the inner life and outer journey of a breast cancer survivor... (using) non-realism to enrich what the audience perceives about Eithne… Tosin Olufolabi and Gordon Nimmo-Smith have [an] award-worthy sound design that moves inside and outside of Eithne's head…
- BroadwayWorld

Lippard uses The Glass Menagerie to channel the frustrating uncertainty of our own time… when the director hits, she hits hard: this quiet, candlelit scene is taut, with an undertow of raw, straining emotion… Steppenwolf’s production proves to us that it is indeed relevant in our time of global economic crisis and immense sacrifice.  - Stage and Cinema

You'll laugh, you'll feel terrible for laughing, and you'll laugh some more watching this Grand Guignol send-up of those trying to make it in Tinsletown. - SF Flavorpill

Fired by (the) muscular staging and truly great, balls-to-wall cast, (Pure Shock Value) remains vital, grippingly funny, and outrageous... - SF Bay Guardian

Matt Pelfrey's "Pure Shock Value" is hilarious proof that the well is far from dry. Pelfrey takes familiar tropes, snarks them up and drives them to death and beyond… Rarer still, the more over-the-top his satire gets, the funnier and more acute it becomes, and the more Lippard and her cast rise to the occasion... - SF Chronicle

...Matt Pelfrey's stunning new drama about a desperate trio of Hollywood low-lifes which recently had its world premiere at the Exit Theater… As directed with great skill by Laley Lippard, Killing My Lobster's production of Pure Shock Value makes Speed-The-Plow look like the work of a rank amateur. Scathingly amoral, viciously selfish, and leaving no pill unswallowed...What follows is comic madness, utter depravity, and a horrific pattern of things going from bad to worse… - My Cultural Landscape

Under the direction of Laley Lippard, MacCluggage navigates this hefty role with precision and heart… This is masterfully produced storytelling… In its own rich simplicity it reaches far beyond the demands of being a drone pilot. Go see it.   - BroadwayWorld

MacCluggage, directed deftly by Laley Lippard, captures the arc of this woman – from cocky and macho to maternal to mad..."Grounded" is involving and disturbing... a unique piece of theater.
- The Virginia Pilot

If Aeschylus and Karen O. had a baby, it might look something like foolsFury's latest production… The talented director Laley Lippard and the energetic cast bring a similar cut-and-paste aesthetic to the staging; classical and modern dance gestures mix with new-wave choreography from the '80s and punk rock abandon from the '70s. The actors demonstrate an intense commitment to illuminating the text: They literally throw themselves into something like a trance in an effort to fill Mee's sensual poetry… I can't think of another local company that's aiming so high. - SF Weekly

It’s a kind of an MTV meets Carrie on prom night… Laley Lippard directs with unabashed theatricality!  Combining tumbling with gymnastics with dance and lots of music, she establishes a world teetering on complete anarchy.  And her stage pictures are consistently powerful.  - Bay Times

The material is, moreover, a natural match for the company’s brand of high-energy physical performance, which under director Laley Lippard finds an ecstatic but nicely measured outlet in the play’s wild dynamics — shifting from quiet and understated humor one minute to bodies repeatedly throwing themselves onto the matted floor the next, as if pitched by the very gods of love and war. - SF Bay Guardian