MEMORY HOUSE
"A captivating emotional ballet that is also a moving demonstration of the strenuous work that goes into good mothering." Christopher Isherwood, New York Times (May 18, 2005)
"Tolan nails the mother-daughter negotiation." Sarah Hart, American Theatre Magazine (July 2005)
“Tolan's script is vivid and lively, laden with specifics -- like the noisy Rice Krispies whose crackling and popping terrified the young immigrant -- and with laughs.” Boston Globe (April 16, 2007)
“At first blush, this overview of Memory House, native Milwaukean Kathleen Tolan's latest play, looks less like a drama than yet another sentimental two-actor dialogue passing itself off as a play during an era in which theater company budgets require scaled-down productions. In 80 mesmerizing minutes, Tolan blows such preconceptions to smithereens.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (October 21, 2006)
THE FALSE SERVANT (Marivaux adaptation)
“The False Servant reunites Kulick with Kathleen Tolan, whose play, The Wax, he successfully directed at Playwrights Horizons several seasons ago. This relatively unfamiliar classic of the 18th Century French theater has received a clearly translated, fresh-feeling, accessible production thanks to Tolan, Kulick and a fine cast” Les Gutman in Curtain Up (4/05)
“A sparkling translation.” The New Yorker (listings, 4/05)
THE WAX
“…[T]here is plenty of pain in Kathleen Tolan’s 95-minute comedy [(THE WAX)]—not to mention rhapsodically clever writing and enough off-beat formal novelty to justify its description as an existential sex farce…[T]he writing is smart and funny and…filtered through a female sensibility that isn’t often put to use in classic commercial forms.” Linda Winer in Newsday (1/8/2001)
A GIRL’S LIFE
“It is truly tempting not to tell you anything about A Girl’s Life except that you must, please, run down to the Trinity Repertory Company and see it…It’s funny and tragic and most especially, real…Tolan’s writing is so excruciatingly right on, so scalpel-perfect in its incisions that you won’t know whether to chuckle or wince when it cuts…[A] moving new play.” William Gale in the Providence Journal-Bulletin (March 6, 1998)
APPROXIMATING MOTHER
“Miss Tolan demonstrates her intuitive reflexiveness and a willingness to be truthful to the emotions of her people…Approximating Mother unfolds so naturally that one might suggest the play takes a Lamaze approach to its theme.” NY Times (11/7/1991)
KATE’S DIARY
“Kathleen Tolan’s quietly brilliant Kate’s Diary… Tolan and [director David] Greenspan are wizards of understatement, bringing charm to an autopsy of the American Dream.” - Gordon Rogoff in the Village Voice (1/12/89)
A WEEKEND NEAR MADISON
“At past festivals, Jon Jory's theater has discovered Marsha Norman, Beth Henley and Jane Martin, among others. To that list, last weekend one could add the name of Kathleen Tolan, a young actress turned playwright, and author of ‘A Weekend Near Madison'…the outstanding play in the 1983 festival.” -Mel Gussow, New York Times (March 31, 1983)
“Warm, vital, glowing…Full of wise ironies and unsentimental hopes.” –Jack Kroll, Newsweek (Spring, 1983)
New York Times profile of KATHLEEN TOLAN by Don Shewey, January 2001.