"World class theater...awe inspiring... What makes Figures of Speech so special is the metaphorical level of the proceedings... a brilliant piece of theater metaphor."
"In the complexity and beauty of their work, Figures of Speech reaffirms the wonderfulness of life."
"An extraordinarily powerful work...and a creation of love. The reviewer can only carry back fragments in an inadequate basket made of words; see this work firsthand for that moment of understanding."
"Layers of reality vs. abstraction, of reality vs. performance, of perception itself are gently explored... A visionary weave of puppet and actor theater."
"There are images from the performance I shall never forget for their utter beauty."
"The modesty of the performance belies its power and Farrell’s prodigious mastery of the poems’ intellectual images and sensual intricacies… As a membrane that is fragile and porous, his performance embodies an exquisite existential tension suspended between self and poetry, between being and becoming, between performer and audience."
"As artists, as teachers and as people, you are a warming reminder of the kind of humanity that is possible in the arts in the very best sense of that word."
"Cupid and Psyche speak eloquently of love without words, each gesture creating an illusion of emotion on their fixed faces. Their love scene is one of the most touching ever portrayed on stage by puppets or humans."
"She-Who-Loves brings elements of some the world’s oldest dramatic forms to the telling of a Comanche legend. But in its fusion of Japanese noh theater and bunraku puppetry, Indonesian shadow-drama and American sensibilities, this Figures of Speech Theatre premiere is a wholly original multicultural artifact."
"John Farrell's performance of Four Quartets is not only technically flawless, but also deeply moving, as he transforms himself into an instrument through which Eliot's poetry can pour and embody itself, a cry from one human life to another."
"She-Who-Loves is a piece which exists at the intersection of Art and Nature, of Earth and Spirit."
"The piece takes its form by layering and contrast. Poetic, it is rich and lean, without excess image or word. Ironically, this piece, which may cause one to ponder what is lost when cultures take and ravage, is itself the product of what great things – such as art – can happen when cultures blend and borrow."
"Whosis escapes all preexisting categories. Its dramatic ideas and staging are riveting."
"Figures of Speech does absolutely remarkable work with puppets, delighting and mesmerizing adults and children alike with their beautifully crafted and cunningly manipulated figures. The artists who make up Figures of Speech are also wonderful people; their interactions with our audience were tremendously positive - a good advertisement for themselves and for us."
