“Completely compelling . . . For all the sadness and dysfunction in Guirgis’s plays, he nevertheless seems to extend hope—to his characters in their various prisons, but also his audience in theirs. You could cry (I did), but you are always free simply to laugh instead.”

—JESSE GREEN, NEW YORK

“Guirgis, like other storytellers who explore the sacred and the profane, is most interested in how grace transforms us. His empathetic, poetic tales of ex-cons, addicts, and other men whom society would label losers return us, again and again, to a world that Guirgis, by virtue of his particular religion—the church of the streets—illuminates with the bright and crooked light of his faith.”

—HILTON ALS, NEW YORKER

“This is a black comedy, and the dialogue snaps and crackles . . . Particularly funny—but also unexpectedly tender.”

—ELISABETH VINCENTELLI, NEW YORK POST

“Quite possibly his most accomplished piece to date . . . Like all of Guirgis’s work, Riverside is populated with salty, blue-collar New Yorkers with a penchant for trouble . . . [but] some moments are so quietly observant you almost feel as if you’re eavesdropping.”

—JASON CLARK, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“Explores, with both street-smart, sometimes-profane wit and disarming tenderness, the different ways in which we cling to, reject and exploit faith. Never one to settle for simple answers or snarky observations, Guirgis portrays his characters, and their twisting journeys, with humor and compassion . . . To survive the imperfect world these folks inhabit—and try to attain grace in—is something of a miracle in itself, and Guirgis, in his predictably unsentimental way, finds warmth and wonder in their struggle.”

—ELYSA GARDNER, USA TODAY

“A vivid group portrait . . . Like life, [this play] switches from tender to gritty to shocking.”

—JOE DZIEMIANOWICZ, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

“Absorbing and highly entertaining . . . Which current American playwright creates conversation as wonderfully loopy as that of Guirgis? I’ve been in love with his work for fifteen years.”

—BRENDAN LEMON, FINANCIAL TIMES

“A nuanced, beautifully written play about a retired police officer faced with eviction that uses dark comedy to confront questions of life and death.”

—PULITZER PRIZE CITATION

“A hard-headed kitchen-sink comedy, one that has serious things to say about lower-middle-class urban life, race relations and the corrosive effects of resentment on the human soul. Yet the playwright makes his points in an unfailingly unpredictable way . . . Mr. Guirgis has a firm grasp of the endless complexity of human motivation.”

—TERRY TEACHOUT, WALL STREET JOURNAL

“Hilariously pungent and deceptively complex, the play feels fully, deeply lived-in . . . Pops is an endlessly fascinating figure, capable of both casual viciousness and tender solicitude.”

—Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

“Gripping . . . This dazzling display of decadence and depression is written with the alarming impact of being run down by a wayward sanitation truck . . . Between Riverside and Crazy is the kind of rich, dynamic theater you almost never see anymore—fresh, savage, original, two-fisted and relevant.”

—REX REED, NEW YORK OBSERVER