Tag: Frank Lawler

“‘Zapoi’ is Russian slang, dating back to at least the 19th century, for the national habit of going on days-long benders so catastrophic that, as one ethnographer reported to the Anthropological Society of London in 1870, they ‘are regarded as a disease.’ The word doesn’t appear anywhere besides the title in Quinn Armstrong’s world-premiere comedy at Annex Theatre, but it could be a one-word summary of a sprawling fantasia that treats Russian suffering and derangement as an endemic sickness…. It’s a delirious and damaged run at Our Town, filtered through the battered kidneys of Russian history…. Kayla Walker gives a commanding performance as the KGB agent Oksana, a woman with 1940s Hollywood glamour and torture chambers hidden behind her meticulously charming smile…. Zapoi! tends to be funniest when things are at their worst…. its darkness is delightful.” – The Stranger

“Zapoi!, the new play from writer Quinn Armstrong that is playing at Annex Theatre through February 21, is surrealist and ambitious…. it is a play that I hope a lot of people see and think and talk about. It’s what Annex Theatre likes to call a ‘#BoldNewWork.’ Armstrong and director Kaytlin McIntyre deserve credit for creating a work that never feels predictable…. What I found so timely and relevant about Zapoi!, was that the subjects of free speech and free will come up and they’re impossible to ignore…. there are so many ideas coming out of Zapoi! in its two and a half hours, that they all can’t be explored fully, and really shouldn’t be. It leaves a lot to the audience to continue the conversation afterward.” – The Journal of Precipitation

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