Review Roundup: THE KNIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE Opens Off-Broadway

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The RED BULL THEATER (Jesse Berger, Founder and Artistic Director) and FIASCO THEATER (Jessie Austrian, Noah Brody, Ben Steinfeld Co-Artistic Directors, B.J. Evans, Managing Producer) production of The Knight of the Burning Pestle, an Elizabethan comedy by Francis Beaumont, opened tonight, April 27th at the newly renovated Lucille Lortel Theatre.

Read the reviews below!

The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a joyful celebration of the universal capacity to improvise. This delightful Elizabethan comedy is a rough and rowdy romp. As a group of players gather to present a play about the elopement of star-crossed lovers, they are abruptly interrupted by a grocer and his wife. They have a different kind of play in mind-an outrageous hero's quest of derring-do... The Knight of the Burning Pestle. And they know just the fellow to star-their apprentice, Rafe. This new subplot-invented on the fly-takes over the stage in surprising and disruptive ways. Everyone shares in the triumph of love and the singular, anything-can-happen adventure that is live theater.

Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg

Alexis Soloski, New York Times: But the adventures of the knight and his horse (Royer Bockus) and squire (Ben Steinfeld) are beautifully silly. The interruptions of the grocer and his wife are better still, especially when Nell is pulled onstage to play a pan-Slavic princess who talks like Dracula. Best of all, though, is the Fiasco mien, which favors a giddy, affable, let’s-put-on-a-show quality. The actors are clearly enjoying themselves (Steinfeld, who sings most of his lines, often accompanied by Bockus and the actor and multi-instrumentalist Paul L. Coffey, even more than the rest). And their performances carry with them a swaggering sense of rehearsal room experimentation and delight. They seem to be performing for the sheer pleasure of it, with the audience a welcome afterthought.

Average Rating: 70.0%