THE REVIEWS ARE IN...
“CHINATOWN ON RITALIN! The Amoralists make a rare and rewarding foray above 14th Street.”
–The New York Times
"An outlandishly twisted thriller! Whether you love it or hate it or both, leaves you agape at its killer-diller audacity."
–Time Out New York
"Nutty brilliance! The Amoralists' shows are like no other. A distinctive mix of hyper-realism, satire, brash violence and unexpected tenderness. “
–The New York Post
“Left me feeling very happy that there are still aspects of the ‘detective play’ that have not yet been fully tapped. This piece is creative, smart, funny, and gritty simultaneously and it is one that I will be thinking about for a long time.”
–The Huffington Post
“HIGHLY ENTERTAINING. Dark, funny, chaotic theatrical event. Fasten your seat belts!”
–The Associated Press
“The Amoralists troupe proves itself a well-oiled killing machine."
–New York Magazine
“All 26 ACTORS deserve individual attention!”
–Backstage
“A TRIUMPH! In the best tradition of writers from Hammett to Ludlam, Ahonen keeps us guessing as his story unfolds at a feverish pace.”
–NYTHEATRE.com
"A rampageous neo-noir with a dirty mouth. Fast, roguish dialogue and a prediliction for plots with more twists than a Chubby Checker convention."
–The Village Voice
“Cartoonish and vulgar. A violent and highly entertaining satire that gleefully mocks would-be anarchists, law enforcement officers, sell-out politicians, greedy developers, lefty bookstores, and love, to name but a few targets.”
–The Washington Post
"Ahonen provides a constant flow of irreverent, snappy dialogue with clever, noirish quips galore, and his plot turns are creatively bizarre."
–The Boston Globe
"Amidst the noir-styled, comedic story that takes us through the many sides of corruption is an honest look at the grayscale which we actually live in."
–New York Theatre Review
"In just five years and eight shows, the scrappy company The Amoralists has generated a deafening buzz in the New York theater world...and director Daniel Aukin keep all these strands moving in an exquisite bit of stage choreography, with different stories and subplots unfolding in overlapping scenes on Alfred Schatz’s elaborately cluttered set.
–Blouin ARTINFO
"Ahonen creates a New York at war, in which no side knows who it’s fighting for. With The Bad and the Better, being blindsided hasn’t felt this gratifying in a long time."
–STAGE RUSH
“The Bad and the Better is a genre-driven (hardboiled fiction a la Daly, Hammett, and Chandler) masterpiece of writing and acting."
–David Roberts, Theatre Critic
“Ahonen's dialogue exudes an urgent roughness, which leads to inspired comedic moments.”
–Theatermania
"The play’s battalion of actors and its focus on the individual’s place as part of the whole is a daring addition to the contemporary theatre."
–Le Journal de Charles Haas
"The Amoralists have expanded their ranks, maintaining their usual manic energy and fast-paced action."
–FLAVORPILL
"With a cast of 26 and an epic story about anarchists, capitalists, and an exploding shopping mall, the play is a straightforward mystery worthy of Sam Spade."
–TDF STAGES
"Mr. Ahonen and Mr. Aukin have everyone working in roughly the same style: terse, cynical, hellbent on treating the story and its plot reversals like a long-lost noir classic."
–The New York Times
"**** (Critics' Pick)! The Bad and the Better is a seamy quilt of police brutality, political corruption and family tragedy."
–Time Out New York
“A well-paced, topical look at civil disobedience.”
–BACKSTAGE
"The Amoralists push the envelope with plays about contemporary issues -- urban squatters, sexual identity -- and performances that are naked and in your face."
–Bloomberg News
"One of these days The Amoralists are going to get arrested."
–Variety
"In The Bad and the Better, Ahonen gives us a world in which desire is sudden and intense, you can't tell the bad guys from the better, and no one lives at less than 100 miles an hour. This show is a highly successful treat."
–Show Showdown
"The Bad and the Better is not your Mamma’s film noir drama. It’s dark. It’s gritty. It’s pretty damn good. If you like theatre that pushes the status quo and asks some deep moral, ethical, and political questions, The Bad and the Better is your bag."
–Theatre Is Easy
"The Bad and the Better opens with a breathless series of intertwined vignettes, each an ironic sendup of hardboiled fiction!"
–Scribicide
"If anyone can create a graphic novel onstage, it's the irreverent downtown troupe The Amoralists."
–ABC NEWS
"The Bad and the Better is an engaging production that once again shows off the many talents of the somewhat radical and anarchic Amoralists."
–This Week In New York
"No basic summary of the plot could ever do justice to the intricacies, double identities, cons, and twists in this story. Well worth the time and money."
–Culture Capital
"Ahonen is part journalist, part philosopher and part saloon poet — he somehow manages to write plays that are both true to life and larger than life. How Ahonen can bring together so many jagged pieces and then make them fit together seamlessly is a mystery that I hope he never solves."
–The Connecticut Post
"There are 26 actors, with an ever-thickening plot in this show—Ahonen is definitely some kind of creative genius (and he's still standing out as he's moving into the mainstream). Many of the Amoralists have, fortunately, made the transition uptown!"
–Stage Voices
"The Bad and the Better is an enormous achievement of steady control and focus on a large scale; it never gets out of hand and it never wanders off-track. For those tired of small plays about small people for big prices, a production like The Bad and the Better is a decisive move in the right direction."
–The L Magazine
"The Bad and the Better is a complex symphony that should be marveled at.”
–The New York Press