THE BLUEST EYE HUNTINGTON THEATRE | Toni Morrison (novelist); Lydia R Diamond (playwright); Awoye Timpo (director); Jason Ardizzone-West (set design); Dede Ayite & Rodrigo Muñoz (costume design); Adam Honoré (lighting designer); Aubrey Dube (sound designer); Justin Ellington (original music); J Jared Janas (hair, wig & makeup designer); David Freeman Coleman (music director); Kurt Douglas (choreographer); Sandy Alexandre (dramaturg); Alaine Alldaffer (casting); Emily F McMullen (production stage manager); Lucas Bryce Dixon (stage manager); Ramona Lisa Alexander, Brittany-Laurelle, Hadar Busia-Singleton, Brian D Coates, McKenzie Frye, Lindsley Howard, Alexandrea King, Greg Alvarez Reid (actors); Bethany Ford (director of production); Adam Godbout (technical director); Mike Hamer (assistant technical director); Kristine Holmes (props director); Kristin Krause (charge scenic artist); Baron Pugh (associate set designer); Ethan Brown, Laura Valenti, Gaya Chatterjee (assistant scenic designers).

PRESS

JOYCES CHOICES REVIEW
“There are seeds of hope among these thorny roots. The scenic design (Jason Ardizzone-West) is remarkable in its aptness and simplicity. The action is set on what might be the cross section of a tree: a circle of branches hangs above a pair of concentric wooden stumps below, a platform on which branches of backstories in a family tree are told in the round; slices of a painful legacy– might that legacy be healed in the telling?.”
-Joyces Choices 2022 (Joyce Kulhawik)
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THEATER MIRROR REVIEW
“Brimming with sparkling ensemble acting, inspired staging and soulful song and dance, Huntington Theatre’s The Bluest Eye packs a wallop. Thanks to Lydia R. Diamond’s faithful yet nuanced adaptation, Toni Morrison’s groundbreaking début novel about two poor Black families in 1940s Lorain, Ohio is brought to the stage with all its poetry, pathos and humor intact. You can almost feel Morrison’s presence in the audience, beaming pride and approval.”
-Theater Mirror 2022 (Shelley A. Sackett)
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BOSTON GLOBE REVIEW
“Diamond met that multiplicity of challenges so skillfully that her reputation as a playwright soared with the 2005 premiere of her adaptation. Now her original vision — born of Morrison’s, of course — has merged with that of director Awoye Timpo in a spellbinding new Huntington Theatre Company production of “The Bluest Eye” guaranteed to stay with you long after you see it. Which you should, because it’s profoundly moving and wonderfully acted. There’s not a single weak link in the eight-member cast, who make the stakes for every character on the Wimberly Theatre stage wrenchingly clear at all times.

Director Timpo underscores the tangled, inescapable bonds of that community — its interconnectedness for good and ill — by presenting “The Bluest Eye” on a circular stage. When they’re not involved in a scene, actors sit on chairs on the side of the stage and watch closely, as if to signal that what is done by, or to, another affects all. Providing additional layers of mood and meaning are the occasional snatches of spirituals sung by cast members, individually or together.”
-Boston Globe 2022 (Don Aucoin)
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THE HARVARD CRIMSON REVIEW
“Seats are arranged in a circle around the small stage, inspired by the storytelling circles of Black rituals. The design of the stage mimics a cross-section of a tree trunk, reinforcing the deep roots of storytelling circles and evoking the image of a family tree, which is fitting for a play that explores household dynamics. But the tree is grey and cracked through the center, suggesting from the start that something is wrong. When actors take the stage, audiences are immediately pulled in by stunning, pain-filled performances that would do the late Toni Morrison proud..”
-The Harvard Crimson 2022 (Nina M. Foster)
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