The Amoralists Theatre Company

The Hey You Monster

“Feels like a mashup of Sam Shepard, Tracy Letts, and Harold Pinter. ...remarkable naturalistic dialogue and plotting... raw, visceral theatre that engages the gut and the brain. Derek Ahonen’s talent as a playwright is very impressive.”
-NYTheatre.com

“What a pleasure it is again to witness a group of artists working their stuff with such vigor and intelligence.’ ‘There is impressive ensemble work here lead by Mr. Ahonen wearing the hat of director for part one. Rochelle Rae Mikulich as Jojo dances lithely between portraiture and parody of an Astoria housewife. Hilarious and touching James Kautz steals scene after scene as stuttering beat cop Forrest Marlow simply by entering the room and trying to get his first words out.”
-United Stages

“Pilieci is thrillingly believable as the very troubled son Glen. Craig Peugh and George Walsh have and excellent chemistry that’s makes it easy to accept them as blood relatives.”
-NYTheatre.com

“Ahonen most craftily eases us into the story until the outrageous seems normal and we settle down to a gentle pace that beguiles and surprises at every turn. Good theater like this points the finger at itself while triply engaging the viewer. Both parts reaffirm Mr. Ahonen’s gift for original playmaking.”
-United Stages

Amerissiah

“The Amoralists are the new Sam Shepard”
-The L Magazine

“I am floored by the versatility and energy of the actors in the company. Pilieci is a comic virtuoso. Sarah Lemp is a comedy dynamo who zooms from 0 to 60 upon entering the play but somehow never goes completely over the top. Kautz is as funny playing a square as he was portraying the down-and-out fighter in “Poorhouse.”
-The Connecticut Post

“Amerissiah may surprise those who have grown to love the hectic hilarity of the Amoralists’ other works. Messianic zeal, the duties of fathers and the postbelief vacuum all figure here, and the balance tips away from zaniness and toward sincerity.“
-TIme Out New York

Throughout, the writing in this Amoralists production is zestful, filled with scatological zingers and trippy non sequiturs, which the company delivers with gritty aplomb. Their work ensures laughter. It also forces theatergoers to contemplate the deeper meaning behind Ahonen’s screwy comedy.
-The Village Voice

“Ahonen, one of the co-founders of the genius up-and-coming theater troupe The Amoralists, takes family dysfunction to brand new, shockingly original heights. Take a look at the future of downtown New York theatre.”
-NYTheatre.com

“Derek Ahonen, who wrote and directed Amerissiah, stirs everything together with gusto and a delicious incongruity.”
-The New York Times

“Nobody else weds old-fashioned realist structure to working-class-hero lunacy quite this way, and no other acting collective seems so raw, so heartfelt, so exuberantly extreme onstage and off.“
-Time Out New York

“Amerissiah displays Ahonen trademarks: characters eking out a living on America’s fringes, outré dysfunctions, extreme physicality, foulmouthed humor. But Ahonen’s work is more than low-brow provocation wrapped in white-trash aesthetics. He has affection for all his characters, including the Ricewater family of Amerissiah”
-The New York Post

“It’s a shocking thing to shock a New Yorker, and Ahonen, with his needle-sharp wit, left a stunned audience guffawing at the most inappropriate jokes. The whole cast is terrific”
-Off Off Online