NYTIMES CRITIC’S PICK

“Turner’s faith in the audience is an entirely successful investment. Their jokes often have long lead times, the setup in one scene, the payoff in another. The plot, too, keeps well ahead of you, trusting you will survive in pleasurable uncertainty until its loose threads are eventually gathered…
That authorial patience is part of what makes ‘At the Wedding’ so fresh; though there are plenty of one-liners, it is not a yuk-yuk comedy foisting its laughs at you or over-signaling its intentions… Also revivifying is the way Turner reshapes the wedding genre for our time, inviting new characters to the party.” - Jesse Green, New York Times

“The play is sharp, deft, and sometimes you won’t know you’re cut until you see the blood. There were Boomers in front of me, Gen Jones, Gen X, and Millennials all around, each barking unbidden laughter at different moments. And at times, an intake of air when someone has an epiphany… And afterward, a finale that sends us out into the balmy vernal evening with a feeling of satisfaction and not, and a sense of wanting to see the play again. It’s a lot of oomph in a small space and it’s here and queer, so get your tickets before they sell out. It’s a gift you do need to register for, that will continue to give.” - Sherri Rase, Q Onstage

“A comedy that manages to be both waggishly witty and tenderly affecting as it peels back to reveal the underlying loneliness of its acerbic protagonist.” - Howard Miller, Talkin’ Broadway

“Turner steadily pulls the camera back on this picture of 21st century matrimonial bliss to show the little compromises and hypocrisies that constitute the price of admission to this oldest of institutions. But most of all, Turner reveals Carlo, an intelligent and deeply flawed individual who uses humor as a shield and judgement as a sword. It shouldn't surprise us that this outwardly cynical individual is, in fact, a hopeless romantic who expects a rom-com happy ending to come from this doomed excursion.” - Zachary Stewart, TheaterMania

4 stars - TimeOut New York

“The script crackles with jokes, and it's nice to see the familiar set-up tweaked for a more sexually fluid age.” - Adam Feldman, TimeOut

ALl of it With Allison Stewart

Bryna Turner & Jenna Worsham speak with Allison Stewart about At the Wedding on WNYC. Listen here!

driven by the Potential for Joy

“A something old, something new comedy about heartbreak, Turner describes the play as ‘a queer woman’s journey from radical despair to radical hope over the course of a single evening.’” Read more here.

nytimes critic's pick

"Thus begins the pugnacious, tender and gloriously funny new play 'Bull in a China Shop,' Bryna Turner’s immensely auspicious professional playwriting debut.
'Bull in a China Shop' is about how hard and heartbreaking and personally messy it has always been to swim against the current, how necessary bravery is — and how bracingly alive the struggle can be."

Read the full review here.

4 stars - Timeout new york

"With a light hand and welcome irreverence, Turner neatly dispenses with two hoary shibboleths: that history is perforce dry, and feminists unfunny." 

Read the full review here.
 

In conversation with Natasha Sinha

"I think about feminism a lot as the 'ouroboros,' the snake eating its own head. We need to keep critiquing in order to keep moving forward, but there’s something really painful and interesting about that to me that I find so compelling. I definitely think that’s in the DNA of the play, because it’s just something I was deeply thinking about on a daily basis.

But then also, yeah, I had just gone through this enormous heartbreak that I didn’t totally expect or see coming, after a five-year relationship. I kept having this feeling, at the time, that time was passing in a way that I’m not totally conscious of, or that I’m missing something."

Read the full interview here.

Feminist history -- with all the colors

"To Turner, it's a nod to the non-white feminists throughout history, whose stories she asserts have been marginalized. 'I think now it reads really profoundly as this conversation between second wave and third wave feminism,' says Turner. 'Woolley is like, 'My body, the fact that I exist, that's the revolution.' And Marks is like, 'Yeah but try a little harder.'' In one scene, in fact, Marks says to Woolley, 'You've gotten a taste of power, you've gotten a voice… and if you leave the rest of us behind I'll never forgive you.'"

Read the full article here.

Additional interviews:

Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Quarterly - read here.
Rutgers Alumni Magazine - read here.