Press for THE ACCIDENT

Washington Post 

Excellent 'Accident': You Can't Look Away
Values Collide in Theater J's Taut Drama

By Nelson Pressley
Friday, February 13, 2009

""The Accident" begins with a man fatally run over on a dark Israeli road, and it comes as a surprise that the victim is Chinese. In the panicked discussion that follows, the three Jewish intellectuals who were in the vehicle desperately parse the jeopardy they're in. Does the ethnicity of the body matter?

Those and other fraught questions are considered with hushed urgency in Hillel Mitelpunkt's gripping moral drama, which is part of Theater J's ongoing Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival."  CONTINUE READING

Variety.com

The Accident
Reviewed By Paul Harris

"Moral uncertainty gets a 360 degree inspection in "The Accident," an intense and satisfying drama by Israeli author Hillel Mitelpunkt receiving its English-language premiere at Theater J. Adapted by a.d. Ari Roth, the play is the centerpiece of the D.C. theater's Voices From a Changing Middle East festival."  CONTINUE READING 

Potomac Stages

The Accident
Reviewed by Brad Hathaway

"Those who value value-based theater, which is the foundation of Theater J, will be delighted to know that the company is again presenting an intellectually compelling, dramatically intriguing and philosophically penetrating piece that feels just right on its stage."  CONTINUE READING

DC Theatre Scene

The Accident
Reviewed by Tim Treanor

"The Accident is a good counterpart to Synetic’s Dante, in that you can spend your time wondering about to which circle of Hell Adam (Michael Tolaydo) and his cohorts will be assigned, and whether you will be going with them.
Adam, his friend Lior (Paul Morella) and Lior’s wife Tami (Becky Peters) are self-involved liars, cheaters, and, if need be, killers. They also, as a profession, judge the morality of others"  CONTINUE READING

WASHINGTON JEWISH WEEK

by Lisa Traiger
Arts Correspondent

"Blinding headlights, tires squealing, a crash, a door slam. Darkness. Then the bickering and questioning, the accusations and counteraccusations tumble out. Tel Aviv-based playwright Hillel Mitelpunkt wrote a small play about an accident. Its ramifications, on those directly involved and on their loved ones, prove ruinous in this indictment of a segment of Israeli society in the American premiere of The Accident at the Theater J at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center"   CONTINUE READING

AllArtsReview4U.com

By Celia Sharpe

"Theater J's production of Hillel Mitelpunkt's "The Accident" explores the dilemma of three people who are involved in a hit and run accident. Michael Tolaydo plays a documentary film maker and Becky Peters and Paul Morella play a couple who have been his friends for years.  The three stand under the bright headlights that glare into the eyes ofthe audience as they survey the dead Chinaman who has crossed the road that night.  Eact sets forth a compelling reason why they should not report the accident.  Jennifer Mendenhall and Eliza Bell ...family members...both become enmeshed in thies drama that reveals domestic lies of these moral cowards.  Theater J again takes on not just the intellectual decision of right vs. wrong but also the moral dilemma which goes beyond the stage lights and into the consciences of the audience.  The play does not dress up the issues into an existential fantasy...as all continue to live their lives with pain.  So there is a constant re-working of the human situation which these five actors do with consummate skills."

All About Jewish Theatre

'The Accident' a portrait of individual, national feelings.
By Lisa Traiger

"Blinding headlights, tires squealing, a crash, a door slam. Darkness. Then the bickering and questioning, the accusations and counteraccusations tumble out. Tel Aviv-based playwright Hillel Mitelpunkt wrote a small play about an accident. Its ramifications, on those directly involved and on their loved ones, prove ruinous in this indictment of a segment of Israeli society in the American premiere of The Accident at the Theater J at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center."  CONTINUE READING

Hill Rag

By Brad Hathway
February 2009

Theater: Varied Fare on Local Stages
   
Tolaydo Strides onto Theatre J’s Stage While Chalfant Visits Arena
       
"Veteran actor Michael Tolaydo often walks from his Capitol Hill home on Seventh Street SE to the DC Jewish Community Center at 16th and Q streets NW where he is appearing in Theater J’s new production of “The Accident” in which his character awakes in the back seat of his car to find his friend, who was driving drunk, has struck and killed a pedestrian, turning the lives of the five characters in the play upside down."  CONTINUE READING

Express Night Out

Highway Signs
By Nathan Martin
February 26, 2009

"A HIGHWAY RUNS through Theater J. Jutting out into the auditorium, the black-tar stage provides the opening shot and continuing catalytic frame for the morally complex self-examination in "The Accident."  CONTINUE READING

American Theatre
by Richard Stein
March 2009

"Collateral Damage" (my AMERICAN THEATRE article)
 
The full text of my AMERICAN THEATRE magazine article submitted for the March 2009 issue (the published version was edited down by about half due to space limitations and renamed "The Way Israel Lives Now"):"  CONTINUE READING

Washington City Paper

MORAL HAZZARD
By Glen Weldon
February 11, 2009

"In Israeli playwright Hillel Mittelpunkt’s coolly clinical tale of moral cowardice among a group of friends involved in a hit and run, a lot depends on the opening minutes. Those minutes take place just after the hit but before the run, as three well-off residents of Tel Aviv—the explosive Lior (Paul Morella), the opportunistic Tami (Becky Peters) and the confused Adam (Michael Tolaydo)—stand over the body of the man struck by their car, debating what to do. We watch as, in their own ways, the characters all lock into self-preservation mode without stopping a moment for guilt."   CONTINUE READING

Washington Around Town, NBC 

Hit-And-Run Play Hits DC

By  KRISTEN HANEY
Updated 5:00 PM EST, Mon, Feb 9, 2009

"Set in a Tel Aviv suburb, The Accident focuses on the unraveling lives of a group of upper-middle class friends and family, and calls into question the extent to which we let our moral character affect our relatively comfortable existence. "The play is a corrosive agent, meant to scrub away the buildup" and expose the discrepancies in suburban life. Originally written in Hebrew and performed in Israel, The Accident could just as easily have been written with an American audience in mind. In fact, it may translate a little too easily. The tie-ins with war, and the expressed disagreement yet failure to do anything about it, brings to mind the war in Iraq, and reminds the audience that we are not so different from our Allies in the Middle East."  CONTINUE READING

PLAYBILL NEWS

The Accident, Focusing on a Crime in Israel, Makes English-Language Debut Feb. 4
By Kenneth Jones
04 Feb 2009

"Theater J in Washington, DC, presents the English-language premiere of The Accident by Hillel Mitelpunkt, translated by David Berkoff and adapted for the American stage by Ari Roth, starting Feb. 4."  CONTINUE READING

DC'ist's February's Theater Preview

DCist
Missy Frederick
February 3, 2009

Holy February, Batman.

"There are at least 25 plays premiering in the greater D.C. area this month. How can one possibly decide what to see? Here's a snapshot of what's going on in theater for the next 25 days or so."  CONTINUE READING