DEAD SHOT MARY
“The ebb and flow of Detective Shanley’s emotional crisis is well rendered in the imaginative script by Robert Benson, and commendably delivered in a very skilled performance by veteran actor Rachel McPhee. The theater is small and cramped, but this hardly distracts from a profoundly absorbing and stimulating experience. I highly recommend Dead Shot Mary, particularly for those capable of grappling with some of life’s harshest realities. –Playstosee.com
“While our modern society is often plagued by turbulence, Dead Shot Mary, provides a beacon of hope and represents an authentic and hard-working woman who not only cared about doing a good job but making a difference in the world. This play is an important reminder of the complexities of human nature and accepting the challenge to examine one’s character in a deeper way. At the end of our lives, that’s all we have – along with the stories that we’ve created along the way.” –Theatrescene.net
BORDERLINE
“He talks non-stop throughout, and it’s beautiful, as he lapses in and out of fast-paced rhyming verse reminiscent of Mike Skinner at his best.” –The List Edinburgh
“Benson does not condescend to his subject. He’s clearly more interested in consciousness-raising than didacticism or judgment. The narrator’s story of how his first shot at drug-dealing turns into a Robin-Hood-ish redistribution of joy is, for instance, downright charming—if queasily so. But, thanks to the perfectly erratic pace of this lean 50-minute monologue, and thanks to the bizarre, jangling rhymes hidden within Benson’s fluid writing, we never quite lose the sense of latent insanity, impending doom.” –The Village Voice
IN YOUR IMAGE
“Benson has written a taut and emotionally powerful script. As in real life, nothing is quite what it seems in this story, and Benson never gives away too much too soon. The pacing of important revelations is just right and the script is peppered with a wonderful humor, which comes out of Benson’s ability to give us real relationships; he paints a very nuanced portrait of these two brothers and their diverging memories, struggles, and connection to a father neither of them really knew.” –NY Theatre.com
“What makes In Your Image so compelling and scarily real is the incredibly vivid dialogue. Benson, who also wrote the play, perfectly captures the way that siblings talk to each other.” –Theatre is Easy
“Relationship dynamics feel authentic and richly textured. Among many beautifully wrought speeches, the highlight is one of the best (Irish) descriptions of what it’s like to be a drunk by the drunk, since Eugene O’Neil.” –Woman About Town
