The Oldest Boy at Lincoln Center Theater

The New York Times - Somewhat Recommended

"...The resulting air of gentle reasonableness renders Ms. Ruhl's play a little flat in dramatic terms. The only tension derives from the question of whether the mother will reconcile herself to letting Tenzin pursue his spiritual destiny. But from the play's first scenes, all the textual arrows seem to be pointing in one direction. And a revelation as the second act opens dissipates any remaining suspense surrounding her firstborn's future."

Hollywood Reporter - Recommended

"...The vulnerability of the family unit is among the most overtrafficked themes in contemporary American drama, and the threatened removal of a child a familiar point of conflict. But Ruhl finds distinctive variations in a story in which it's the child himself who chooses his path."

Vulture - Somewhat Recommended

"...As it is, in a beautiful production that also features fine work from James Yaegashi as the Father, James Saito as the kindly lama, and Jon Norman Schneider as the beamish monk, there is something a bit embryonic about The Oldest Boy. Perhaps because the Mother is written as a kind of dilettante, having given up her own intellectual passions in favor of her child, I couldn't help feeling a whiff of the dilettantism in the entire conception. Ruhl says she began it after many talks with her children's Tibetan nanny, to whom the play is dedicated, in part. Not that there's anything wrong with open-minded innocence in the exploration of other people and ideas, but combined with the suppressed psychology and mild dramaturgy here, it doesn't leave very much of a play in the conventional (which is to say Western) sense."

New York Post - Somewhat Recommended

"...Rebecca Taichman's production looks great, with a number of beautiful looking tableaus enhanced by Japhy Weideman's striking lighting. But overall the show is oddly unsatisfying. Maybe the second time around's not necessarily the charm."

TheaterMania - Somewhat Recommended

"...As visually arresting as the production is, it still doesn't compensate for a story that seems to rest on a rather tired cliche: the American of a certain class and educational background enchanted with Buddhism and the Free Tibet movement. The premise is also not very different from the 1993 Keanu Reeves movie Little Buddha. At least with Keanu we learned a little about Buddhism. The Oldest Boy is more notable for what we do not learn."