1983

Actor's Theatre of Louisville

Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream

1985

Actor's Theatre of Louisville

Moliere

The School for Wives

1986

Actor's Theatre of Louisville

Bulgakov

Royal Comedians

1987

Actor's Theatre of Louisville

Ashman-Menken

Little Shop of Horrors

1989

Actor's Theatre of Louisville

Hampton

Les Liasons Dangerous

1993

Actor's Theatre of Louisville
(Humana Festival)

Kaufman

Shooting Simone

1995

Actor's Theatre of Louisville
(Humana Festival)

Kalinoski

Beast on the Moon

1995

Actor's Theatre of Louisville
(Molnár Festival)

Molnár

Olympia

1997

Actor's Theatre of Louisville
(Humana Festival)

Benji Aerensen

Lighting Up the Two Year Old

1985. MOLIÉRE'S THE SCHOOL FOR WIFES

“…a wonderfully inventive, continuously revealing production of Moliére’s School for Wives. Perhaps never before has ATL startled its subscribers with a production so resourceful, so ingenious and so iconocastically contrieved to challenge our conceptions about classical theatre and its place in modern life. It’s a marvellous show, during which Moliere emerges as a playwright of penetrating wit and probing Humanity.

As staged by Hungarian Laszlo Marton, the Hungarian director who made his ATL debut a season ago with Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, this “School for Wives “ is nothing if not determinedly contemporary in its point of view.”

“A revival of Moliere’s  'The School for Wives'  in a revolutionary production by Hungarian Laszlo Marton.”

The Courier Journal, 1985. William Mootz

1983. SHAKESPEARE'S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

“I want to make my capitulation official: at its best, ATL can stage a Shakespearean performance of uncommon beauty and sensitivity. And in opening its twentieth anniversary season on September 29 with Laszlo Marton’s brilliantly conceived mixture of gossamer unreality and earthy humanity, ATL is at its best in this ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Actually it is hard to know where to begin praising this Dream. (…)

Anyone who misses Laszlo Marton’s imaginative presentation will be depriving himself of an overpowering theatrical experience.”

Louisville Skyline, 3 October, 1983. Joseph M. Miller

“It is a bright and imaginative production.”

Louisville Times, 30 September , 1983. Dudley Saunders

“This outstanding production brings to life, in a manner seldom seen, the wit of the 400-year-old comedy.”

“Comedy and romance blend into a wonderful evening’s entertainment as the worlds of mortals and fairies collide.”

The La Rue County Herald News, 6 October, 1983

"It is a lavish, relentlessly physical show that is perverse, challenging and full of cock-eyed magic.”

The Courier Journal, 30 September, 1983

1986. BULGAKOV'S THE ROYAL COMEDIANS

“Hungarian director Laszlo Marton’s thrilling production of Mikhail Bulgakov’s play Moliere, or the Royal Comedians, about the church’s campaign against the dramatist. Marton peopled Louisville’s biggest stage with gigantic awesome figures of blackgarbed priests and inquisitors crowding in on the dying genius after his King had withdrawn his protection.”

The Daily Telegraph, 1986. John Barber

“…Marton’s production unfolds in a universe of artifice. Fantasy is the order of the day. Nothing is ever quite real except the playwright’s passionate condemnation of religious and political bigotry.
…Miklos Feher’s settings, although elegant chandeliers give hints of Versailles splendor, have a nightmarish quality that suggests the concentracion camp. Paul Owen’s lightning is equally eerie, even sepulchral.
With such brilliant cooperation from his designers, Marton is able to stage “Comedians” principally as a series of diversions. Never does he allow our attention to stray completely from the moral outrage that informs the play. But he beguiles us constantly with theatrical inventions that dazzle the eye and stimulate the imagination. By masking Bulgakov’s essentially tragic view of existence with shenanigans of farce, he serves up an entertainment one suspects that Moliere would have understood.”

The Courier-Journal,  3 January, 1986. William Mootz

“Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Royal Comedians which opened Thursday at ATL might be thoroughly enjoyed on the basis of its dramatic moments and excellent staging with little other ado. Viewers who encounter it on a level excluding its background nuances and connection with history  are doomed to miss the richness that would reward them for the little extra time  it takes to prepare for it.”

New Albany Tribune, 1986. Dale Sandusky

1987. ASHMAN-MENKEN
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

“…ATL’s Little Shop of Horrors arrived last night to the tumultuous acclaim of the opening night audience, which whistled with delight, rose to standing ovation and even did a little dancing in the aisles. Obviously, the company had a hit on its hands…. Little Shop of Horrors is a delightful chamber work, zestfully staged at ATL by Laszlo Marton in a jewel box of a setting by Paul Owen.”

The Courier-Journal, 8 May, 1987. William Mootz

1989. HAMPTON'S LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES

“…Last night, ‘La Liasons Dangereuses’ opened in the Victor Jory Theatre at Actors Theatre of Louisville - and what an opening it was. (…) Director Laszlo Marton serves up a presentation that is so completely fascinating that we are almost oblivious of the longish 2 ½ -hour length. … The new year may be the biggest one yet for the long dead author. It will certainly send many scurrying for the 18-century potboiling novel that Marie Antoinette is reputed to have hidden in her bedchambers.

The New Albany Tribune, 1989. Dale Sandusky

“…Laszlo Marton is the director.”

The Courier Journal, 8 January,1989. William Mootz

“…Betrayal and cruelty, seduction and the coldest manipulation of human emotions lie at the heart of elaborate rituals these two people perform in Hampton’s chilling drama based on Choderlos de Laclos’ 18^th century novel of the same name. As presented last night by Actors Theatre of Louisville under the subtly searching direction of Laszlo Marton, it is the most literary, the most challenging and quite often the most resonantly acted production of the company’s recent history. … Marton has devised a production that moves with grace. He is blessed with a skillful cast, most ATL newcomers, and he inspires from them a griping, witty ensemble performance.”

The Courier Journal, 12 January,1989. William Mootz

“Louisville - it doesn’t often happen that one of the year’s most talked-about films is beaten to town by the sensational play on which is based.
This rarity has happened in Louisville. Actors Theatre has taken the punch out of the anticipated arrival of the film, Dangerous Liaisons by mounting its own sizzling production of Christopher Hampton’s celebrated new drama.
Les Liasons Dangereuses - which like A Midsummer Night’s Dream of a past season is directed by Hungarian-born Laszlo Marton - is a terrific addition to a season at Actors Theatre that needed just such a jolt of high style.”

Lexington Herald-Leader, 1989. Tom Carter

1993. LYNNE KAUFMAN'S
SHOOTING SIMONE

“ ‘Simone’ is likely to be top entry in Actors’ festival…Kaufmann’s multi-layerd probe into the half-century relationship of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and novelist Simone de Beauvoir is a gem. (…) Director Laszlo Marton gives the play a crisp delivery that allows the audience lose itself in the witty interplay. “

The Tribune, 3 March, 1993. Dale Sandusky

“What a witty and provocative evening’s entertainment is Shooting Simone, the second production in this season’s Humana Festival of New American Plays, at ATL. (…) The cast, as directed by visitor Laszlo Marton is superb with Janni Brenn and Fred Major(…). Shooting Simone is a very strong second production in this year’s festival at ATL.”

KY Standard, 11 March 1993. Fred Allen

“Lynne Kaufmann’s ‘Shooting Simone’,an examination of a menage a trois between Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre and a wanna-be femme fatale, deligted the majority but offended a few purists.”

Los Angeles Times, 25 March 1993. Richard Stayton

A play about a couple of philosophers and their lifestyles? No-Doz time, right? Not in San Francisco playwright Lynne Kaufman’s comedy Shooting Simone, the best of the class at 1993’s 17^th annual Humana Festival at ATL.

Southern Theatre, 1993. Tony Brown

1995. RICHARD KALINOSKI'S
BEAST ON THE MOON

"In a superb production of poetically directed by László Marton it held the audience hushed and spellbound until its final scene when Bingham Theatre erupted into spontaneous and prolonged standing ovation.
I know, standing ovations are mechanical and meaningless gestures these days. But not this one.
…The production flows with the inevitability and naturalness of life itself under Marton’s fluid guidance.”

The Courier-Journal, 14 March,1995. William Mootz

“…The best of the lot -and judging from the audience reaction, last weekend’s favorite- is Richard Kalinosky’s moving  Beast on the Moon …”

The Dallas Morning News,  9 April, 1995. Edward Haymann

“Richard Kalinosky’s Beast on the Moon was the audience favorite of the festival and it’s easy to understand why.”

San Francisco Chronicle April, 1995. Steve Winn

““Richard Kalinosky’s play demonstrated that it can still triumph in purely theatrical terms. So, in an entirely different way, did Beast on the Moon, … It also, tellingly, was the one that seemed most completely  to engage its audience, which gave it a standing ovation.”

The New York Times, 6 April 1995. Ben Brantley

1997. BENJIE AERENSON'S
LIGHTING UP THE TOW-YEAR-OLD

“Athough some other entries were worthy -including Benji Aerenson’s full-length “Lighting Up a Two-Year-Old,”  a taut tale of corruption in the horse racing industry”…

The New York Times, 9 April, 1997. Peter Marks

“The best of  the fest: Lighting Up a Two-Year-Old - an air of mystery permeates former South Floridan Benjie Aerenson’s full length play. Aerenson mixes crime, infidelity, abuse, greed and lust into a provocative plot.”

“Beber and Aerenson srikingly attractive former Floridians now working at their craft in New York, are of the nine playwrights whose work was staged and dissected at the 21^st Humana Festival. This much admired annual celebration of the playwrights art, which winds up today at Kentucky’s Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL), put Aerenson and Beber in an intense spotlight, as audiences that included Russia’s vice minister of culture, journalists and theatre folks from as far as Malta and Singapore, and representatives of NBC, ABC, Disney, Miramax, Fox and Carsey-Werner, scrutinized their work.”

The Herald, 13 April, 1997. Christine Dolen