Matthew Earnest’s fine direction cuts to the bone in a manner that will evoke a visceral response that will stick with you after you’ve left the theater.

REVIEW August 2009: click here to read Alan Zeitlin's review.

This strong off-Broadway production, stripped to the essentials, tells the story—and tells it devastatingly. Under the direction of Matthew Earnest (and with a translation from the Spanish by David Johnston), the excellent cast brings this horror story to life.

REVIEW May 2009: click here to read Irene Backalenick's review.

Matthew Earnest, masterfully entraps the audience, slowly drawing them into the inescapable web of compromise with the use of minimal sets and highly dramatic lighting, allowing the accomplished actors free reign to plumb the depths of each character.

REVIEW 05/20/09: click here to read Richard McBee's review.

This spare, eloquent work has been, not surprisingly, a hit in Europe and South America. Here, leanly directed by Matthew Earnest, it’s a powerful illustration of how theatrical artifice can be pressed into the service of atrocity.

REVIEW 05/20/09: click here to read Andy Webster's review.

“Way to Heaven” comes alive like few contemporary dramas in recent memory.

REVIEW 05/17/09: click here to read Lauren Wissot's review.

Francisco Reyes' performance as the Commandant is breathtaking... There is such electricity between Gottfried and the Commandant, the product of unspoken but palpable mutual hatred...

REVIEW 05/11/09: click here to read Leonard Jacob's review.

Way to Heaven is a smart, riveting, and immensely powerful and important play.

REVIEW 05/10/09: click here to read Julie Congress's rave review.

04/19: click here to read our nytheatre voices cyber-interview with Chris Harcum.

Photo Credit: Top and middle right: Chris McMullan, The Right Image Photography & Burning Coal Company. Bottom two: NestorCD.com. Top and middle left by Derek Wright.

AMERICAN PREMIERE

Burning Coal Theatre Company

January 2009

News & Obserber, Roy C. Dicks (01/29/09)

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Live theater at its best trumps film and electronic media for visceral impact and thematic complexity. A sterling example is Burning Coal Theatre Company's production of "Way to Heaven." ... ... Mayorga goes beyond mere storytelling to cleverly structure the play in layers, incrementally unfolding characters' journeys from innocent denial to complicit inaction. ... ... Director Matthew Earnest expertly builds the horror over a tightly paced 90 minutes. His well-rehearsed actors work beautifully together. ... ... Ten-year-old Samantha Rahn plays the little girl in a movingly confident manner... ...Francisco Reyes turns in a fascinating villain, charming and witty one moment, threatening and moody the next. Reyes makes "Way to Heaven" a must-see.

Independent Weekly, Sylvia Pfeiffenberger, 01/28/09

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Having shown coercion to be an insane form of theater, Mayorga can't resist a few self-reflexive jabs at theater along the way. ... ... While the world looked, yet refused to see, death camps such as the "Way to Heaven" were the Nazis' deadliest reality show.

Classical Voice of North Carolina, Alan R. Hall, 01/28/09

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Burning Coal Theatre Company continues its stellar 2008-09 season with Juan Mayorga’s Way to Heaven... ... is not an easy play to see. As is with monstrous wrong, we want to flee. But the actual creation of this lie that fooled the West for so long needs analysis, and it has taken the voice of a man well outside the history of Germany and World War II to make that analysis possible.