“ This feminist indictment of Oleanna, David Mamet, academic theatre, and fatphobic culture at large crackles with electricity and rage. The world preys on the insecurities of young women; it minimizes them, and more insidiously, makes them desire smallness. Rachel Greene creates a hall of mirrors where Oleanna, John Deserves To Die, and the metatheatrical perspective of audience itself blend in mind bending and dynamic ways.

The female characters of JDTD are people, not archetypes. They aren’t written through the perspective of a man, or a woman writing for the male gaze. And that itself is revolutionary. ”

“ "John Deserves to Die" stands on it's own as a powerful and important story about abuse of power and the extremely harmful ways that theatre is taught in a college setting. Though, being tied so tightly to Mamet and using that to parallel the events of the play, it adds a whole other layer, not only calling out the abusive environments in many rehearsal rooms, but demanding we take a second look at what stories we want/need to tell and saying "We can do better." ”

“ A wonderful, sharp, ensemble-piece filled with nuanced and complex femme characters. It also contains a spectacular reading of "Oleanna" that everyone who thinks they're familiar with the play or who thinks it's actually "good art" should take a listen to. The constellations of relationships we see--Andy and Jen, Jen and Laura, Andy and Laura, Leah and Andy, and, of course, all of them and their prof--are all very specific and fleshed out. An important examination of male privilege and abuse in academia, rehearsal rooms, and the world at large, and of what it takes to start dismantling it. ”