←Recommendations of Lang Noir

A fascinating slice-of-life piece set during a momentous evening for film director Fritz Lang, who must confront both his wife’s infidelity and an invitation to make films for Hitler. Cathro’s two-hander starts off strong and maintains tension throughout as its leads argue compellingly about their futures, both personal and professional. The piece succeeds on its own merits, but also feels incredibly timely as so many people now face an impossible choice between their integrity and their jobs.

I highly recommend this gripping, stylish drama. There is an atmosphere in this play that can be cut with a knife, using Lang's own style to grind on the dreadful, pending decision. I was hooked on this right from the start, and enjoyed every minute of it.

06.20.25 - This is a longer version of his original "Lang" and I have to say, the added room DC Cathro affords his characters definitely adds to their richness. Fritz Lang, known for his highly visualized film work must make an awful choice made even more complicated by his rocky relationship with wife Thea. Stay, make films for the new Chancellor, an abhorrent choice and possibly save his marriage or flee Germany and lose her. We feel all the dread their decision embodies. I loved this script.

This play is immensely stylish and brings with impressive finesse an era and style to the modern stage. Cathro doesn't spoon feed the audience exposition but rather raises questions and presents conflicts which draws the audience into a dark and difficult historical place. The dialogue is also economic and captures a Teutonic crispness. An understated, stylish and powerful play which stays with one...

Collaboration or censorship? DC Cathro has created a play that reaches into the past to bring into sharp focus what many prominent artists are now up against in these very difficult and fraught times. Capturing the hallmarks of Fritz Lang's particular brand of noir, the LANG NOIR creates tension from the very first moment until the final line. It is gripping, intelligent, and captures with nuance and balance the pros and cons of the answers Fritz Lang must consider to the question before him.

This tightly constructed piece places us in the middle of a politically fraught place and time. A time when people thought they had enough information to make ethical choices, but with our historical distance we know exactly where their choices will lead. The tension between these two perspectives drives the play and keeps us on the edge the entire time. What is on the surface a negotiation between partners has much broader consequences. Cathro leaves us with no easy answers. Powerful work.

Wow. This play has never been more important now than it is right now. This play humanizes real people in an imaginary conversation that is both natural, stylized, and lyrical all at the same time. Thea and Fritz are deliciously fallible and have delightful chemistry. The images of this play stay ingrained in your brain. The message is dynamic. The pacing is perfect. And, "Lang Noir" is ripe for production.