god said this | the reviews
Leah Nanako Winkler’s God Said This runs to June 24th – here are just a few of the responses we’ve received from critics and audiences alike about this raw, funny family story.
THE MEDIA
A truly immersive and intimate audience experience […] slick direction from director Kaitlin Williams, poignant writing and incredibly impressive acting from the whole cast. – Vancouver Presents
Maki Yi was born to play Masako: unflinchingly — and with considerable grace — she goes to the depths with this character. – Colin Thomas
Yoshie Bancroft brings complexity to the dismissive and self-indulgent Hiro. Her conversations with old classmate John, played hilariously by Sebastien Archibald, deliver some of the play’s funniest exchanges – Angie Rico, Vancouver Plays
Winkler has written characters with such depth and dimension that the two-hour performance is consistently compelling and authentic. – Vancouver Presents
Sebastien Archibald’s work as John is perfection. Archibald nails every note of the character’s freewheeling intelligence, humour, and depth of feeling. – Colin Thomas
The strong acting in Kaitlin Williams’ Pacific Theatre production invests the downbeat story with power, poignancy and bracing humour. – Jerry Wasserman
Alaia Hamer’s set is a wonder. She covers one wall of Pacific Theatre’s alley-style playing area with a warm construction of wood and light, and the other with skilfully painted sunset clouds. – Colin Thomas
Director Kaitlin Williams has a strong cast to carry out Ms. Winkler’s script to full scope – she allows the actors to be open and exploit each other’s strengths. – Review Vancouver
THE AUDIENCE
Maki Yi – this is the role that has been waiting for her. So, so, so good. God Said This is unmistakably a realistically rendered family drama – but Williams and her cast find all the humour, which gives spark and vividness to the whole. – Ron Reed
One of the season’s best and everything I love about a PT play: brilliant acting, laugh out loud humour, and paradox and questions to leave you lingering long after the show is over. – Audience Member
It blew me away. Such a poignant, beautiful, perfectly irreverent show about what it is to be a human, what it is to be a family, what it is to have faith, what it is to love someone, what it is to carry trauma. Every time I think about it I find some new aspect… reconciliation, addiction, injustice, infertility, illness, love, death. Also, I was not expecting it to be so funny… to haul out the old cliche, “I laughed, I cried”. Thank you, Pacific Theatre for putting this wonderful play out into the world! – Lilac Bosma
One of the season’s best and everything I love about a PT play: brilliant acting, laugh out loud humour, and paradox and questions to leave you lingering long after the show is over. – Audience Member
What a play, what impact, what beauty, tears and life. … I went back on Saturday and saw it again, this time from the North side and it felt even deeper, truer and stronger the second time. – Audience Member
Do yourself a favor and go see God Said This at Pacific Theatre. The performances, the design, the direction, all breathtaking. – Laura McLean
ART ALERT: Go see God Said This at Pacific Theatre. Woven into the rich narrative are themes/questions on recovery, purpose, abuse, forgiveness, languages of love, identity, friendship & race. Kleenex not required: just a lively mind and heart to be moved. – Michael Hart
Thank you PT for sharing this moving family drama. I love these contemporary ensemble stories, told through beautiful design and nuanced truthful performances. Definitely a classic Pacific show! – Audience Member
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