of the play, in which The Owl Answers was produced alongside Amiri Baraka's Dutchman at the Penumbra Theatre in Saint Paul, Minnesota, reviewer Laura Schmidt from Minnesota Monthly wrote: "The Owl Answers, directed by Talvin Wilks, is bold but unconventional, addressing gender, race, and identity. With the script’s opening direction of 'The scene is a New York subway car is the Tower of London is a Harlem hotel room in St. Peter’s,' it’s clear that playwright Adrienne Kennedy created an impossible world to stage. And this staging of The Owl Answers comes about as close to Kennedy’s wild imagination as possible. With a rotating stage, lifting panels, and fall-away walls, the subway car becomes supernatural. Masked figures with wings creepily saunter around the stage in elaborate costumes, their echoing voices filling the stage. But despite these elements and an emotional performance from Van as the character of She, the nonexistent narrative of Kennedy’s incredibly abstract text weighs down the production, making it almost incomprehensible by the end." Schmidt went on to write that, "In the 60s these shows were meant to boil blood, to provoke, to push back against violent racism. It feels like both these shows have accomplished the same task almost 50 years later, even if one succeeds in addressing this more strongly than the other." Productions 1965 (premiere) White Barn Theatre, directed by Michael Kahn 1969 (Off-Broadway premiere) staged with A Beast’s Story as Cities in Bezique 2013 - Columbia University, New York, New York 2016 - Penumbra Theatre Company, Saint Paul, Minnesota 2016 - Fordham University, New York, New York 2017 - Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts References English plays