Press on Lapis Blue Blood Red
"...a vivid, challenging production by the Juggernaut Theatre Company. The story has plenty of modern day resonance. The rape trial sounds much like one that might take place now, and the parent-child wars are awfully familiar. "Stand up when you paint", Orazio hounds his daughter. Youre crunched over, like a hunchback" He could be a suburban soccer dad. Ms. Caplan goes for a "like father, like daughter" theme, among others. There is a sublime moment when the grown Artemisia finds herself yelling at her father with the exact words her father once used against her."
Neil Genzlinger New York Times February 18, 2002
"Cathy Caplans play wastes no time on strident polemics and feminist hagiography. "Lapis Blue Blood red has the tautness of a "Law and Order" episode as it moves back and forth between 1612 Rome and 1638 Naples, looking at the circumstances of Artemisias deflowering and public disgrace, her tense relations with her father, Orazio, and daughter, Prudenza, and the determination, pragmatism and sheer talent that let her earn her own living as a painter."
Wall Street Journal February 13, 2002
"Meg Gibson, who plays the 17th century painter Artemisia Gentileschi at age 45 is a volcanic, dark-eyed presence begrimed with sweat and paint, Gibson displays a diligence about her canvas and a bone weariness about her past that together speak eloquently about the artist hard won independence."
David Cote Time Out February 14-21, 2002
"Ms. Caplans script is a nuanced treatment that doesnt attempt to flesh out the existing history so much as set a human story in an historic/artistic framework."
Michael Fressola Staten Island Advance February 15, 2002