WINNER OF THREE 2015 AWARDS INCLUDING
BEST PLAY BEST DIRECTOR BEST ACTRESS
acclaim for The Buffalo Kings
The Buffalo Kings charms with dark comedy, rich drama.
The Buffalo Kings offers more than just personal handheld mirrors. It breaks down your guard with humor and then slays you every which way, each character taking turns hitting you in the feelings.
It's a treat to witness this new work by St. Petersburg writer Symons.
Tampa Bay Times
A comic gem ... It’s heartening to see a playwright write as well as Natalie Symons does in her winning tragi-farce, The Buffalo Kings. ...seven characters embrace, snipe at, lecture, excoriate, adore and psychologically strip bare one another for two precious acts of laughter and nihilism, and they do it so ardently, my only major regret is that the evening’s not longer.
The Buffalo Kings is an enchanting, stimulating pleasure.
Creative Loafing Tampa
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Symons' The Buffalo Kings deserves the lengthy standing ovation it received on opening night. It is a tremendous production, filled with hilarity and tears, dark comedy and meaningful, moving dialogue.
Symons has scribed a memorable, heart-tugging, vastly entertaining show, full of wondrous quips and well-drawn characters. It deserves a long life after the freeFall run.
BroadwayWorld.com
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There is much to celebrate in Symons' tragicomic The Buffalo Kings.
You can enjoy them and be frustrated by them simultaneously, but Symons and the cast make you want to know more about them, which is as strong a compliment as you can make about a new and promising play with a good amount of intrigue to pursue.
Sarasota Herald Tribune
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In Symons’s hilarious and penetrating play The Buffalo Kings, seven characters embrace, snipe at, lecture, excoriate, adore, and psychologically strip bare one another for two precious acts of laughter and nihilism.
Thanks to Symons’s formidable talent, this wisdom was brought to us in a fully entertaining way.
Best of the Bay 2015
"A comic gem."
Creative Loafing Tampa
" The Buffalo Kings charms
with dark comedy and rich drama. It breaks down your guard
with humor and then slays you every which way,
each character taking turns hitting you in the feelings."
Tampa Bay Times
​
"It's tremendous... filled with hilarity and tears...
heart-tugging and vastly entertaining."
BroadwayWorld
​
"You think your family’s dysfunctional? Well, say hello to the Kings: there’s suicidal wife and mother Olive, her 15-year-old son and hate-crime victim Nick, Olive’s hypochondriac brother Sam, her unfaithful ex-husband Stuart, viciously honest matriarch Estelle, and patriarch-with-Alzheimer’s Harold. There’s one other character — family friend, and vastly outnumbered former-crack-dealer-turned-Christian Pete Burke — and when they’re all together at Christmas, their mutual desperation is hilarious (as William Blake said, excess of sorrow laughs).
Yes, fractured family reunions are a staple of contemporary theater, but Symons has an original vision that puts new spin on this trope. What she wants to tell us in Kings is that conflict and unhappiness aren’t proofs of personal failure, that the search for constant joy can only result in defeat, and that it’s positively normal to face crises as one proceeds through a lifetime. You don’t have to agree in order to enjoy The Buffalo Kings; but thanks to Symons’ canny writing, you at least have to consider that, weather patterns being what they are, maybe it’s not entirely sane to expect nothing but sunshine."
Creative Loafing Tampa
Natalie Symons
Author / Playwright