Great show, informative and eye-opening.

Wonderfully acted albeit long adaptation.

A very powerful adaptation of Ralph Ellison's great novel. A strong cast. Imaginative setting. The Studio Theater lives up to its reputation as one of Washington's finest theaters.

Excellent production.

Great acting and pretty captivating - never noticed the long time of the play. The set was minimal but ingenious and did the trick. Impressed with how relatively few actors played the numerous parts. The main problem I had was in really understanding and relating to the message. I guess I'm one of those people who need a strong story line (or a simpler one)!

There is a force of nature. A storytelling machine. An actors' actor. His name is Teagle F. Bougere. He is the star of Studio Theatre's Invisible Man playing now through Sunday at Studio Theatre in DC.

Bougere was spellbinding in so many ways; he served as part actor, part Greek Chorus. If you want an example of how one actor can carry a show and captivate an audience--for three hours!--watch Mr. Bougere's performance.

- William Powell
DC Actors Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/article/why-dc-actors-should-see-invsible-man?cid=db_articles

Good show. Very well acted and the set was neat. But WAY TOO LONG. Especially for a week night...too bad, this could have really been outstanding with some editing...

It was wonderful. Thoughtful, well acted, good staging. Not as depressing or uninteresting as Peter Marks' review. I took a 32-year-old black man as a birthday present (thought it might be too negative for a birthday). NO!!! It was very powerful and a good way for people to examine their own life and aspirations and identity. GO, GO, GO!

I was totally unprepared for a 3 hour presenation! Why 3 hours? There is never any reason to hold an audience that long! The story could have been told in all of 1h 45 minutes. Integrity of Story line maintained - staging, acting, production, set design all good, but I was left numb after the presentation.

Excellent casting, excellent acting and above all, an amazing story.

The actors delivered a powerful performance. Very thought provoking and a revealing glimpse into the society's inequities. The theater was comfortable and the seats were good.

Very unique theatre experience. Actors were very good. Worth going to see.

A pretty tremendous undertaking well executed. There are moments when it plays bookish to the point of pedagogical, that make you feel like you're in English class. Generally, though, it's a very solid, fast-moving, rich piece of theater.

The play is powerful and almost cinematic in its staging. I wasn't sure how effectively the novel would translate to the stage, but the company did a great job with it. I like the way it incorporates both images, film clips, and performers in the wings or in the house to bring the audience in closer.

The three hour production is never boring. Probably the individual parts add up to more than the whole. Still, we learned a lot and enjoyed ourselves.

I saw Invisible Man yesterday, commonly noted as one of the top 100 Novels in American history. I was apprehensiive at first and I thought the visual backgrounds of the event covering a 60 year period in time would be hard to do on a stage and are much better suited for film.

The Book and play are consistent - until the end - (and its been 30+ years since i read the book so I might be wrong) - until after the Riot scene.
The set background contains a large video screen which uses videos to set the tone and background.

I thought the lead actor was great - he reminded me of a younger version of Andre Braugher. There are a series of monologues which serve as the "transference" of the key points to the audience , and some of them seem like a lecture on Race in America.

All in all i'd give it a B, worth seeing, thought provoking.

The bad part is the location, the Studio Theatre is a great facility, seats about 150 and every seat in the house is good, but its located in Logan Circle. The part of DC that's not that close to a metro station and limited on street parking.

Unfortunately I've never read this novel so I don't know if Ellison's writing style was as nonlinear as this production presents it. But I found this play and it's ideas somewhat scattered and hard to follow. I also didn't understand why so much emphasis was placed on the main character's association with the socialist organization. There had to be other experiences/aspects in his life that lead to his perceived invisibility. Including some of that may have helped cut back on the 3 hour run time of the show. This show is probably more enjoyable if you've already read the novel.

The cast was just terrific - all of them. The show is a long one (3 hours w/ 2 breaks) so plan accordingly.

Great adaptation on Ellison's work. I browsed the views from the Chicago opening and was a bit disheartened by the length of the play (3 hours), but it was well worth it. And, as always, the venue (Studio Theatre) was perfect. Great show!

Great performance but a little long.

Though I was familiar with the work of Mr. Ellison, I can't remember ever reading it. The actors very skillfully displayed their talent to capture you imagination with their adaptation of the charters in the novel. Maybe it was because of my overwhelming interest in the political state of the country presently, this novel seemed to be ahead of its time. The focus of a man doing great things and would-be believers seeming to understand and follow, only to be deceived and misunderstood, INVISIBLE. An amazing evening, time well spent.

wonderful acting, moving story, no bad seats in the theater. Play is about 3 hours but moves through Ellison's masterpiece swiftly.

Outstanding production. Great job of distilling 500 pages to three hours. A few years ago I attended a dramatic production of Richard Wright's Native Son (I read both these books as a high school junior) and questioned why no one had done an adaptation of Invisible Man, the other great American novel of the period and genre. I was told it was not for lack of trying but that people had always run into obstacles. This adaptation was definitely timely and worth the wait.

Get tickets quickly. Seats are selling like hotcakes and performances are selling out.

I love Studio Theatre, but it became obvious to me that even great acting and set design can't save a wordy though wonderful novel from being a not-so-great piece of theater. I wish someone had written a play loosely based on Invisible Man, but more related to contemporary life. There is a lot of mumbo-jumbo verbiage in the novel that just doesn't lend itself to interesting drama.

Quite ambitious trying to put one of the vital America novels on stage. Well done. Great set, great cast.

The set was was ingenuous. You were able to visualize many locales on stage based on props, their placement, costumes and lighting. The characters were so well done, I forgot that there were less than 10 actors in the play.

You will laugh, get angry, feel sad. Excellent work! All of the moving parts worked. One of the best plays I have seen.

This play was entertaining and really gets you to think. The three hours scared me at first, but they flew by. And the acting was stellar. Incredible performance from all. Props to the stage production team as well. Loved it all around!

True to the book, a few funny moments, and a few tense/emotionally charged ones.

Fine acting and creative production for Studio's stage. The length of the play needs to be reduced.

See this play!!!
Faithful adaptation of an incredibly difficult work to produce. Excellent acting across the board, but especially fabulous was Teagle Bougere in the title role. Might have missed a great production if Goldstar had not offered discounts. That would have been my loss.

The play was a great representation of the book. It gave Ellison's words life beyond the pages. It was probably to long for people who haven't read the book, and too short for those who have. The acting was on point, I had a good time.

The play was ok. It was way too long and way to many moving parts. It was a total of 3 hours and after the second act, it was hard to keep my attention.

A good play with a message that is still all-too-relevant today. The acting was fabulous and the themes of racism and Black male invisibility spot-on. Way too long, though! Very few plays can justify a three-hour run time, and this isn't one of them. The script is new, however. So hopefully it will continue to be workshopped and cut down in future iterations.

The acting and staging are incredibly well done. I was very impressed with the entire cast, but the actor playing the Invisible Man kept up the intensity and focus throughout. The range required of the other members of the cast--who played multiple roles--was highly demanding, and they performed at a high, high level.