Carnival Round The Central Figure
by Diana Amsterdam

“CARNIVAL ROUND THE CENTRAL FIGURE is steeped in the absurd—the man’s face is caked with white makeup, and a menacing nurse sits nearby, holding a needle about three feet long.

Yet like much in this clever and confounding meditation on dying, what is unusual can also be affecting.

CARNIVAL is a funny and beguiling 100 minutes, aimed at those eager for an experimental look into its themes.

In the end the play merely reminds us of the obvious: we’re all destined to die.

Yet it’s a message that bears repeating.

Such great truths are too often ignored, and are best told with a nervous laugh.”

- The New York Times “Comedies don't come much darker than Diana Amsterdam's CARNIVAL ROUND THE CENTRAL FIGURE, a hard-core but justified lampooning of the strange etiquette we adhere to when watching loved ones pass away.

Amsterdam's relentless script makes a glib burlesque out of the oblique religious platitudes, idle chitchat, and straight-up dishonesty we typically inflict upon the dying.”

- Backstage “CARNIVAL ROUND THE CENTRAL FIGURE will certainly strike a powerful chord..." -New York Post