O LOVELY GLOWWORM is about the history of the world as perceived by a stuffed goat who remembers his life from his perch at the edge of a domestic trash heap behind a derelict cottage in rural Ireland, circa1918. It’s an exploration of consciousness through a lens as myopic as Mr. Magoo’s, as slapstick as the Three Stooges, as intelligently raucous as the Marx Brothers, and as lyrical as the yearning Irish tenor of John McCormack. It’s about how very small in the end we are - that seen in regard to the whole huge universe, we and our struggles are so endearingly pathetic it’s laughable. -from Glen Berger’s Journal What if the great mind of our time belonged not to an inventor or historian, but a playwright? It’s a question prompted by each new work from former Seattle resident Glen Berger, who delivered the most literate - and funniest - play produced in Portland last season, Portland Center Stage’s O LOVELY GLOWWORM. -Portland Tribune A wager: If Glen Berger isn’t one of the American theater scene’s most respected writers by the next decade, I’ll sit twice through every pretentious wank by every fringe playwright currently trying to emulate him. Berger has what most ambitious young artists would kill for: the ability to be off-the-chart unusual and still say something of universal resonance. -Seattle Weekly Glen Berger’s work feels like what an entire generation of playwrights have been struggling to write. -The Stranger, Seattle Along with Kushner and Stoppard, Berger is only a handful of playwrights of wit and vocabulary creating works of dramatic weight and size. Although they take political positions and tackle cosmic questions to which no one has the answers, these plays never abandon theatrical flair and entertainment value. -Windy City Times, Chicago Berger is one of those today finding great humor in hardships, expanding and redefining tragedy, while claiming this form for a new generation. -The Columbian, Portland
