What people are saying about Brent and his work:
“Brenton Lengel’s play North to Maine is a carefully crafted and incredibly moving story of adventure. It is a play that digs deep into the heart of why we have the need to run away and why we cannot escape the weight that we carry within us…[It is a play which]encapsulates the human condition, illustrating how we all must take our journeys separately even though what we ultimately need is connection…Lengel has written a timeless story that reaches out and grabs all who long for an adventure. I highly recommend seeing this play before it ends its run—and in any incarnation thereafter.”
-Gina Femia, New York Theatre Review
“North to Maine is an epic play about an epic journey…a stunning and emotionally involving work of theater…All five characters are rich, highly individual creations… all bring energy, insight, and deep humanity to their work… they create as seamless and satisfying an ensemble as any you’re likely to see on stage right now…It’s a journey well worth the taking.”
– Martin Denton, NYTheatre.com
“Slow and steady wins the race with the tortoise and the hare and that proves true once again in North to Maine…The subject material in the play speaks to hikers, rock-climbers, nerds, nature lovers, and the like. With incredible character arcs this well thought out script was a great tool for the actors who take hold of their parts and run with them.”
-Shoshana Roberts, Theatre is Easy
“When a play goes to the great outdoors, it’s a treat. But when a play not only ventures to the woods but attempts to tackle a nearly 2,180 mile adventure, it’s something unique. Like the trail, Lengel’s play is long quite beautiful with moments of tough terrain…North to Maine is a diamond in the rough. It’s a piece that has great potential that deserves a larger audience.”
– Michael Block, Theater in the Now
“Playwright Brenton Lengel has crafted a loving and more importantly likeable portrait of the Appalachian Trail and her transitory inhabitants. He succeeds not only in making explicit the way such an adventure can change a person’s life, but also creates solid, three-dimensional characters that we grow to love…This is a play as much about the human condition in microcosm as it is one man’s personal journey through 2,000 miles of American wilderness.”
– Marti Sichel, Woman Around Town
“Snow White Zombie: Apocalypse is as good as its name. It is a wonderful, clever, action-packed play with a heck of a lot of heart and chock full of a dizzying amount of talent. Brenton Lengel [is] a formidable writer we should keep an eye on…I would have stayed in that theater to enjoy the playful innovations of Lengel’s mind as long as he cared to keep us there.”
-Naomi McDougall Jones, Nytheatre.com
“The show is funny and thoughtful, dark without being gloomy…[it] easily could be considered among the hierarchical progeny of such sweeping cultural masterpieces as Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, and such modern-day cult classics as the Simon Pegg-fronted rom-com-zom Shaun of the Dead.”
-Marti Sichel, Woman Around Town (writing about Snow White Zombie: Apocalypse)
“If you haven’t seen it, go, and hurry as if the end is truly coming. Every moment of Brenton Lengel’s play proves worth it.”
-Linnea Covington, The Happiest Medium (writing about Snow White Zombie: Apocalypse)
“The script by Brenton Lengel displays a deep understanding of both the fairy tale and horror worlds…this is edge-of-your-seat theatre.”
-Hy Bender, hyreviews.com (writing about Snow White Zombie: Apocalypse)
“Ambitious, satirical, creative and risky, [Snow White Zombie: Apocalypse] is far more than a cartoon or horror spoof.”
-Rob Lester, NiteLifeExchange.com
“Brenton Lengel’s Mic. examines the experience of creating in a society that does not always support independent efforts…performances by this ensemble cast are very strong across the board…the writing and music are solid, relatable and heartbreakingly familiar.”
-Keelie A. Sheridan, nytheatre.com