East Bay Express, November 5, 1993
Candi Ellis

"In David Ives' Sure Thing, New York Bill (Richard Silberg) conversationally shuffles his 'status cards' searching for a trump with which to snag Betty (Judy Phillips). In his clumsy attempts to find a level on which he and Betty can connect, Bill foreshadows the closing play and its protagonist, mechanistic Ivan in Anton Chekhov's A Marriage Proposal, who pragmatically decides that Natalia (Karen Goldstein) is 'not bad' and, besides, it's time to get married. David Mamet's The Blue Hour collects tidbits of urban scenery - a woman shopping for confidence and a hat, a woman impotently outraged by her doctor's hubris, and a gum-chewing, hip-swiveling Goldstein clutching at the attention of a self-absorbed petty bureaucrat. The skits work because together they move past a comedic contemplation of individual isolation into an examination of the elusiveness of integrity in human interaction. Goldstein in particular dazzles."