Recent Press + Reviews
"Ioan Roberts in particular is someone to watch out for. He is going from strength to strength, both figuratively in the quality of his deft modulation between the tragic and the comic..."
-ANDREW FUHRMANN, TIME OUT (CROSSED, LaMaMa)
"Ioan Roberts stands out. His gripping portrayal of a dislocated gay teen, note perfect, is at once euphoric and terribly sad. The role also draws out Summers’ best writing: I’ve never seen the interface between flesh and technology, and its dysfunctional potential, invested with such flensing honesty and power."
- CAMERON WOODHEAD, THE AGE (CROSSED, LaMaMa)
"...scurrilous, lewd, camp and poetic."
- TOMAS BLAIKIE, THE LADY (DEAD ROYAL)
"Chris Ioan Roberts is a formidable performer...Roberts is able to reincarnate their spirit through a psychological analysis of these intriguing figures, and reveals a pathetic self-absorption that inevitably leads to self-destruction."
- PATRICIA DI RISO (DEAD ROYAL, MELBOURNE SEASON)
"Despite the considerable coarseness of Roberts’ caricatures, there is still humanity and vulnerability to be found in each of them. In the breaths and pauses that punctuate their respective monologues, we glimpse moments of contemplative quiet and stillness in which both characters silently struggle to maintain the practiced balletic restraint of enforced royal decorum – a physically volatile state that threatens to snap at any moment."
- JACK BEEBY (DEAD ROYAL, MELBOURNE SEASON)
"This is subversive, imaginative and compelling theatre. It is unlike anything you have seen...Unique and enthralling...See it. Don’t hesitate."
– STEPHEN COLLINS, BRITISH THEATRE (DEAD ROYAL)
"Hilarious...a juicy little nugget of a show."
– ROZ CARTNER, WEST END WILMA (DEAD ROYAL)
"Fiercely funny...relentlessly, scathingly funny, and yet unexpectedly moving..."
– THEREOUGHTTOBECLOWNS.COM (DEAD ROYAL)
"This meaty little psychological tangle is never less than enjoyable to watch. Roberts' performances tiptoe between caricature, drag and sincerity."
– LONDON CITY NIGHTS (DEAD ROYAL)
"Dead Royal is an outrageous pink champagne apocalypse of lacerating wit...Chris Ioan Roberts is a fizzing and engrossing performer...Scintillatingly chic and dangerously sharp, Dead Royal is a twisted fable of Gothic proportions that will chill and chortle you to your very limits."
– JAMES WAYGOOD, GRUMPY GAY CRITIC ONLINE (DEAD ROYAL)
"A vivid, funny and often scathing view of royalty.”
– GINGER HYBISCUS BLOG (DEAD ROYAL)