ALL MY SONS

"Carlson’s George is a tornado, and the fisticuffs between him and Chris take your breath away. But Carlson also reveals George’s vulnerability and sadness that life has turned out the way it has."

    -Paul Lamar, The Schnectady Daily Gazette

"But it is the performances of the two younger men in the play... and in particular the George Deever of Matthew Carlson, that I found genuinely moving...  Carlson's Deever rather neatly captures the complexity of emotion coursing through the young man during his single scene in the play... His is one of most variegated performances of George that this reviewer has seen.

    -Andrew Beck, The Hartford/Springfield Examiner

ANGELS IN AMERICA: Parts 1 & 2

"As Prior Walter, Kushner's physically slight yet monumentally substantial central figure, Matt Carlson gives a performance of such deep humanity, drollness, style, frailty, strength, and unsentimental pathos that he seems not only to take the crushing weight of the two plays onto his slender frame but also to support them, and to buoy them up, almost single-handedly. Triumphing, as Prior himself does, over every calamity, even as he succumbs to grief, betrayal, and aching loneliness, Carlson seems to me the absolute ideal of Prior."
                                                            
    -Scott Ross, Classical Voice of North Carolina

"Matthew Carlson gives Prior fragile vulnerability and endearing courage."

     -Roy C. Dicks, The News and Observer

RED

"Ken's role is structured differently. In contrast with Dykstra's lumbering form, Carlson moves lightly. He doesn't speak too much, or for that matter have the chance to. But in the second act, he explodes with a shot of blinding brilliance, one long speech that redefines the men's relationship. What will Ken go on to paint? Carlson's performance is so acute, you can almost imagine its style: taut, intense, self-confident."

     -Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"The only reason Brian Dykstra, as Mark Rothko, doesn't dominate the stage is because he's matched step for step by Mathew Carlson as Ken. Together they spar over the requirements for good, no make that great art, and it's a constant conversation that sparkles with equal share of wit, sarcasm, and intellectual snobbery, although it rings true more often than not... You'll learn more about what it takes to make art watching these two play off one another than you will in some stuffy classroom, that's for sure.

     -Chris Gibson, Broadwayworld.com

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

"Tom, played to perfection by an intense Matthew Carlson... broods with sullenness and despair."  

    -Susie Potter, Triangle Arts and Entertainment

"Matthew Carlson’s interpretation of Tom is nothing if not sober. Under Lane’s direction, he’s the narrator who already knows how the story will end before he begins his tale.  But just as impressive here is his—literal—cinematography. As the scenes between mother Amanda and daughter Laura play out, Carlson moves, slowly, unobtrusively, at the edges of the stage, carefully filming his mother’s interactions with his sister... These moving pictures don’t pull us from the world we’re witnessing: if anything, they reinforce it." 

    -Byron Woods, Independent Weekly

"Matthew Carlson... is Tom, our memory guide, our dutiful son, and, in this play, our cameraman. Tripping between those roles is a real feat, and, safe to say, not something that many actors have ever done... You could be watching theatre history being made."

    -Lynn Jessup, Classical Voice of North Carolina