OPUS by Michael Hollinger with Playmakers Repertory Company
Playmakers Repertory Company's production of this funny, insightful piece is highly polished and warmly appealing, one of its finest offerings in several seasons. Director Brendon Fox masterfully orchestrates his players in a satisfying staging that flows smoothly through an unbroken 90 minutes. Adding to its charms are James Kronzer's elegant wood panels suggesting musical notation and the burnished glow supplied by lighting designer Pat Collins.
-NC NEWS AND OBSERVER

The direction by Brendon Fox is sharp and effective, and he utilizes this wonderful venue to its full potential, supported by great movement, lighting and sound designers. -CLASSICAL VOICE OF NORTH CAROLINA

TONIGHT AT 8:30 by Noel Coward with Antaeus Theatre Company
Family Album, directed by Brendon Fox, is a sardonic comedy about relatives gathering after the death of their less-than-beloved patriarch. Spirited songs intermittently punctuate the action. -BACKSTAGE WEST

"Family Album" takes place at a funeral wake. The patriarch of the Gilpin family has died, and his adult children and their husbands and wives are gathered to mark the occasion. Jasper (Robert Pine) isn't feeling particularly glum, however, reminding his siblings about what they could buy with their inheritance money, which lightens the mood considerably. Lavinia (Amelia White) finds this frivolity shameful, at least until she's had a few drinks and finally admits the truth about their deceased father. Brendon Fox ("Album") does terrific work with his comedy, with perfect pacing and lively staging. -VARIETY

Brendon Fox stages “Family Album,” an odd parody of operetta that doubles as a gentle study in one family’s grieving. -LA WEEKLY

A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY at Diversionary Theatre
"NOT TO BE MISSED!... A Bright Room Called Day - provocative, disturbing, funny, prescient play in a gorgeous ensemble production... Fox's direction pulls it all together in this wonderful collaboration of Backyard Productions and Diversionary Theatre."
-Pat Launer/KPBS and San Diego Theatre Scene

TONIGHT AT 8:30 by Noel Coward with Antaeus Theatre CompanyL at North Coast Repertory
"The Smell of the Kill" is one of the funniest plays presented in San
Diego County this year"
-Pam Kragen, North County Times

SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE ARTICLE By Don Braunagel

ON LOCAL STAGES, IT’S BRENDON FOX MONTH. He’s the director of two provocative productions, The Smell of the Kill at North Coast Repertory and A Bright Room Called Day at Diversionary. The dual accomplishment is typical of the busy pace Fox has kept since May, when he left his seven-year post as associate director at the Old Globe to freelance.

While at the Globe, where he helmed about a dozen productions, Fox found time to direct elsewhere, so the transition to other venues was smooth. As Associate Producer for Los Angeles Theatre Works, Fox is helping develop stage and radio plays—and in February, he’ll direct Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man, as he did last year for Moonlight’s winter season at Vista’s Avo Theatre. He’ll also return to the Globe, beginning in November, to restage its annual holiday treat How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Smell of the Kill is Michelle Lowe’s dark comedy about three housewives considering ridding themselves of their husbands, one way or another, and A Bright Room Called Day is Tony (Angels in America) Kushner’s 1985 play about artists and intellectuals in 1930s Germany coping with the rise of Hitler. They seem dissimilar, but Fox points out parallels.

“Both are political, although Smell is not as overt. They both show that, as the saying goes, the personal is political,” he says. “Smell is very funny, with strong women characters speaking out and being bold, like Desperate Housewives. They’re a little bit naughty, even murderous.

“In Bright Room, the central character is a woman, as well. She and her companions are charismatic people, with a sense of foreboding.” Their central concern, Fox says, is “How much is too much?” The play, like Kushner’s Angels, is surreal and rich with modern parallels. It remains important that we gather and interact, Fox says, because “technology is leading us to isolation.”

Bright Room is a joint endeavor with Backyard Productions, an example of the trend of local companies collaborating to maximize resources. It’s what Fox lauds as the “symbiosis among theaters” and why he plans to continue working here even if he takes a full-time post in Los Angeles. “I’m not through with San Diego, and I hope San Diego’s not through with me,” he says.