SOURCE: Apter, Andrew. Review of Mandragola. Theatre Journal 38 (October 1986): 359–60.

In the following review, Apter examines a production of Mandragola performed at Atlanta's Academy Theatre.

Presently gaining national recognition for his works Tent Meeting and Some Things You need To Know Before the World Ends: A Final Evening with the Illuminati, Levi Lee's aesthetic is one that combines excess and evanescence. In the best comedic tradition, he has the capacity to improvise on a theme that provokes non-stop laughter in the audience. The humor, ranging from the worst pun to incisive social satire to nightmarish farce, comes so fiercely and furiously one often forgets where it all began, and, in the case of his riotous “liberal adaptation” of Machiavelli's Mandragola, one is equally hard-pressed to say where it all has led.

Lee's Mandragola begins with the cast meandering through the auditorium, making observations about what folks are wearing and...