REVIEWS
The Tempest, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, 2023
"...delivers one ace performance after another. Rafael Untalan beautifully portrays Prospero’s complexity, part wizard, part wronged human, part dad of a teenager."
The Pantagraph
King Lear, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, 2022
As Gloucester, Rafael Untalan takes us on his journey from nobleman to someone who in blindness becomes truly noble...Stripped of everything, Lear discovers his humanity and blind Gloucester “sees” the truth. The quiet scene between the two of them, ragged and beaten and made wise at such terrible cost, is a gem.
The Pantagraph
The other outstanding performance was Rafael Untalan, who plays Gloucester the nobleman who is loyal to Lear, who seizes your attention as soon as he comes onto the stage.
Classic Chicago Magazine
The Oldest Boy, Spooky Action Theater, 2019
The father (a compellingly conflicted Rafael Untalan) is torn between his Tibetan traditions and love for his American wife. Their culture clash is saturated with affection.
Washington Post
Rafael Untalan is beautiful as... a man who has made countless sacrifices for the people he loves, and is ready to make one more for his son's sake. Simply the way Untalan delivers a line like "it's slippery" (in a moment I wouldn't dare spoil) is enough to seize the coldest heart.
Broadway World Washington
Jenna Sokolowski is Mother..and she turns in a performance that is amazing in its simplicity and complexity. She is matched by Rafael Untalan as Father, who simply IS the controlled yet so loving husband and father torn apart internally by conflicting impulses to his bred-in-the-bones homeland and his new homeland of his family...their attraction is electric.
MD Theatre Guide
Cyrano de Bergerac, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, 2018
Rafael Untalan is a smoothly nasty Comte de Guiche
Westworld
Just as he did in “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” ...Untalan shows his range as the unapologetically slimy Comte de Guiche.
Daily Camera
Love's Labour's Lost, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, 2018
As the Spanish knight, Don Armado, Rafael Untalan straight up steals every one of his scenes. When he was offstage I found myself counting the moments until his return.
Boulder Weekly
Of especial notice is Don Adriano de Armado, a delightfully over-the-top Rafael Untalan
Play Shakespeare
Astoria, Part II, Portland Center Stage, 2018
There's fresh pleasure in the work of Rafael Untalan, as the friendly, slyly witty Chinook leader named Concomly.
Oregon Arts Watch
The Price, Arena Stage, 2017
Untalan is a notably vulnerable Walter, making good sense of the wealthy character's emotional fragility and brittle armor.
Washington Post
Ken Ludwig's Baskervville: A Sherlock Homes Mystery
Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park 2017
Rafael Untalan makes Sherlock Holmes as pompous as Holmes should be. Holmes always knows more, understands more, and unravels more than any character in fiction. Untalan tosses off his wisdom as if we're all fools for not understanding what he grasps in a moment of personal brilliance.
Talkin’ Broadway
...the brilliant Holmes (played with mercurial intensity by Rafael Untalan)
CityBeat
Holmes (a fully vested and perfectly intense Rafael Untalan)
Cleveland News-Herald
Yellow Face, Theater J, 2014
Rafael Untalan is superb. Marcus G. Dahlman, AKA Marcus Gee goes through the most transformation and Untalan is a marvel to behold. Untalan as Marcus Gee has a noble bearing and open inquisitive nature. You can almost see the wheels turning in his mind as he puts the puzzle pieces together... DC Theatre Scene
For Hwang has found a leavening agent that binds the conceits and holds the whole evening together: the story of an actor — marvelously portrayed by Rafael Untalan — who is hired to play the starring role in a Hwang play... Washington Post
Marcus G. Dahlman, played fabulously by Rafael Untalan
MD Theatre Guide
The Duchess of Malfi, We Happy Few, 2014
Untalan radiates hangdog charisma.
Washington Post
Untalan, as the melancholy and reluctant spy Bosola, commanded the scenes in which he appeared. Webster really tells much of the story through the eyes of Bosala, and Untalan’s clear rendering of the verse and brooding intensity combined into a masterful performance.
DC Theater Scene
Equally tough to nail down is Bosola, probably the biggest part of the play, but nail him Untalan does. I don’t know if this hired cutthroat is too smart, too kind, or just incompetent, but he’s fun to watch.
Brightest Young Things
Equivocation, Virginia Repertory Theatre, 2014
Rafael Untalan adeptly presents a complex, genuine bard: a grief-stricken father who can barely look at dead son’s twin sister; a people-pleaser who is always quick with a witty compliment; an artist, encouraging his actors to simply “be human” on stage, rather than heroic.
Richmond Family Magazine
