Press

"What were some of the ways that your scene partner, Mike Harkins, who played your attacker, supported you as you were filming?

He’s such a sweet guy in real life, and we did stunt rehearsals for three days before shooting so we were able to get very comfortable with each other. Every time we would start the scene, he was like, “I’m so sorry for what I’m about to do and what I’m about to say.” It was always a check in, like, “Are you okay? Was that okay?” Everybody was very, very respectful." - Paulina Chavez  - Landman Interview

• Jackie Strauss | The Hollywood Reporter

"But by far the most compelling figure, and the performance that carries the evening, belongs to Harkins. Trembling with anxieties and pangs of guilt, a hapless heap of resigned perspiration, he is a moral compass whose needle swings wildly from pole to pole. "

• Andrew Adler, New Orleans Times Picayune

"Harkins gave a riveting performance, his voice and hands quivering with unease. He's a troubled man, and we see him bursting at the seams to keep his life together. "

• Tyler Gillespie - The Gambit 

"In one of the strongest performances I’ve ever seen in a Williams play, Mike Harkins plays Shannon as that man who has slipped just over the edge. He’s not an alcoholic who has only slipped off the wagon temporarily. Harkins has Shannon experiencing a complete nervous breakdown, one that increasingly leads him to desperate decisions. As Harkins shows, layer by layer, the duality of Shannon’s nature – and his inner struggle between his love for God and his desires of the flesh – he reveals that the fallen priest is the most complex man in Williams’ works. Shannon is a male Blanche DuBois struggling against the realities of his world. "

• Theodore P. Mahne, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

"Mike Harkins carefully unpacks the layers of his role as Jackie Elliot, Billy's rough-edged dad. Beneath the hapless brute, Harkins reveals Jackie's own regrets and failures as a father, along with a widower's long, unsettled grief. "

• Theodore P. Mahne, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

"As Billy’s father, Mike Harkins, delivers an astonishingly wide range of emotions — fierce, frightened, brave, funny and loving — his stirring “Deep in the Ground” highlights the second act. "

• BY BRUCE BURGUN | Special to The Advocate

"Ben is the most buttoned-up of the characters, but Harkins makes him utterly relatable. He's the guy who's done everything right his whole life yet feels unfulfilled." 

• Tyler Gillespie - NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune