“The script demands his character change throughout the show, and the actor does this with aplomb. I hardly recognized him from the final moments as the same man in the first, and it is a jaw-dropping transformation to witness. Where Sally keeps Highsmith faithfully concrete, Ian is mercurial and adaptive. He is a mystery all to himself, and that is part of the most fascinating aspect to SWITZERLAND.”

“He has a charisma. We auditioned a lot of actors, and there were all sorts of really fascinating choices to tell the story...there was a need for the actor to really have chemistry... more like an electricity with Sally. They attack one another often in the play, but they also then comfort one another. It’s more animal. It’s not intellectualism. And Ian and Sally, just explode. He’s also a wonderful actor who I knew was not going to be intimidated by Sally.”

“It was the deft handling of these dual identities, the tightrope walk that defines a generation, that led us to name Ian James this year’s Best Breakthrough. James was simply irresistible...
Though we may have wanted the real Ethan Kane to stand up James offered something even better: a timely, nuanced peek into a self-imposed box, walls constructed over the course of a lifetime crafting and curating yourself for public consumption.”

“Let me say that these are exceptional actors, and I know I have used the word “chemistry” about three times already, but there is no other word for their electric connection on the stage.”

“James never comes off as anything but sincere. Obnoxious, full of himself, shameless — sure. But never insincere. James carries the chip on Ethan’s shoulder well, his passion to prove something palpable. He’s also quite adept at comedy, getting some of the biggest laughs of the night...”