Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...However, particularly in Spidle's performance, one sees the unbearable loss that even a man who prides himself as a fighter carries in his soul - splintered and suffused with grief and torn from the moorings of moral certitude."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...Gradually they reveal the horrible acts they perpetrated in order to survive the Nazis; one built steel doors for the Treblinka gas chambers, where his own family was gassed. Selected moments are engrossing, but most of the time Brooks's dramatics are clunky, his dialogue tin-eared, and his symbolism transparent. Keira Fromm's mundane direction provides insufficient momentum to bring much to life."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...There's no avoiding non-rhetorical questions because Brooks's plot refuses to go gently toward any convenient resolution. (No spoilers here.) The playwright wisely shows how, casting a sinister shadow, the Third Reich's precedent for violating innocence lacks any expiration date or statute of limitations. Like Pandora's box, it's given perverse permission to the future to be ugly. Thousands of miles distant from the scene of cumulative crimes, the rabbi finds no certainty - or any end to his personal resistance movement."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Director Keira Fromm has done a magnificent job of placing the fallout of a historic catastrophe within scenes from plausible peoples' lives. Remembering the past doesn't just mean when it's convenient, and A Splintered Soul honestly grapples with some of the darkest and most painful legacies of the modern world. It's tragedy at its finest."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...I am recommending you see this show. Not simply because of the stunning set or brilliant direction. Not merely because the cast (with standout performances by Eliza Stoughton as Gerta, and Matt Mueller as Sol/Leo) will wow you with anguished, dynamic and heartbroken talent. Not merely because the ending may leave you speechless and unable to leave your seat. These are all fantastic reasons, but you should see it because it provides something much bigger: perspective. You will see what it means to be a survivor. You will see a collision of American and European Jews. You will see what it means to run from your past and what it means to look it head on and say "you will not break me anymore"."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...That said, this production, directed with sensitivity and a firm hand by Keira Fromm, is respectful, beautifully-acted and professionally polished. It offers up a different kind of Holocaust story, a tale about a select group of Jewish survivors who immigrated abroad and were sponsored by American families. While most educated people know about WWII, the Nazi Party and how so many innocent lives were tragically lost in the death camps, many forget that the survivors were the people who suffered from this horrific event. This story is a fictional account of a small population of those who lived to tell the tale. It’s a thought-provoking and entertaining drama that’s worth experiencing and sharing."
Third Coast Review - Somewhat Recommended
"...Keira Fromm directs a talented cast with care and sympathy, despite the plot's weaknesses. The 135-minute play is set mainly in the rabbi's comfortable home with a backdrop of his large library. Brian Sidney Bembridge gets credit for the scene design and lighting, while the original musical score and sound design are created by Christopher Kriz. Costumes are by Mieka van der Ploeg."
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...It’s unclear what we’re supposed to take away from this morally and intellectually tepid show: That survivors should stop kvetching and get with the program? That Auschwitz raises no unsettling questions about the nature of humanity, the law or the state? The issue I was left pondering is whether we need a moratorium on Holocaust-themed art now that it’s become just another showbiz marketing ploy."
