Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Cotovsky's role is less flashy. And though it doesn't quite feel lived-in, it works like gangbusters when Cotovsky is merely silent and observing, his facial expressions all but obscured underneath that beard of his so that the performance is coming strictly from his eyes. Watchful, wary and ready to call bull when the moment warrants."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...And the result? After all that real-world drama, the stipulation-free Mary Arrchie American Buffalo turns out to be something of an anticlimax: good but not great. Not the triumphant send-off we might hope for."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Lest we discern this dramatic question too quickly, its author has cleverly buried it in a welter of distracting elements, beginning with Don's cluttered inventory-assembled by John Holt to encompass, among other detritus, five deer-head trophies, a pig butcher's spreader and stacks of lightweight metal tschotchkes to facilitate one of fight designer David Woolley's splendid bash-crash-and-trash debacles. Whether you have experienced Mamet's seminal masterpiece many times before, or number among the few theatergoers seeing it for the first time, be assured that your final climb up the stairs to the loft above the grocery store will lead you to what may be the best production in its long history of defining "Chicago-style theater" to the world."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Mary-Arrchie, I'm glad to say, closes with an excellent production of David Mamet's American Buffalo, a play which is appropriate for a number of reasons. The 1975 drama is historically symbolic of the rise of Chicago's storefront and upstairs theatres, such as Mary-Arrchie's slated-for-demolition Angel Island space. Its gritty, unsentimental, darkly humorous depiction of life's losers fits well with the aesthetic Mamet's emulators popularized, and which became associated with Chicago plays in the latter part of the last century. It also contains three juicy roles, including one perfectly suited for Mary-Arrchie's co-founder, artistic director, and company member for thirty years, Richard Cotovsky."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...The production feels most sure of itself at the play’s end, when all has been laid bare (including much of the set, exactingly designed by John Holt). With the plan in shambles, a teary-eyed Teach, hatless but for a folded newspaper, walks out into the rain he knew would come. And we see that anger is just another form of childishness, a state of innocence that leads us to believe, if only for a moment, that maybe, just maybe, it is not inevitable that we live our lives purely out of self-interest."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The technical aspects of tis production are much larger than a theater of this size would, under normal circumstances offer, but from day one, Mary-Arrchie has exceeded our expectations. They will be missed! Joe Court(sound), Claire Sangster (lighting), Little Howlin’ Wolf (original music), Michael J. Sanow (technical director), Sarah Jo White (costumes) and Rick Keeley (stage manager)- BRAVO!"
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...AMERICA BUFFALO is the perfect finale for Mary Arrchie to complete its storefront theatre reign. It’s Mamet’s Chicago. And it also showcases a solid company collaboration with the trifecta of Cotovsky, Galvin and Garcia. Well done, gentlemen!"
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...American Buffalo is a heist drama, a small tragedy, about three lowlifes who have dreams of something better. John Holt’s set design recreates the confined space of the resale shop filled with old typewriters, deer heads, bird cages, chandeliers, chairs hanging from the ceiling, a two-headed doll, the bottom half of a store mannequin, a Meister Brau sign and wall thermometer, and shelves full of pots and glassware tottering and ready to crash."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The brutality and barely contained incompetence of potentially inconsequential men seems inevitable in a world where your buddies cheat at cards and women called Ruthie and Gracie won’t spot you half a piece of toast at the diner. “You don’t have friends this life,” Donny tells Bobby before he’s cut out of the caper and kicked around for a nickel."
