Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...What you want most in shows like this is never to be pulled out from the narrative by not believing. And both the play and Kaufmann's tense, adroit, nuanced, deftly cast production manage that feat all the way until the last few minutes, when Zack is forced to show more of his hand and has a rapid descent all of his own. The careful pacing and staging suddenly look stilted and less credible - whenever a big knife is being waved around onstage for too long, it can easily stab through many past minutes of apparent truth - and you find yourself not entirely believing, or recognizing, the actions of Chamberlain's Zack. It's the script's rush for a climax that sparks the challenge - Herzog, a whopping young talent, will go on to write yet-finer plays where the pain retains more of its quotidian drip without compromising the drama - but you wish the director and actor still would go back to work on those last few minutes, since Chamberlain's work otherwise is so strong."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...At its best, "Belleville" is a blistering anatomy of two marriages - one built on sickness, lies, codependence and massive denial, and the other on healthy if sometimes contentious camaraderie."
Windy City Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...Whether Herzog's goal is a cautionary tale of psychosexual dysfunction or a slick Hitchcockian thriller, the most sobering aspect of what we have witnessed is the suspicion that unlike in fiction, where exposure is guaranteed, our messy real world is capable of nurturing frustration and unhappiness engendered by mutually shared deception over generations. If nothing else, Belleville makes a good argument for extended courtships and prenuptial agreements."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Herzog, who's been carving out a space among her generation's most impressive and insightful crafters in plays like After the Revolution and 4000 Miles (which will have its Chicago premiere at Northlight Theatre in September), leaves open questions about the specifics of Zack and Abby's trajectory and its outcome; you could find yourself picking at loose threads. Yet my companion and I spent our postshow drinks debating the characters' choices not as implausibilities but as marks of their utterly human desire for wish fulfillment. Sometimes the most dangerous lies are the ones you allow yourself to believe."
ShowBizChicago - Recommended
"...Belleville is a difficult piece all the way around. It will test your resolve on several occasions which clearly is the playwright's intent. It is, however, the after effect of Belleville that resonates the most where it calls into questions how well we really know our companions, which in turn questions how well we really know ourselves."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...There's a good reason for no intermission in this devilishly deceptive Belleville. It's taut to a torque as it depicts a young American couple's disintegration in an elegant one-bedroom apartment in a cosmopolitan quartier of Paris. Amy Herzog's 2011 thriller is as powerful in its silences as its speech. Once the laughter dries up and the audience discovers how deeply disturbed this cute duo really are, you almost can hear a pin drop. It's easy to dwell on the edge of your seat. Or it's like helplessly watching a train wreck or car crash in slow motion. It's so real that these cliches fit."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...As if a great script wasn't enough, what really amplifies this thriller to nail-biting levels is the performances. Arrington and Chamberlain craft a couple of disturbing realism fitfully trying to set a course to true identity while still trying to make a marriage born of a dubious premise work. Arrington hits highs and lows, and the audience is drawn into her roller coaster of perception as Chamberlain reveals his Zach as a man who is not the stalwart rock he can-or possibly even wants-to be. In a masterful set of understated performances, Arenas and Bokin create two stoically pragmatic people that never feel forced as the story's commentary upon the central duo."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Somewhat Recommended
"...Herzog's story doesn't work. If it's indeed a thriller, it needs to go darker. Sinister elements need to be introduced earlier. Director Anne Kauffman needs to heighten the tension. We need to feel the anxiety. Abrupt actions should be finessed to seem more deliberate and maniacal. If someone is caught lying, it shouldn't be a goofy happenstance. In a thriller, the permeating desperation ought to keep us rattled and on the edge of our seats."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...If you are into true "think" theater, a play that has you thinking from the very start to the very finish, you will certainly enjoy the thriller, "Belleville" now on the satge at Steppenwolf"s downstairs venue. Written by Amy Herzog, this Chicago premiere is a tight, taught 100 minutes of pure psychological drama that takes us into the lives of two couples who are, for different reasons, residening in the small Parisian town of Belleville .Directed by Anne Kaufman on a set designed by James Schuette ( an apartment that appears to be ready to move into), this is a story about a couple , Abby ( the deliciously strong Kate Arrington) and her husband Zack ( Deftly handled by Cliff Chamberlain)- they are a hip pair of American expatriots who have chosen to leave behind their upscale lives to forge new frontiers."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...This thrilling piece of theatre will at first gently take hold of audiences while gradually squeezing them breathless throughout the next 75-minutes. As the playwright has written: “I had this primal fear that people are so unknowable. In all relationships there are lies that are allowed to exist.” It’s this mystery that will keep audiences glued to the edge of their seats until the final curtain."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"..."Belleville" is a triumph as a thriller of Alfred Hitchcockian power. For attendees who insist on some meaning to their playgoing, Herzog suggests that people who seemingly are close passionate lovers can really be strangers to each other. Lies and deception can underpin the most sympathetic surface relationships, destroyed by secrets and falsehoods. Calamity comes, not out of willful malice but because events have spun beyond the characters' control and they are left confronting each other as probable enemies. It adds up to a viewing experience that is complex, disturbing, and compulsively watchable."
