Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...For all kinds of reasons, this is an exceptionally interesting show. And beyond a few Act 2 sags and stutters in the production — the hugely talented cast allows the stakes to fall just a tad and briefly loses the drive of the storytelling — you could not ask for a much better U.S. premiere. A brilliant adventure indeed."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Pure Kessler, on the face of it. But Brit playwright Alistair McDowall has added absurd and cynical twists. Rob the elder, for instance, keeps a middle-aged crack addict for a pet. Luke the younger has invented a time machine. These aren't idle bits of whimsy; weird as they seem, they contribute powerfully to the play's unexpected pathos. Though Ryan McBride is too clean-cut for a perfect Rob, he gives a soulful performance under Robin Witt's canny direction, as do Will Kinnear as the crack addict and Peter Moore as Ben the Pinteresque mentor."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Robin Witt's directorial expertise with intimate settings is invoked to appropriately disturbing extremes by the demands of McDowell's script ( the vulnerability of an innocent goldfish swimming in a bowl, for example ). A precision-drilled ensemble led by Curtis Edward Jackson as the reluctant boy-genius navigate the intricacies of their pinpoint-specific dialects under the instruction of Kendra Thulin with a verbal dexterity matched by their physical mastery of Christina Gorman's full-contact violence to render McDowell's plot, if not exactly logical, always riveting."
Gapers Block - Recommended
"...The acting by the six-man cast is strong throughout the play with Jackson/Olwin as Luke and McBride as Rob as standouts. Dan Stratton's scenic design effectively replicates the messy flat of a serious young man, with stacks of books, CDs and DVDs everywhere. Sound design and original music by Thomas Dixon includes the startling operation of the time machine. The notes from the director and dramaturg in the playbill do a good job of describing the Middlesbrough environment, past and present. The displays in the lobby include a glossary to the local dialect."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Robin Witt's crack staging balances the contrasting genre conventions nicely, keeping the fanciful elements introduced in Act II, after the gun's gone off, so to speak. (Let's just say there's a second actor, Ty Olwin, also credited in the program as Luke, and he and Jackson aren't alternating nights.) Even as the laws of physics are broken, the stakes remain fully grounded. There's a one-sided conversation between Olwin and McBride that's heartbreaking for what Olwin's Luke can't say. Olwin matches Jackson's original Luke in conveying flashing intelligence tempered with timidity, stubbornness with loyalty. But it's Jackson who carries the play through to its riveting, intentionally ambiguous ending."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...U.K. playwright Alistair McDowell likes to break the rules to reach a crowd. An intriguing U.S. premiere by Steep Theatre Company, his sardonically titled Brilliant Adventures exposes McDowall's iconoclastic ways: It's bracingly matter-of-fact about a weird world of hardcore poverty (the setting is Middlesborough, England's least desirable town in the "Wild West" north) and family dysfunction (dad's a druggie kept on a leash-and-collar like a pet). At the core of this dark comedy, strangely sad with Pinter-like menace but ultimately uplifting, is a time machine in a cardboard box: It's the one hope for change in a bleak Darwinian dead end."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...The ensemble work here is outstanding lead by Curtis Edward Jackson, Brandon Rivera and Peter Moore. This tightly directed and nimble staging is engaging as it gets us to the edge of our seats in anticipation of what is to happen next. We empathize with the characters, we cheer for some and we try guessing the conclusion since McDowall’s ending is abrupt. All the clues are there and we leave impressed. Brilliant Adventures is one of the bestproductions of 2015. It will suck you in and keep you engaged throughout. Kudos to Steep Theatre for finding such a wonderful play – then mounting such a fine production. Don’t miss this unique blend of drama, magic realism and sci-fi that proves that there is nothing as powerful as live theatre!"
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...At play’s end, the time machine itself also kicks into action, begging the audience in the process to ask even less questions. It dispatches Ben handily in a sci-fi turn of deus ex machina and allows Rob to enter an alternative past, one in which he hopes he can rebuild his life again without so many drugs, violence, and guilt hobbling his best intentions. If only Middlesbrough and cities everywhere like it could do the same, we might see some real progress. The time machine that allows us to rectify mistakes in the past, however, has yet to be invented."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Housed inside Dan Stratton’s dingy, claustrophobic apartment setting and seasoned by Thomas Dixon’s original music and detailed sound design, Robin Witt has driven this sometimes funny, often terrifying and generally mind-boggling American premier deep into the psyche of every audience member. Alistair McDowell’s hybrid of Quentin Tarantino meets H.G. Wells is presented in a staggering, stimulating and astonishing production that’s guaranteed to “stoke conversation” and haunt audiences long after the final curtain."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Capping a near flawless season and joining some of the year's most memorable and future-oriented productions, "Brilliant Adventures" shines a bright light on the infinite possibilities latent in theater if we only allow ourselves to dream."