Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...One appreciates the retro hipness of the intimate ambience, but the five cast members seem uncertain of their bodies and themselves. The show needs a deeper sensuality to fully do justice to Lorca and more visual cohesion. In this kind of work, we have to feel the pain and pleasures of the human cast members, as well as that of the puppets."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...With Thomas alternately playing some wacky brass instruments, narrating, and interacting with the puppets (alongside Erica Mott, Sarah Goeden, Dan Kerr-Hobert and Dax Tran-Caffee -- the skilled members of his ensemble), scale and perspective and puppet style shift to create a fantastical dreamscape."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Employing Thomas's trademark variations in scale, five master manipulators chronicle a family's separation and the inscrutable interactions of a maiden, sailor, old lady, and student. Most elaborate is a murder-ridden stroll taken by a puppet version of Buster Keaton, before a scrolling ink backdrop that passes through Philadelphia and ends in the imagination. Adding magic to this captivating hour are eccentric percussive and brass instruments."
EpochTimes - Highly Recommended
"...The evening is composed of music (scored by Mark Messing), readings, a cabaret of puppets doing things one can only imagine, but I must warn you, this is a puppet show for mature audiences only. Often when we hear puppets, we assume this is a kid's entertainment; it is not! Much of what these works express chronicles the pursuit of love, affection and happiness. But what in reality takes place is fantasy colliding with the real world. The puppets are unique in their own way."
Centerstage - Highly Recommended
"...The rich, surreal works of Spanish poet and writer Federico Garcia Lorca don't automatically spring to mind when you think of puppets but Blair Thomas and Co. aim to change that. The touring repertory company's multi-faceted production, "Cabaret of Desire," explores Lorca's scripts for puppet theater as well as letters, short plays and poems. The Cabaret delivers an intriguing and unconventional glimpse of the centuries-old puppetry art form."
- Rosalind Cummings-Yeates
Edge - Recommended
"...The ringmaster behind this Cabaret is a tag team consisting of Blair Thomas, who was a founder of Redmoon Theater, and Sean Graney, whom "Chicago" magazine once identified as Chicago’s "Best" Avant-garde director. Together they have created an evening quite unlike one is likely to see elsewhere."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Thomas and Company prove perfect guides on this freaky foray. Their multifaceted artwork matches each eerie anecdote to a T. It spans from a nearly never-ending array of gorgeous, Gorey-esque black-and-white illustrations that tell the tale of Keaton, to a series of crude burlap-and-shoe puppets thrashed together to convey an even more eerily opaque narrative of a father abandoning his family for the mountains."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...This artsy show has amazing visuals with the array of puppets and stirring lighting (by Chris Wooten) with terrific work from Sarah Goeden, Dan Kerr-Hobert, Erica Mott, Blair Thomas and Dax Tran-Caffee. For a quite different and artistically challenging evening, catch Blair Thomas & Company and see what amazing puppetry can be all about in storytelling."
