Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Still, Bockley's production finds some very funny and revealing moments. Kruse's self-regarding blowhard editor and James' whimpering reporter (who claims she has labored in the "journalism mines" before getting what should have been her big break with the Lin Bo profile) capture the bubble in which too many media hotshots and hotshot wannabes live. (If the gatekeepers are easily taken in by too-good-to-be-true stories, what hope do the rest of us poor slobs without access have?)"
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Christopher Chen's tantalizing hoax begins with a "preshow" exhibit of works by Chinese dissident artist Lin Bo (Ben Chang). He says a few words about his recent imprisonment, then is suddenly a character in a scene set in the offices of the New Yorker after an American academic has questioned the veracity of an interview he gave the magazine about his imprisonment."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...Chen's Caught delights in pointing out how truths are merely constructs based upon an individual's interpretation. And while that's all good and true in Sideshow's fine production, just be aware that the show is more engaging for your head than your heart."
Stage and Cinema - Not Recommended
"...Enervating with self-defeating cleverness, Chen’s 85-minute exercise in fooling the willing (many on the opening night loved being duped) wanes into a sterile experiment in “meta” theater. Fueled by irony on steroids, his pathologically hip one-act festers with insincerity, lampooning seriousness whenever possible. By play’s end (which can’t come too soon), as these Dadaist wanna-bes thank Sideshow Theatre for hosting their insubordinations, Caught has subverted nothing but the audience’s patience and interest."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Without spoiling anything, I can say that Caught challenges our epistemological moorings and does so in a way that, apart from how the play draws attention to this happening, we actually experience - psychologically and, at times, viscerally - their foundering. The line does indeed blur between story and truth, and we feel our minds squirm as we fumble for an Archimedean point from where we might finally rest assured that we have "got" the play, conceptualized and understood. For me, it was an effect unlike any other I've experienced in theatre."
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...But this multi-genre presentation does effectively investigate the bounds of truth in art through theater, while it also draws the audience’s interest in working out what’s happening. In this way it is reminiscent of Doubt, or Six Degrees of Separation, but without any real menace or stakes. It was a very intellectual affair, but I wouldn’t hold that against it."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...There is very little plot to “Caught.” Most of the action is in dialogue, and Chang, James, Kruse, and Young are certainly capable of bringing vivacity and energy to Chen’s nimble script; however, “Caught” is also a deeply circular play, the kind that is constantly questioning its conclusions and reevaluating the principals it stands for – it mostly succeeds, but if you are not enticed by such a work, then you are in for a rough 80 minutes."
Chicago Theater Beat - Somewhat Recommended
"...The actors do their best, especially Chang and Helen Young, who delivers the meandering dialogue with charismatic ease. Scenic designer Kurtis Boetcher is the production standout, ably conveying an art gallery, a magazine office and a small apartment with minimal props and the most modern of modern art pieces. Sadly, these strengths aren’t enough to save Caught. After Sideshow’s stunning Mai Dang Lao, a provocative exploration of a disturbing true story, they disappoint with this inflated, at times pretentious, production. Many may find its nonlinear storytelling, emphasis on art and artists, and exploration of truth appealing. I wish I’d been one of them."
Dueling Critics - Not Recommended
"...a piece of performance art designed to trick the audience. Is it a gallery opening of the work of a Chinese dissident artist? A lecture by that artist? A conversation between the artist and his editors? Or . . .or . . ."
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Wasted are fine performances by Ben Chang as the trickster Lin Bo; Helen Young as Wang Min, his pretentiously sadistic partner in crime; and Ann James as the hapless Joyce, the victim of their motiveless cruelty. Bob Kruse is superb as the cartoonishly menacing New Yorker editor who interrogates Lin Bo about the authenticity of his account, declaring that "lies are like cockroaches-for every one you see, there are a hundred in the walls.""
