Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...But “Talk House," which premiered in London in 2015, just a bit too early for its golden moment, and which starred Matthew Broderick in New York earlier this year, ranges far beyond standard satire. It's an evisceration (with the author indicting himself) not just of an industry but of a nation that seems to be devolving — even as we all either head for the silos or watch terrified from the sidelines. This is its moment. And this is its production. By actors who know these ghosts."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...Evening turns out to be a hard look at the dark side of human adaptability. It's also a little dull, despite Shade Murray's talent-saturated 90-minute production, featuring a jaw-dropping performance by HB Ward as an actor on the wrong side of the zeitgeist. That's because it's all trap: we see the trip wires too clearly and too soon."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Actors fainter of heart and stomach than those assembled by Shade Murray for this Red Orchid production could easily succumb to the safety of cheap laughs. The reputation of the ensemble affiliated with this cloistered storefront playhouse, however, was built on its willingness to send audiences home with skin crawling after exposure to the amoral denizens of an ugly universe-in this case, reminding us that the casual vilification that we too often dismiss as harmless gossip may have far more ominous consequences than we imagine."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...There’s violence in the air but it’s a different kind of air altogether. I don’t think Wallace Shawn could ever do justice to the utter boorishness that is contemporary American discourse, nor would he really want to. He certainly doesn’t here. Instead he creates a world that is distinctly his own, that carries that scent of old New Yorker issues—probably those edited by his father—but ones that have been used to soak up a blood stain on the marble floor. The parallels in Evening at the Talk House are there for all to see. But it’s the artistry with which they are drawn that makes them worth the viewing."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...There may be people in troubled times who can uphold civic virtues and risk all for a better future, but Wallace Shawn's Evening at the Talk House, now playing at A Red Orchid Theatre, isn't about them. It sure is funny, though, until it becomes disturbing and appalling. Set twenty minutes into the future, this play depicts the people who are the background characters in dystopias about the perils of mass media: the ones who get used to their new lives, try to make the system work to their own advantage, and basically get the government they deserve."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Wallace Shawn’s new one-act is often amusing but quietly shocking and unsettling. Directed with grit and gumption by Shade Murray, and cast with Red Orchid’s typical brilliant ensemble of actors, particularly the excellent Lance Baker and H. B. Ward, this is a chilling and prophetic look at where our country may, under its current leadership, be ultimately headed. The next time someone asks, “Whatever happened to…?” listen carefully to the response. It may not be what you expect."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...EVENING AT THE TALK HOUSE is definitely a talkie. Wallace has crammed mega stories into his dark comedy. Under Murray’s adept direction, the dialogue is delivered so authentically natural that landmine nuggets may be lost. Without dramatic inflections, my ears don’t catch all the subtle references to the many layers of Wallace’s surreal world. I leave disturbed and wondering what 2027 (or sooner) has in store for us. The end of theatre sounds bad enough but the way Wallace sees it is…inconceivable!"
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...An Evening at the Talkhouse has a wonderfully creepy quality. There are hints in the opening monologue that some sort of social or cultural shift has begun in the years since Robert's play was put on, but I dismissed this as a nod to the digital revolution. As the play continues on, you find out that Dick is being physically threatened by a gang of his friends. As the cast of Robert's play talks about their years since the production acting and... doing other things to get by, you begin to get the sense there's something off about their world."
The Hawk Chicago - Recommended
"...Overall, Evening at the Talk House is a harrowing piece of dystopian fiction that will chill you with its twist ending. While it never achieves a complex discussion on the ramifications of such a world, the production does a commendable job to immerse you in an alternate reality that only seems one moral left turn away from our own."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...The ensemble, ably directed by Shade Murray, is more than up to the material, though the material leaves you feeling a bit overwhelmed. Shawn’s play ends so suddenly that I am convinced that the cast has a side bet each night on whether the audience will react before the closing music (“Everybody Wang Chung Tonight”) begins. On this night, those with the “no” bets would have won. Which doesn’t mean it is a bad ending: it leaves us hanging because the world in which they live is impossible to predict. And it stays with the audience long after they have left the (now quite warmed up) theatre."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...If you like theater that jolts and disturbs, Evening at the Talk House is a top pick choice. Considering this play along with other recent openings-Foxfinder, The Crucible and The Invisible Hand -you begin to hear Marvin Gaye's refrain as an earworm-What's Going On?"