Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...His Greatness is set around the time of that fiasco. Playwright Daniel MacIvor focuses on Williams's brief sojourn in Vancouver, where his drug-and-liquor stoked exploits apparently became part of local lore. In this fictionalized account, an artist very (very!) like Williams hits highs and lows while his long-suffering assistant and an ambitious young hustler vie for his affections. The scenario is as familiar as it is pathetic, but MacIvor and director David Zak invest it with an elegiac quality right out of The Glass Menagerie, without sacrificing the situation's delicious vulgarity. Danne W. Taylor is perfect-addled and sly, sad and sybaritic-as the pseudo-Williams."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...This is a lot of ambiguity for actors to convey ( did I mention Playwright's propensity for outbursts of lyrical poetry? ), but David Zak's deftly intuitive direction ensures the realization of every nuance in MacIvor's delicately romantic dialogue. Danne W. Taylor endows Playwright with a leonine dignity always visible beneath the dissipation, as does Whitman Johnson as the Young Man in pursuit of adventure, while Andrew Kain Miller delivers a beguilingly understated performance as the Assistant facing the end of one long distance and, maybe, the start of another."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...Too specific and too honest to be merely a cautionary tale, His Greatness offers a rueful gloss on glory. Compassionate and convincing, this bittersweet portrait of an immortal three years from his death poignantly proves how far the mighty can fall. Sic transit gloria mundi."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Suddenly, Tennessee Williams seems to be the hottest playwright in Chicago. Last season saw a well-received production of one of his earliest works and later this season there will be two much-anticipated revivals of works at major theater companies as well as a new original work about his possible romantic relationship with fellow playwright William Inge in the spring. But Pride Films and Plays is the first out of the gate with its splendid and completely compelling production of "His Greatness." Written by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor and billed as "a play inspired by the later years of Tennessee Williams' life" this beautiful piece benefits greatly by the always reliable direction of David Zak and a solid cast of three actors."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...This may be one of David Zak’s finest productions and should not be missed. It’s not a play filled with surprises. Nor is it paced with a great deal of tension; the astute theatergoer will probably guess how this story is going to end. And it’s title doesn’t simply refer only to the Playwright, but, ironically, also to the other two characters, in their own way. Laced with biting humor, it’s only when the play is finally over that the audience will recognize the sadness within all three of the men."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...This is a very entertaining play-I have not at all conveyed how truly funny it is-and it is also one that takes you into a world that, while invented, seems as if it could well have been real. From what we do know about Williams, this may not have been far from his life. The Playwright worries at one point here if his Assistant thinks he is losing his mind. When the Young Man calls him the smartest man he knows, he replies, "Madness is not in the brain; it's in the blood." Criticism may be in the brain, but being a playwright is in the blood. So is love. It's easy to see where true greatness lies."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...With a cast of only three actors, a weak link would stand out and potentially ruin an otherwise fabulous production. This show has no weak link. Whitman Johnson brings a lightness to the character of the Young Man but never shies away from the darkness of what his future most likely holds. Andrew Kain Miller plays the balance of love and hate within the Assistant with brilliance and subtlety. He takes the words of playwright and uses them to eviscerate and lift up his friend and nemesis. Danne W. Taylor channels the ghost of what we have come to know as Tennessee Williams' persona. Taylor's performance can only be described as stunning."