Love Tapes presented by The Inconvenience at Angel Island Theater

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...Main character Melinda looks trashy and stupid in her Dolly Parton wig, icing her nipples for the first of several tapings. But if you stick around a while, things take a turn: though the trashiness and stupidity remain, a romantic surprise renders the overall tone kinda sweet. Not that that solves all problems. As staged by Shade Murray for the Inconvenience, the show crawls along (the advertised running time of 90 minutes stretched to about two hours at the performance I saw). And the roles are flimsily written, leaving us with a running audience-participation gag as the only consistent focus of interest."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...The Inconvenience aesthetic mandates our would-be sweethearts soliciting audience members to operate the photo-equipment for their home movies, the lens's view projected on a monitor screen at stage center, while smaller screens display Umlaut music videos ( one featuring naughty nymphets in school uniforms ). What distinguishes this techno-smoochie from the common run of romcoms is director Shade Murray's fortuitous casting of Mary Williamson and Chris Chmelik as Melinda and Carl. Both actors endow their potentially shallow characters with a depth and seriousness to generate a charismatic presence heralding ( or so we can hope ) the long-overdue breakout for these two inexplicably underrated actors. Don't miss it."

Time Out Chicago - Recommended

"...Luckily, real-life couple Williamson and Chmelik are never less than honest and achingly vulnerable in their creation of these two lonely misfits finding a long-distance connection. And though they're the only two actors onstage, Shade Murray's smartly staged production features over a dozen more in its very funny onscreen interstitials of classic Ümlaut music videos and Behind the Music–style retrospectives. In the Inconvenience's Chicago premiere, Love Tapes is a scrappy, sexy night of BYOB theater."