Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...I think Wright's point is that operatic emotional stakes exist in the most commonplace circumstances. And the coda, which I suspect should feel more than a little creepy, plays like a Hallmark commercial. Still, despite missteps, there are some scenes that register in the mind after the lights come up."
Windy City Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...The intimacy of the Raven's west theater allows us to remain alert to the actors' emotional cues and the text's hints of what is to come, catalyzing the empathic response to a degree rendering us willing to accept the notion of the characters truly believing what they say they believe. Ultimately, though, skeptics cannot help but speculate on Craig Wright's own marital disposition in 2002, when he wrote this absolution of messy mid-life crises, even as it extends comfort to those sharing its ethical myopia."
Centerstage - Highly Recommended
"...Interrobang Theatre Project's co-production of the play with bare bones theatre group allows these strengths to shine, casting long and deep shadows over the subject matter’s relative familiarity. Director Jim Yost creates a simple stage anchored by a large bed and little else. Aside from some bedside tables and the props necessitated by the script, the production has stripped everything else away. When the actors are not on stage they sit in chairs on either side of the stage, the effect being of spouses having to watch as their loved ones stray (or rather bolt) away from them, seeking happiness in the arms of another. This simple quirk of staging adds a queasy voyeurism that invigorates the show, turning into a kind of marital house of horrors."
Chicago Stage Review - Recommended
"...Orange Flower Water is a hit-and-miss early script from a writer who has since grown beyond such inconsistency. The strength of this production comes from how much the solid cast contributes over and above the written word - no actor more than does Cyd Blakewell. When the script is merely functional or impossibly far-fetched, this cast makes it believable. When the script is believable, this cast breaks your heart."
ShowBizChicago - Recommended
"...“Orange Flowered Water” is a good story, very true to life, and illustrates a compelling journey for happiness through infidelity and bad decisions. I recommend this production; it may even educate others who may be in similar situations."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...At the center of the play is a bed, gradually stripped bare as each scene successively passes one after the next until there's little more than a naked mattress onstage. And by the end of Orange Flower Water, all present feel equally exposed in some critical way. And even if we're not entirely willing to condemn its characters, we at last cannot fault them for being any less control of their lives than we are of our own."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...Neither the play nor this production is flawless. A few scenes seemed out of tune. There is the also the unpleasant sense of eavesdropping on all-too-normal lives throughout, and at times one just wants to leave them to sort it out for themselves. There were audible groans from the audience as the characters continued to pour salt on the wounds they themselves had opened in the ones they loved or used to love-how could they keep hurting each other and themselves like that? Love, happiness, family and individuals...all seemed ephemeral and fragile, but perhaps there was a ray of hope, if one could still believe. The production does not quite allow the audience to do that. Maybe, given the subject matter, that is all right."
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...While this is the third season for this young troupe, most Chicago audiences have not had many opportunities to see their work. Another young troupe, Bare Bone Theater Group, recently transplanted from Charlotte, N.C. is merging with !NTERROBANG and is now presenting, in its Chicago Premiere, "Orange Flower Water", a lovely little 90 minute production written by Craig Wright, now on the West stage at The Raven Theatre complex ( if one can call a two stage theater a "complex"."
