Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Wedding Play" is not exactly a roman a clef. Rosen doesn't pen thinly veiled portraits of Chicago's artistic characters -- he's too shrewd a player for that. But if you've followed the theater here for a while, you'll smell hints of the travails of the ambitious ensemble members of Lookingglass Theatre, the earliest partners in About Face Theatre, Rosen's own company and the producer."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Though I don't buy many of the more melodramatic aspects of Rosen's story, the scenes capturing the relationship between Adam and Tom, as well as the gay man-straight "girlfriend" connection between Adam and Thalia, are spot on in both the writing and acting."
SouthtownStar - Somewhat Recommended
"...Unclear and tedious, this work stretches on for what seems like a long time. The only part to recommend is the performance of Joe Dempsey as the cynical and opportunistic theater director. That is because he plays the only character whose motivations are clear and understandable and because Dempsey is an exceptionally riveting actor."
Pioneer Press - Highly Recommended
"...The play generates so much suspense in Act I, that it seems impossible to resolve the plot in the second act. But Rosen and a superb cast rise to the challenge."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...Sean Cooper as Adam, Lesley Bevan as Thalia, Benjamin Sprunger as Tom, and Craig Spidle as Adam's perplexed father are excellent. But the increasingly complex plot grows wearisome, and the dated, bourgeois showbiz cliches and shallow emotional insights are surprising considering About Face's track record for cutting-edge work."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...the cast assembled by Rosen in his capacity as director exhibits the traction of rock-climbers, retaining their knife-edged precision throughout the multiple repetitions of identical—on the surface, anyway—scenes mandated by Mahfouz/Rosen’s text and fearlessly charging over the fourth wall to blur the distinction between the spectators in the Steppenwolf Garage and those in the play-within-the-play. And they do it all with such high-artifice aplomb that it’s a pleasure to watch them even as we founder in the midst of our confusion."
Chicago Free Press - Somewhat Recommended
"...Happily, Rosen’s staging narrates his twists and turns with confidence and conviction. Cooper’s dangerously ambitious playwright, Sprunger’s understandably angry jilted partner and Bevan’s reluctant wife create a tense triangle, even if the details aren’t as believable as the big picture. Veteran actor Craig Spidle has some moments of terrible truth as Adam’s father discovers his own private tragedies exhibited on stage. Joe Dempsey plays the overly ambitious director for whom bad news is just another promotional opportunity. Kareem Bandealy brings dignity to the histrionic role of Adam’s stage killer—and surrogate? Yes, the ending ties things up, alas, but it’s at the cost of a Hollywood cliche."
EpochTimes - Recommended
"...Staged at the Steppenwolf Garage Theatre as part of the Visiting Company Initiative, Mr. Rosen uses this intimate stage to make this piece work. This is a small venue and with some very clever set design by Meghan Raham, creative lighting by Christopher Ash and Josh Horvath and Rick Sims sound design, the picture comes through clearly. But it is the script and the strong cast that makes this mystery indeed, a mystery where we as the audience cannot anticipate the ending."
Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Beyond its self-aggrandizing (the writer protagonist is an irresistible “genius” whose only flaws are obsessive devotion and an inability to see his own gifts), the writing—much of it colorless soliloquies—is far below the About Face’s gilded standard. There’s swell acting, as per usual in Rosen’s work. But spiritually speaking, this thing needs a rubber chicken."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Wedding Play is a sophisticated mystery/comedy/drama that is so refreshingly different that it deserves a large audience. Eric Rosen shows why he is a first-rate storyteller and dramatist."
