Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...In many ways, “Mistakes Were Made” is the play that every writer who (like Wright) heads to Hollywood needs to write. You know, the one about how everyone messes with the poor writer’s words and integrity. It is not a fresh idea, but a perennially cathartic one. But Wright has been smart enough to flip the theme around and lay those neuroses on a different cog in the cultural wheel. He’s also capable of deliciously caustic rhetorical heights. At one point, Felix says his project is coming together “like an origami Winchester Cathedral.” This script is full of such pleasures."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Director Dexter Bullard (a maestro of physical theater best known for his work on the Tracy Letts' play "Bug") has orchestrated this ever-escalating farce of warped thinking, deranged egos and the sweaty, megalomaniacal quest for the spotlight (whether by those in New York and Hollywood, or some distant outpost of rage and disruption in the Fertile Crescent) to perfection."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...This time around they're at tiny A Red Orchid Theatre, where Shannon's an ensemble member, doing a play about doing a play—or about trying to get one done, anyway. Where the previous Wright-Shannon-Bullard collaborations paid tribute by implication ("look where we are!"), this one, Mistakes Were Made, is an undisguised love letter to the living stage. But a complicated, crucially flawed one."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Ya' wanna' see acting? Beg, buy and borrow tickets to Mistakes Were Made, an arduous near-monologue featuring Michael Shannon in a dazzling display of contemporary histrionics. For those who've seen Shannon through the arc of his career—from riveting 20-year-old eccentric to commanding thirtysomething stage and screen presence (and still eccentric) —it's a thrilling return to his storefront Chicago ensemble home."
Copley News Service - Highly Recommended
"...The play is often bull’s-eye funny and satirical about the theater and the people who inhabit it. Shannon sustains the script’s humor and the satire even though the story has no real narrative arc. It just lurches from crisis to crisis in a spiral of absurdity and frenzy."
Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended
"...The 2009-2010 Chicago theatre season is off to a roaring start with Red Orchid's production of this new play by Craig Wright, a wickedly funny and intensely emotional marathon performed almost solely by Oscar nominee Michael Shannon. With the Chicago-originated A Steady Rain and Superior Donuts having just begun previews on Broadway, this play could be the next to make the move to New York."
Centerstage - Highly Recommended
"...Ten minutes into Craig Wright's hilarious and harrowing "Mistakes Were Made," you realize you are witnessing the sort of succulent role every actor dreams of, but few can reliably play. Luckily Michael Shannon's astounding focus, unswerving characterization and forceful vocal presence are more than a match for Wright's ambitious piece."
Edge - Recommended
"...what is most notable about this play - besides the noted "mistakes" above - is the palpable passion and dedication to the project from all parties involved in this exertion. Continuing in the growing tradition of A Red Orchid’s risky theater, the show is executed with conviction and is far from a safe outing. With a bit of honing, this show could be a masterpiece. It’s not too far off already."
Chicago Stage Review - Highly Recommended
"...Occasionally a performance is so riveting that it takes you on a roller coaster ride. Michael Shannon delivers up the thrills of an entire theme park in A Red Orchid Theatre’s World Premiere of playwright Craig Wright’s Mistakes Were Made."
Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Mistakes is enjoyable for Shannon’s virtuoso work—the 35-year-old actor twists his tall, commanding frame into a suspendered, sunken-chested curl that suggests the husk of Larry King—and for his vituperative delivery of Wright’s killer one-liners (“This was before the Internet, so having an opinion still mattered”). Thematically, though, the play is like its lead figure: pulled in too many directions."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Michael Shannon deftly plays the sharp-tongued producer with a combination of machine-gun speech and physical dexterity seldom witnessed on stage. With most of the dialogue emanating from a series of telephone conversations, Shannon’s facial expressions and body language give hints as to what the other person is saying to him. Playwright Craig Wright gave Shannon a razor-sharp smart script filled with satire, many fabulous descriptions and smart retorts that Shannon nailed to garner both laughter and pathos. "
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...Director Dexter Bullard uses this intimate theater to full advantage on Burch's set and there are only moments where some audience members are unable to see every movement. But the strength of the play and performer overcomes that with ease. This is an intense one hour and forty five minutes (no intermission) of theater. We are allowed to peer through the fourth wall and eavesdrop on a day in the life of a theater producer, a day filled with struggles, laughs (for us) and a search for balance in the world of a man who only wants to succeed."
Chicago Theater Beat - Recommended
"...The performance by Shannon lives up to the hype, as he portrays the driven attitude of a man nearing the end of his career, reaching for something that he can achieve and hold on to. I felt as if I had an idea of what had happened to Felix and how his life had reached this point. Shannon gave Felix depth and a personal past through his display of tense emotions. We have a sense that he is missing the love and respect of someone in particular without it having to be specifically said. The constant busy-ness of jumping from conversation to conversation is made light and humorous with the pleasant interruptions by the secretary, Esther, played by Mierka Girten."
