Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Sex With Strangers is yet another provocative and timely play to emerge from Steppenwolf. When they get their hands on it (and they will), celebrities and their agents will see the possibilities. Eason might find herself with lots of dangerous new friends."
Examiner - Highly Recommended
"...Grush is terrific, creating an utterly believable, at once loveable and insufferable mix of swaggering, self-confident youth and generous, evolving artist. It’s a performance that’s both tough and vulnerable, arrogant and exposed. Murphy is equally fine as a self-cocooned artist slowly flourishing in a wider world than she’d thought possible."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Sally Murphy's experience at portraying reclusive middle-aged spinsters exceeds that of Stephen Louis Grush (sporting some new tattoos since we last saw his bare torso in The Tempest) at playing sullen young boy toys, so it's easier for us to acknowledge duplicity in Ethan's stratagems than to entertain suspicion of Olivia's. That said, there's no denying the voyeuristic fascination in viewing the progress of an aesthete and a greedhead gradually adopting one another's values—with many hesitations, to be sure, but no regrets—and in doing so, forging an inextricable bond forever incomprehensible to outsiders."
Copley News Service - Recommended
"...Grush is an actor with a strong physical presence. He is built like a small linebacker and radiates physical confidence. His Ethan may not have impressive intellectual skills but he is royalty in the society of the blogger, a sense of empowerment and entitlement Grush projects with easy authority. Grush’s Ethan also has the animal sexual attraction to sweep a vulnerable woman like Olivia off her feet. I suspect there is a Stanley Kowalski role in Grush’s future, a performance that will be well worth seeing."
Centerstage - Highly Recommended
"...Under the direction of Jessica Thebus, these two superb actors spiritedly work their way through Laura Eason’s script, imbibing their characters with life and filling the show with memorable subtleties. When the hesitant Olivia makes the decision to let Ethan read her latest work after they’ve slept together, we can see how much harder giving up her book is than giving it up was. So, what’s intimacy? What’s personal? And what’s selling out? Eason’s script asks us all these questions and still feels both contemporary and real."
Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...
Zippy dialogue and the intriguing clash of generations keep the first act perky, but the second act stalls in a morass of murky expectations. Murphy and Grush work hard to make these ciphers vital, but the results remain less seductive than any play called Sex with Strangers has a right to be."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Somewhat Recommended
"...If this synopsis implies that more is going on in these two hours for much to matter, that’s the intent. It’s the old case of too much talk and not enough story. Eason wants to be topical, romantic, trendy, and satirical all at once, but the plot, which ultimately peters out into an uninteresting impasse between these forensic lovers, defeats her ambition."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...This is a beautiful story staged on a marvelous set (Todd Rosenthal) that serves as both a B & B in Michigan ( act one) and an apartment in Chicago(act two) with just some sligh adjustments. The lighting ( J.R.Lederle) is perfection and the original music ( Andre Pluess and Kevin O’Donnell) adds a certain charm to the overall picture that Thebus paints for us on the canvass in the Upstairs Theatre at Steppenwolf. What really makes this production work is the chemistry between the actors as they bring these two personalities to life. They are very different ( she is from the age where technology is still a mystery, he of the age where it has been in his life almost forever) Ethan has no qualms about “instant” writing, while Olivia, writes and rewrites her stories and maintains her privacy. She offers him a better knowledge of literature- romantic writing and he offers her an opportunity to gain fame, but at what cost?"
Chicago Theater Beat - Somewhat Recommended
"...It’s sad that we don’t get to know these characters beyond their types. Sadder still is that the chemistry between Barrie and Grush is just not believable. Their relationship has be to set up fast so that the rest of the play can continue—one accepts their sexual interaction just to let the story unfold—but by far there isn’t enough of an instantaneous connection of passion between them to make their relationship credible. Grush is a dynamic actor who gives Ethan’s impetuousness and arrogance the right balance of self-effacing candor. Barrie, meanwhile, has the nuance to convey Olivia’s introverted low self-esteem down pat, but missing is Olivia’s sexual, as well as intellectual, allure. If Olivia is the kind of character who only reveals herself on the page, it’s no wonder that even after the first act she seems a kind of cipher."
