Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...The central conceit of the riveting “Suicide, Incorporated,” a clear-eyed little show that starts out like a satire but ends up being something much more complex, is that an unfeeling entrepreneur has figured out that money can be made from helping those who want to kill themselves write their suicide notes. Scott (Ed Flynn) has set up a whole franchise-friendly structure, replete with office visits, platinum consulting packages and the chance to go though the process of multiple drafts with a skilled scribe. Since men represent 80 percent of those who commit suicide, they are the target demographic. And part of the business model is ensuring that nobody changes their mind about what they are about to do."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...While most theatrical meditations on suicide home in on a crisis center hotline or a hospital room or a psychiatrist’s office, Hunderaker — whose play is now receiving an engrossing world premiere at the Gift Theatre — steers clear of such settings in all but one brief instance. Instead, he thrusts us into the hellish world of a small and rather perverse business that is designed to encourage rather than dissuade those intent on taking their own lives, and to make a profit in the bargain."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...Obviously, there's something silly about demanding plausibility from a play centered on a suicide-note-writing service—and I wouldn't have done it if Hinderaker had, say, located the action in a dystopian future or framed it as absurd comedy. But Suicide, Incorporated gives every indication of being a straight-out, more or less naturalistic drama set, as the program specifies, in "the present." Since there are no suicide-note writing services in the present, the onus falls on the playwright and the Gift to make the conceit work and stop the voice in my head. They didn't."
Windy City Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...There are two plays within Suicide, Incorporated, neither one which is fully developed nor at ease with the other. Play One is a dark satire in which Jason gives up his career writing greeting cards to write for Legacy Letters, a business that helps those bent on self-destruction leave appropriate suicide notes. The company's aggressively controlling founder, Scott, is a bully who drives one of his employees to off himself. Play Two is an examination of the 30,000 annual suicides in the United States—80 percent committed by men, most of who do not leave notes."
Copley News Service - Highly Recommended
"...Jonathan Berry beautifully orchestrates the production so the 80 minutes pass without sounding a single false note. The designers do well within the confines of the minuscule Gift stage. Don Stratton’s scenic design effectively moves from location to location with the shift of a few props. Emily McConnell designed the costumes, Sarah Hughey the lighting, and Matthew Chapman the sound."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...
While director Berry handles the minefield terrain with a steady hand, the visuals are a bit cramped. Dan Stratton’s utilitarian set of blinds, tables and rolling chairs hasn’t helped the sight lines in the Gift’s tiny space. The staging needs a bit of air—but perhaps that’s the point. Hinderaker’s world is one in which everyone must relearn how to breathe."
ShowBizChicago - Highly Recommended
"...Told partly in flashback as well as the unfoundedness of second chances, Jonathan Berry’s invested direction allows the work to breathe between both temporal and quixotic ether. There is ultimately much to be learned- and lived- in the chosen face of death. But Hinderaker is brisk to assure us that the curtain may never be quite so clear."
7DAYS - Recommended
"...This is a strong play with strong performances by this splendid cast. As the story ends, more tragedy takes place and we learn a great deal about each character and their circumstances relative to this topic. I certainly don't want to reveal it all, but at the end, it appears that Jason and Norm will resolve their issues.The stage is very close to the audience so in many cases, it almost feels as if we are a "fly on the wall" eavesdropping into the lives of these men- that is the beauty of the intimate storefront theater, you don't miss a thing, and the beauty of what The Gift brings to its audiences is the honesty of a topic that is seldom spoken about but perhaps needs to be looked at."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Andrew Hinderaker is a playwright to be noted. This work is tight, focused with layers of truth. It unfolds as a haunting psychological drama. Get to The Gift Theatre soon to see this intense drama. It is one of the best plays of 2010."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...The script did lend to some of the problems in the show. I noticed a few edit points where the play could have ended, scenes near the end that seemed out of place, and it is predictable. However, and this is a big however, I thoroughly enjoyed the writing in the dialogue and the need for natural deliveries with very believable characters in an environment that forces relationships to occur. Clearly we feel the connection between playwright Andrew Hinderaker and his script. This show found its perfect home with The Gift Theatre with its use of staging and color schemes relating to the piece. "
Chicago Theater Beat - Recommended
"...Gift Theatre’s tightly woven cast make the most of Andrew Hinderaker’s world premiere one-act, Suicide, Incorporated. Directed by Jonathan Berry, the play cleverly provides them with a lot of most to make. First, it features a business whose mission is to mold a suicide’s dead-end perspective into a skillfully crafted final farewell letter; second, the play depicts the general corporate tendency to reframe life’s tragedies into manageable chunks of reality that will yield to its scripted dialogues and flowcharts. Scott, owner and founder of the business, is played with sharp, savage and mercenary relish by Ed Flynn. Yet even he is just using the tools he’s learned in business school to create order against the inexorable pull of suicide’s black hole. Too bad he cannot avoid creating new victims, like his manically kiss-ass assistant, Perry (Jay Worthington)."
