Chicago Tribune - Not Recommended

"...Rae Gray and Nick Vidal, who play her kids, are on firmer ground and they do what they can, although when a show is misfiring like Michael Colucci's production, everything feels a little off. Nothing feels real. Nothing moves forward. Most of the performances flail. One of the challenges of this play is to make the audience invest in the characters—at least to the extent that their travails and crises are emblematic. The floating faces, alas, are just not that interesting, nor credible, here."
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Chicago Reader - Not Recommended

"...All this should be shocking and provocative, especially considering the affecting performances director Michael Colucci gets from his cast. But young Brit playwright Polly Stenham has no empathy for her characters. Their every action seems calculated for effect, so the play comes across as ham-handed and empty."
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Examiner - Somewhat Recommended

"...It’s difficult to see why the piece appealed to Red Twist and director Michael Colucci. Stenham (who was only 19 when That Face premiered in London) has tried mightily to write an intense, gritty domestic drama filled with juicy character roles. Mother, father, son, daughter – everyone in That Face gets at least One Big Scene that involves much rending of the hair and beating of the breasts. Or at least the contemporary dramatic equivalent thereof. The problem is that for all the noisy desperation wailing full-throttle through That Face, the audience never has much reason to care about any of it. For all the emotional meltdowns she includes in her repetitive dialogue, Stenham’s characters are woefully underwritten. In the end, they have no more depth than half-empty glasses of booze incestuous Mother Martha (Jacqueline Grandt) is constantly swilling."

Windy City Times - Recommended

"...With so much dysfunction happening on stage, That Face isn't exactly the kind of show to see if you need a pick-me-up from a hard day at work. But aside from one key performance, Redtwist shows how its actors are great at stirring up the depths of their characters' demons and tough situations."
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Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...Though she’s reminiscent of another theatrical Martha, it’s immediately clear that this Martha’s off the deep end; though Grandt’s portrayal is captivating, it’s hard to care about her. The damage she inflicts, both intentionally and collaterally, is more frustrating than upsetting. Grandt, Vidal and Gray all deliver heartfelt performances, while Christopher Kriz’s soundtrack is surprisingly satisfying, but the experience is incomplete."
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ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended

"...There was the occasional missed opportunity, the feeling that even more could be brought out of this play.  But that is a far cry from saying that this production is anything less than great.  Nick Vidal brought maturity yet naivety to Henry; Rae Gray struck all the right notes of inner conflict; and Jacqueline Grandt brought a good balance between being drunk out of her mind and knowing exactly what she was doing, being utterly manipulative.  And the small space of Redtwist’s theatre brought a crucial intimacy to the show that might have been lost in a much larger space.  Considering the fact that great, new plays are hard to come by, That Face is certainly worth a trip."
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Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended

"...That Face is family driven angst in-YOUR-face.  School problems may often initiate a teacher wondering ‘what’s going on at home?’  No one would ever conceive of this kind of devastating home life.  And most disconcerting of all, That Face came out of the imagination of a 19 year old."