Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Even if you can get past all the fishy metaphors, there's another problem that gnaws away at McGhan's play, staged at Theater Wit. When Carl (Michael Pacas), the quiet Minnesota fisherman and baseball fan at the core of the drama, decides to strike back at the corporate managers whose ineptitude has scuppered his retirement (this play has never heard of the government agency known as the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation), he does so with an act so massive and violent that it kills off any sympathy you have for the guy."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Fiftysomething brothers Carl and Chucky have put in 35 years apiece as airline mechanics and are looking forward to a retirement spent fishing on a Minnesota lake. But then they're laid off, without pensions, by an airline whose financial woes don't affect its executives' exorbitant compensation packages. McGhan's focus on character over politics makes Carl's vengeance seem more an act of desperation than revolution. As Carl in this Stage Left Theatre staging, Michael Pacas poignantly conveys basic decency corroded by rage."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...As staged by Drew Martin, The Fisherman is an excellent production. McGhan writes his characters with warmth and reality, and so they are played in greatly appealing performances laced with gruff charm by Michael Pacas (Carl), Sandy Elias (Chucky), Kate Black-Spence (Jenny) and Ian Maxwell (Mutt). Alan Donohue (scenic) and John Kohn III (lighting) provide a lovely deep, high fishing pier that smacks of the North Woods boundary waters. I could all but hear the loons."
Centerstage - Recommended
"...McGhan’s script is a solid, well-paced drama that stays true to its characters. He never condescends to them, nor does he send them on sudden, writerly bursts of jarring, eloquent whimsy. Kushner country this ain’t. And while I can’t call the play a revelation, it is a wonderful evening of theatre."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"... For a show whose action consists largely of fishing, the production isn’t static. Drew Martin’s staging makes good use of the compact space. The ensemble excels at McGhan’s folksier elements, particularly when personalizing what fishing means to the characters, but has difficulty adjusting to the heightened stakes of the second act. The reactions to Carl’s attack are too convenient; he’s celebrated despite being a fisherman who uses dynamite for his deadly catch."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...McGahn’s script and the deeply truthful performance by Michael Pascas (his finest work to date) as Carl almost makes Carl almost a sympathetic character. We do empathize with Carl but we condemn his rationalization that the end justifies the means. This moving drama puts a face on how the 1% keep getting pushed toward desperate acts. This cautionary tale could be all too real if corporate greed continues to destroy the working class. It shows that a gentle fisherman can become a monster when injustice kills his spirit and destroys his earned life rewards. This play will get folks thinking and talking. That is a good thing."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...What centers and grounds it is Drew Martin’s concentrated staging. Sandy Elias’ salt-of-the-earth Chucky and Michael Pacas’ surefire Carl are blood brothers in more than resemblance. Their rich interplay suggests many years of shared experience, most of it fishing. Still, Elias plays Chucky in so low key and down home a manner that it’s hard to believe he could be the perpetrator of an airborne atrocity. Kate Black-Spence is beautiful and sympathetic as a cop who follows the law but doesn’t have to like it. Finally, Ian Maxwell plays the ghost of Mutt, come back from the afterlife to report on the fishing."
