Life and Limb at Steppenwolf Theatre

ChicagoCritic - Recommended

"... This engrossing tale is a mixture of satire and realism that breaks conventional storytelling motifs. It part dark comedy and part absurdism with shallow underdeveloped characters do baffling things. The mixed focus hurts the production but Jurgen Hooper, Grace Rex and Chris Froseth’s performance make the show tolerable. If only Reddin’s writing wasn’t so bizarre. But there is enough here to make for a night at the theatre."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended

"...Watching losers lose is a chump’s game, even if Reddin means to mock the American obsession to define yourself by what you own. But Campbell’s realistic treatment never lets the mean-spirited overkill and the quirky characterizations seem gratuitous or heavy-handed. But, thanks to Hooper’s solid Franklin (the play’s reality principle) and Rex’s clueless but loyal Effie, this bleak love story comes to a kind of (dismal) life. Audrey Francis has imperious fun as Effie’s dour Rumanian confidante, and Chris Froseth’s odious prosthetic entrepreneur is by-the-numbers nasty. Considering the small house and the fact that Reddin requires cigarettes in almost every scene, it’s quite admirable that the actors mime smoking."