| Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"... But although West's 90-minute script and Green's production deftly capture Gacy's twisted 1970s milieu, which is no small achievement, you never get a full sense of what West wants to say about Gacy — and when you're dredging up something like this, even at this chronological remove, it's imperative to make clear what you want to say."
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Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...Playwright Calamity West is less interested in recounting the facts of the case than depicting Gacy's deteriorating mental state. Her muddled script needs a rewrite, but Jonathan Green's well-acted, inventively designed production is a good foundation on which to build. The one-act's most effective passage, an eerie fantasy in which Gacy converses with three teenage victims, is chilling."
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Centerstage - Recommended
"...The play is a thoughtful, occasionally gripping meditation on what Hannah Arendt called “The banality of evil”. John Wayne Gacy is a nice guy. He’s friendly. He’s generous. He’s constantly chuckling as a nervous tic. And he has a compulsion to rape and murder teenage boys."
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Chicago Stage Standard - Somewhat Recommended
"...Considering its bold title, you’d expect Calamity West’s new offering, “The Gacy Play,” to be definitive and conclusive. This unambitious but straightforward 90-minute slice of death offers glimpses of John Wayne Gacy’s troubled household—including the stinking crawlspace where his victims were brusquely entombed—around Christmas 1975, fairly early in his killing career. Sara Brown’s bi-level set presents the conventional Gacy kitchen and living room, while below, visible to the audience on both sides, is an equally unremarkable crawlspace. It will literally start smoking as its secrets start to speak."
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