Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Superbly cast and dominant, Letts -- who recalls a nastier version of David Letterman -- fires on every one of his combustible cylinders. True-Frost, looking like a dangerous, vulnerable, brilliant geek, is a tad more eccentric than the character needs, but it's rich acting, amply matched by Shannon, who dances on a knife edge that few actors reach."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Shannon is mesmerizing and hilarious as the battered young man with the damaged sense of judgment (and a memorably itchy body part). Letts is caustic and droll as the cop with literary pretensions of his own. And Peyankov, his head shaved like an egg, brings a winning authenticity to Ariel (no doubt drawing on his own upbringing in communist Bulgaria). He is perfect."
SouthtownStar - Recommended
"...It's a tough tale, but it is saved from being truly shocking by director Amy Morton's fine staging, in which she builds tension and highlights the comic elements of the piece."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Amy Morton directs a stellar Chicago cast that finds nearly all the play's morbid humor and works overtime to compensate for McDonagh's uncharacteristic lack of coherence."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...Uncomfortable to watch, and rather longer than it needs to be (McDonagh’s fault, not Steppenwolf’s) , The Pillowman nonetheless is perversely absorbing and intellectually challenging. There is no comfort in McDonagh’s bleak world. Young or old, no one gets out alive."
Chicago Free Press - Recommended
"...Overall, “Pillowman” is such an exercise in excess that it’s a tribute to Jim True-Frost’s fervid Katurian, Michael Shannon’s crazed brother, Yasen Peyankov’s dogged destroyer of child abusers and Tracy Letts’ comparatively rational co-inquisitor that they almost make this nightmare normal."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...As strangely beautiful as a fever-induced, Kafkaesque dream, Morton’s production mesmerizes. She never releases her strong hold on the text and the outstanding actors, who effortlessly convey McDonagh’s characters as equally capable of tenderness and brutality (Letts, as good cop, expertly skates between the two). Although True-Frost at times overdoes Katurian’s emotional blank slate, Shannon burns a portrait of Michal."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...This macabre and complex story will fill audiences with a disturbing ambivalence as the shocking horror and funny dark comedy create an eerie feeling in each of us. Yet we savor the marvelous acting of Tracy Letts, Yasen Peyankov, Michael Shannon and Jim True-Frost. The Pillowman will haunt you and scare you as it reminds us of the power of storytelling to help us overcome our isolation and despair."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...In spite of the "fashionably downbeat" subject of child murders, brutal torture and police state execution, McDonagh's voice is both powerful and dryly witty. It also helps to have actors like Tracy Letts, Yasen Peyankov and Michael Shannon, all brilliantly capable of wringing every bit of irony from the macabre. The very likable Jim True-Frost once again assumes narrative/principal duty, which he enacts with surprise, vulnerability and clarity."
