Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...Once Mockus shows up, things find a much firmer footing. This veteran Chicago actor -- long advantaged by a booming voice -- is in glorious fettle. His Brady is precisely as those unapologetic liberals Lawrence and Lee intended -- sincere, intelligent, passionate, tragic in magnitude and thoroughly wrong. Thankfully, Mockus is too smart to play into stereotype -- even when the script pushes him that way."
Chicago Sun Times
- Recommended
"...Mockus and Jaeck are both superb. And when they go at each other in the play's most thrilling scenes -- with Brady's almost literal rapture, and Drummond's searing rationalism -- they generate a fierce and terrible storm."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...as the play's "this is not history" prologue asserts, there's much more to the story--especially in Jessica Thebus's pared-down but moving production. Giving the play a light touch, she makes the characters' personal struggles immediate and affecting: a woman in love tries to do the right thing, an old friendship grows painfully strained. Thebus and the strong cast, ably led by Scott Jaeck and Tony Mockus as the charismatic lawyers, provide thought-provoking entertainment, proving this is a work that still resonates."
Windy City Times
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Directed by Jessica Thebus, Inherit the Wind is greater than the sum of its parts. The play itself isn’t great—the anti-Darwin forces are bumpkin caricatures rather than fully-drawn humans. And while there’s a strong argument to be made that Biblical literalists are willfully simple-minded, Inherit the Wind would be stronger dramatically if we could glimpse a shred of humanity behind the close-minded convictions."
Gay Chicago Magazine
- Recommended
"...In the leading roles, Scott Jaeck (as Drummond, the Darrow equivalent) and Tony Mockus (as Brady, the Bryan equivalent) are individually strong and well-matched. The passion behind these performances is what makes Thesbus’ production robust."
Time Out Chicago
- Recommended
"...Mockus and Jaeck, though, still draw out the play’s pleasures: Mockus convinces as a towering figure cocksure of his worldview, while Jaeck contrasts Drummond’s bluster with softer, more intimate moments. Thebus gives Wind a pared-down, exposed-stage Our Town treatment, replete with cast members climbing ladders and reading stage directions."
ChicagoCritic
- Recommended
"...Filled with terrific performances by the commanding stage presence of the booming-voiced veteran actor Tony Mokus as Brady (the Bryan figure) and Scott Jaeck’s laid back but powerful civil rights lawyer Drummond (aka Darrow), this production of Inherit the Wind is a moving and striking court room drama."
