Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...To be sure, there are many pungent moments of physical comedy, often underplayed to masterful effect to create a - wait for it - slow burn. But what stands out are the multiple rhetorical observations about how appeals to middle-class guilt and the desire to avoid disagreeable conflicts foster evil."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...But watching the play today, particularly in Strawdog Theatre Company’s ideally mad, razor-sharp, deliciously realized production — expertly directed by Matt Hawkins (and prefaced by the Vitamin String Quartet’s version of The Doors classic, “Light My Fire” — the whole thing opens itself up to a slew of more contemporary interpretations."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...However astute ( not to mention timely ) its moral, a sermon as didactic as Frisch's needs additional spectacle to hold our attention for 90 intermissionless minutes. Director Matt Hawkins has enlisted a technical team to surround us with thunderstorms, smoke, sirens and the ominous roar of rising flames. More important, he has instructed his actors to adopt individual idiosyncrasies for their characters, rendering always coherent even such cryptic conventions as a classical-Greek chorus of firefighters who lament their inability to do their job when people like Biedermann exacerbate the danger through selfish denial. ( Also indicted for his complicity is a "Doctor of Philosophy" who attempts to impose a manifesto upon wanton hooliganism, only to recoil in horror at the discovery that "they do it because they like it!" ) Whatever may disturb your sleep nowadays, you can't say you weren't warned."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Hawkins’s production makes effective use of Strawdog’s space, with Mike Mroch’s set design making the room feel uncomfortably claustrophobic. Robert Kauzlaric is engagingly squirrely as Biedermann, with appealingly flighty work by Sarah Goeden as his exceedingly nervous wife, Babette. But Hawkins has Scott Danielson and Ira Amyx lay the menace on a bit thick, taking an already unsubtle piece to an anvillish level."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...In an utterly captivating performance, Danielson deftly manipulates Biedermann's conscience with his expressive eyes and weepy tales of woe. Also taken in by Schmitz is Biedermann's wife Babette (Sarah Goeden). From wild-eyed expressions of anxiety and discomfort in Schmitz's presence, she finds herself sitting on his lap by play's end. The only one who refuses to be taken in by Schmitz and his ilk is the Biedermanns' testy maid Anna (Rebecca Wolfe). What she lacks in servility and docility she certainly makes up for in the quickness and keenness of both her mind and body. Thus Wolfe's Anna is the perfect foil to the rest of The Arsonists' double-dealing cast."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...The Arsonists holds up because, while Frisch may have been writing about the complicity of ordinary citizens in the rise of Nazism, he does not name who the Arsonists represent. Though Biedermann goes to absurd lengths to ignore the evidence of a threat, his reasons echo the dialogue that takes place in public forums whenever another group of "arsonists" appear. Are there arsonists now that will soon come for us? It is also entertaining, especially when tackled by a committed ensemble that takes the absurdity seriously. There are few moments when the characters pause for self-reflection, but, as they hilariously rush to avoid the inevitable-let's not call it fate-those moments become all the more poignant."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Alistair Beaton’s English adaptation of Max Frisch’s 1950’s German play “The Arsonists” works well in The Strawdog Theatre’s performance space. The idiosyncratic layout of the stage and house allow a great deal of room for the large chorus of firefighters to tell us about, and futilely try and prevent, the complicity of the protagonist, Mr. Biederman (Robert Kauzlaric), in the destruction of his family, possessions, and society. The chorus, the action, and the characters give us exposition, explaining that arsonists are systematically putting fire to an urban society in an attempt to eliminate it completely."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...Frisch's play is theatre of the absurd. The plot is obvious from the start. The title says it all. Still, Hawkins keeps the audience engaged in his well-paced chaos. At one point, Kauzlaric and Goeden are trying to speak logically as they weave in and out of a long, webbed fuse. Hawkins kicks the absurdity up with physical comedy. On the fringes of the stage are the chorus dressed like firefighters. When Kauzlaric tries to light a cigar, they rush in... every time. Absurd!"
Splash Magazine - Recommended
"...Whereas the original play appears more focused on a single specific threat (the Nazis), these arsonists appear a suitable stand in for our current fears (like global warming, terrorism, or, in light of recent news, riots in the street). Director Matt Hawkins also does everything in his power to fully bring Max's vision into the 21st century with both subtle and more overt touches such as his frequent accenting of scenes with instrumental pop interludes by artists such as Soundgarden. This mostly succeeds as a counterweight to the sometimes dense material. The cast is also very capable here with the arsonists (as played by Ira Amyx and Scott Danielson) offering just the right amount of guile, implied violence, and humor. Robert Kauzlaric (as Biedermann) does a great slow burn into unbelieving madness and Sarah Goeden (as his wife Babette) breaks down with the best of them. Rebecca Wolfe also does a very good job as Anna, the couple's long suffering maid who reluctantly goes along with the absurdity."
