Pseudo-Chum at Neo-Futurists

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...The Benjamins send the message in a luxuriously inefficient way, crosscutting between (a) a performance of a terrible play called Chum, about a dysfunctional fishing family hired to kill sharks for the Australian government; (b) comically tense rehearsals for the play; and (c) an interview between Chum's smoking-jacket-clad author and a smarmy television personality. Each element gets increasingly bizarre, but none of them actually goes anywhere. The occasional late-landing laugh or wild idea notwithstanding, this 90-minute show could've done everything it needed to do in 30."

Time Out Chicago - Recommended

"...Much of Pseudo-Chum is an amusing abstract play about how what you ask for isn’t what you end up getting. The playwright is desperate to have his work appear deep and topical, but instead of grand philosophy, the interviewer finds his alcoholism and crippling insecurities revealed on the page. The actors want to be famous and successful, but their only path to glory is through a horrifically stupid play. Rapid-fire bickering dialogue keeps it fun while the show dives into its central metaphor: Are you the shark, or the chum? It’s both the playwright’s grand idea and the topic of Pseudo-Chum."

ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended

"...I really wanted to enjoy the outcome of Pseudo-Chum, and the play has many promising things going for it. But, despite interesting structural decisions the playwrights make, the material doesn’t rise above the form of the plays presentation. Pseudo-Chum wades in the water, just off the edge of the boat Catharsis. What are we to do with this? Can you follow? I must. I’ve made a commitment to this project."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Somewhat Recommended

"...In the end, this felt like a first iteration of a very interesting and compelling piece. There are many different ways they can take it (I would like to see the action take a less linear path, for example). However, it is a very unique piece of theater. The Neo-Futurists continue to churn out completely original and compelling work. Psuedo-Chum is the latest in a long line of ambitious art."

Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...As an undergraduate, I considered writing an essay on The Categorical Imperative and the immorality of art. Sean and Carolyn Benjamin’s play “Psuedo-Chum” makes me awfully glad I didn’t. Despite their high technical skill, both as playwrights and directors, this play never really manages to meaningfully explore whether playwrights are businessman or activists, whether the two are mutually exclusive, and whether it is morally okay that artists use human suffering to make a profit, leaving us to wonder if these questions are even seriously being considered at all. Fortunately, the play doesn’t need to do consider them. It succeeds independently of such questions, particularly on the level of dialogue and satire from excellent writing, and on the level of production as meta-theatre from the superlative direction and acting."