Redletter at Neo-Futurists

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...The lack of focus wouldn't be so glaring if the ensemble itself didn't appear disconnected from the topic at hand. The notable exception is Bilal Dardai, whose quiet authority and measured observations feel intentionally detached, as if he were just a mellow guy at a cocktail party, chewing over a conversational tangent before wandering off in search of more finger food while Buscani stays put, raging against the dying light."

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...This Neo-Futurist exploration of the digital age of media, created by poetry-slam guru Lisa Buscani and directed by Jen Ellison, feels like the most inspiring, hilarious, and relatable graduate-level journalism class you never took. That the show begins with Buscani’s hero worship of Robert Redford as Bob Woodward sets the tone for its goofy, off-kilter earnestness as ensemble members share their intimate relationships with the media."

Around The Town Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...The story is so bizarre and fragmented (but not in a post-modern way) that it is hard even to summarize. At times, Lisa seemed like a professor, at other times a mentor, leading a newsroom, but at times her students, or colleagues, did blogging. I was totally lost and I think that had to do more with the script than with my powers of observation and concentration. Sometimes, the characters talked about their personal lives, and often it's not quite clear were they are. The most affecting scene represented rumor on the internet in the wake of the Boston marathon bombing and the very real human damage it caused-it was the only sequence that stuck in the memory afterword."

NewCity Chicago - Recommended

"...I said this show was fun... and it is. The script contrasts each player's insights into (and blindspots about) the strengths and weakness of the news business. It does so most effectively when setting this debate in a personal context. Bilal Dardai speaks to the responsibility of presenting and curating stories for future generations by repeating a son's single-minded interest in trains. Lindsay Muscato admits to being scared off a story by internet trolls. Thea Lux sings of feeling inadequate and superfluous in a world of so many news sources, tweeters and social media "friends." And Trevor Dawkins takes what starts as a fairly cliched caricature of 1980s coked-up cowboy journalism as manifested in a fictionalized channeling of a newsman father and pushes it so far, collapsing the whole show into his dark manic energy, that it turns engrossingly hilarious."