The Awake presented by First Floor Theater at Flat Iron Arts Building

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...How does it manage to muster such excitement, and how does First Floor Theater pull it off in a tiny black-box theater on a shoestring budget? By having the actors narrate everything that happens to them rather than trying to show it happening. Granted, this solution put a third of the audience to sleep-theater, especially small theater, is a "show don't tell" kind of art form. But while talk is cheap, pyrotechnics are expensive. By far the best scenes come in the show's last half hour, when people-exciting, living people-start to emerge from their intricate webs of association and actually do something, even if it's just talking to each other."

Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended

"...But throughout this fascinating labyrinth of nightmarish experiences we might recall the 17th century playwright, Calderon, whose classic fantasy proclaimed that “Life is a Dream.” Accented by flashes of surprising humor, Ken Urban continually toys with his characters, as well as with the audience. As we experience these three characters’ confusing situations we share in their anxiety and discomfort. Like Malcolm, Nate and Gabrielle, we also long to awaken from this nightmare world and to finally learn what is the truth."

NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended

"..."The Awake" details three people's flight from their lives, from circumstances impossible to accept: Nate (Kaiser Ahmed) dreams of being a school teacher while violent interrogators breach his fantasy; Gabrielle (Scottie Caldwell) lives in an All-American home of terrifying secrets, escaping into films that exacerbate her alienation from the facade of life; and Malcolm (Daniel Desmaris) speaks of a drowning world in a hospital room."