Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...“The Minutes,” staged on a setting from David Zinn that deftly captures the tension of patriotic grandiosity and provincial defensiveness found in city halls across the land, will not be a play you forget quickly. It is a typically robust response to the moment from Letts, offering not just a repudiation but an opportunity."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...With his astonishing new play, “The Minutes,” a pitch black comedy about the current state of American politics and the “fake news” elements in our national history, Tracy Letts has written the 21st century equivalent of “The Rite of Spring.” He has devised a blood ritual rooted in the more farcical manifestations of local government and parliamentary procedure, and along the way he has explained how some in this country have been brutally sacrificed, and why such sacrifices continue to be sanctioned."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"..."The Minutes" is also quite funny, silly even. (The council members re-enacting a famous Big Cherry battle is a hoot.) But the questions Letts poses -- what are you willing to do, what are you willing to ignore, what are you willing to forget to preserve your "cocoon of comfort"? -- are provocative. And perennial."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Most of The Minutes's 100 minutes pass in comic absurdity, familiar fools reacting to one another like the two strangers in Eugène Ionesco's The Bald Sopranos, who strike up a conversation on a train only to figure out—slowly, by the deductive method—that they're husband and wife. The first dirty secret, about the town's founding, comes out after a silly reenactment of the official story (already pretty toxic), all the old council hands throwing themselves into the performance. It's the second, dirtier secret that transforms the tone of the evening. Played out in a manner reminiscent of a Maori haka, frighteningly choreographed by Dexter Bullard, Letts's second point offers a simple argument for why not just Big Cherry's crime but those of nations and even humanity as a whole are beyond help. Talk about indictments, it lays bare privilege at the most fundamental level. Even so, the audience on opening night seemed to love it."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...Still, the political gamesmanship and unravelling of secrets definitely hold one's interest and provide tension, amusement and an air of mystery. The key subplot allows Letts to channel some Native American lore ( fictional, but not improbable given the truths of American history ) close to his own Oklahoma upbringing, which clearly is important to him. The performances are spot-on, especially Petersen as the cagey, controlled and always-calculating mayor, clearly on top of all situations. Petersen's eyes alone—their focus and intensity—are a study in acting."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...The individual agendas of the Big Cherry village council members, in Tracy Letts’ comedy-chiller of a new play “The Minutes,” are credibly various and amusingly personal. What really resonates, however, is the one thing they all hold in common — a raw, elemental conviction that safeguards and perpetuates their community.x
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...Combine Kafka, Jackson, King, and Ibsen and you get a heavy hint at the menace behind The Minutes. But even if these 100 minutes carry heavy déjà vu, Letts delivers his usual sardonic-to-scathing dialogue, cunning contradictions, jokes that are defiantly on us, and a blood-curdling finale to make nightmares seem nice."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...The Minutes is a palpable examination of the all too familiar topics relevant to today’s political and social climate in America. Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Tracy Letts writes a scathing new comedy about small-town politics and real-world power exposing the ugliness behind some of our most closely-held American narratives. This play marks the 5th collaboration between Steppenwolf’s Artistic Director, Anna D. Shapiro, and ensemble member, Tracy Letts, and the seventh play by Letts to premiere at Steppenwolf."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...When I hear that I will be seeing a Tracy Letts play, I anticipate having an evening where my brain will work harder than normal. The man is a genius and has what I call a “very sick mind”, but he sees things as they are and is able to bring them to the stage (as well as film) where we, the audience, are forced to think! His new play, “The Minutes”, now in its World Premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre ( of course) is a roughly 90 minutes play about small town politics that takes place in the town hall where the city council meets (with no intermission) on a rainy night."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Anna D. Shapiro once again proves why she’s one of Chicago’s, indeed this country’s, finest directors. A Steppenwolf ensemble member for twelve years, she’s guided so many of their greatest recent productions, not the least of which was Tracy Letts’ 2008 Pulitizer Prize- and Tony Award-winning “August: Osage County.” She’s masterfully spearheaded this new production, which journeys from an unassuming comedy about eccentric, small town politics, to a heart-stopping, pulse-racing drama about race and privilege. Tracy Letts was obviously motivated to write this play by the ever-disastrous impact of the 2016 election. This is how he sees the trickle-down effects hitting small town America, and it’s truly frightening."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...Letts has built a major reputation as a dramatist for plays that combine psychological and physical violence with dark humor. Consider “Killer Joe,” “Bug,” and the Pulitzer prizewinning “August: Osage County.” But nothing in his canon is quite like “The Minutes” in its satire, suspense, and “Twilight Zone” moments of fantasy. “The Minutes” also continues Letts’s record of writing brilliant showcasing roles while expanding his narrative palette. “The Minutes” may or may not succeed on Broadway but it certainly has given the Chicagoland theater a show to treasure."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...Under the stellar director of Anna D. Shapiro, the group dynamics are established quickly. When the robotic Brittany Burch (Ms. Johnson) continually and hilariously mispronounces ‘Mr. Assalone’ (played by Jeff Still), we feel her disdain and his prickly annoyance. William Petersen (Mayor Superba) governs with folksy informality. He’s that sweater-wearing-laid-back-I’m-just-like-you politician. When Ian Barford (Mr. Carp) uncovers a major discrepancy in the town’s history, a forceful and sinister Petersen leads the tribal response."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...Steppenwolf Theatre’s world premiere of The Minutes by Tracy Letts takes place during a small town city council meeting. It’s a satire of small-town politics, individual grievances and so much more. Viewed totally, it’s an example of theater at its best. Entertaining, thought-provoking, puzzling, conversation-starting."
The Hawk Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Perhaps it’s the too-quick pace at which the play builds. Perhaps it’s the ease with which all the characters, including the council’s sole person of color, jump on the Big Cherry bandwagon. Or perhaps it’s simply the fact that Tracy Letts is arguably (or inarguably, in my opinion) one of the best living playwrights, and this production just felt underdeveloped."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...Shapiro keeps all of these varied pieces interesting despite a script that calls for them to be seated in an arc on David Zinn’s gorgeous set for most of the show. (It’s a Council meeting, after all.) Much credit goes to her and the actors for keeping it fun and fascinating. They are helped along by some strong sound work by Andre Pluess and lighting by Brian MacDevitt (both of whose work is great throughout the play but shines especially during momentary “blackouts” caused by the failing power grid. This is a play that pushes all of the right buttons. It will leave its audience a bit stunned and possibly disturbed, and that is the point: you’ll be talking about it all the way home."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...The quirky characters are all very familiar - until the story takes us elsewhere. Why last month's minutes - and a council member -- are missing becomes the mystery that opens up the past: Not only the immediate past but the distant past of Big Cherry's actual heritage. Beneath the surface of Robert's Rules of Order, the savage nature of ordinary people erupts. How did these people come to claim this place as their own? It's not pretty. Through the microcosmic lens of the meeting, Tracy Letts conveys a macrocosmic message about American democracy."
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...In a style straight out of “Saturday Night Live,” including a character who looks like an overmedicated, middle-aged version of Cheri Oteri’s Spartan cheerleader Arianna (Sally Murphy as Ms. Matz) and a Civil War reenactment skit that sugarcoats white supremacy in slapstick comedy, Tracy Letts’ “The Minutes” at first draws laughs in recognition but does not strive to achieve anything before a consumer base that is largely white, liberal and in possession of disposable income."
