Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...But the play seems to get caught in cyclical traps, when you want to see it drive forward and take you along. The production from Lyons is very much at one with the script, which means that it, too, has some troughs, making its 90-minute duration feel longer than is the case."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...A different directorial approach could solve most of this production's problems. But West's got a problem only she can fix. If The Peacock has a defining crisis, it's Nan's struggle to maintain her dignity in this all-male milieu. But it's never clear what she hopes to gain by remaining in such a toxic environment. And her fraught relationships with William and Calvin, one of which ends in violence, lack discernible contours. Until Nan gets a story-or at least a meaningful goal-she's left treading theatrical water."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Jackalope Theatre has forged its reputation on microcosmic suspense preceding incendiary violence, an aesthetic fulfilled by Marti Lyons' direction of the ensemble led by AJ Ware as the laconic heroine ( whose mystery is enhanced by a costume ensuring designer Samantha Jones a Jeff nomination next spring ), and featuring multi-layered characterizations by Tim Martin, Nate Wheldon, Jack Miggins, Ed Dzialo and Andrew Burden Swanson as her silent-generation peers. Don't expect to walk away with it all after just one read."
Centerstage - Somewhat Recommended
"...For a play that is centered around a writer’s worskshop, Calamity West’s “The Peacock” could have used some critiquing. A promising opening scene, wherein a young woman who we’ll come to learn is named Nan (AJ Ware) picks herself across the floor, her head bloodied from an unseen trauma, and straps on a false leg from which she has been mysteriously separated. What unfolds over the next hour and a half is the lead up to this moment, but by the time we arrive there, the answers provided are muddy and unsatisfying."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Yet the workshop scenes are played so broadly for laughs, particularly by Nate Wheldon as a cartoonishly alcoholic hack of a wannabe writer and, to a lesser extent, by Jack Miggins as a nebbishy follower, that they throw off the tone of the rest of the play. These two characters, along with Ed Dzialo as their schlubby professor, feel like birds of an entirely different feather from the plumage Ware, Martin and Swanson are displaying. West remains undoubtedly a playwright to watch, but The Peacock isn't her struttingest work to date."
ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended
"...The subtext involves the stoic Nan as she now lives in Elenore's apartment, the scene of Eleanore's self-inflected hanging. It seems that William had an affair with both women and that Calvin's violent side leads him to assault Nan for reasons that were not completely clear. So my problem with The Peacock is in the script. It contains underdeveloped characters with unclear motivations put into unrealistic situations. Somehow intellectual prowess reigns supreme. I find it hard to believe a group of recently returned soldiers won't be preoccupied with their experiences of the war. I grew up with hearing many stories from my father and those of my friends about their adventures in WWII. I also have problems with how nasty some of the debates became during the workshop critiques. You'd think some of the violence from their war days would spill over? Gender and authorial intent seem to dominate here for good or bad. I was particularly impressed with Andrew Burden Swanson and Tim Martin's performances. This cast did what they could with West's underdeveloped work."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Somewhat Recommended
"...Calamity West’s The Peacock is served in a strange stew in Jackalope Theatre Company’s world premiere production. Director Marti Lyons’ caffeinated cast plays with such rapid-fire gusto that this play about World War II veterans taking a writing course seems like a cross between Noises Off and The Dead Poet’s Society, but without the comic genius of the first or the heart of the second."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Recommended
"...I thoroughly enjoyed THE PEACOCK. It has a “Stranger than Fiction” meets “Dead Poet Society” vibe. The conversations focus on the dissection of artistry. Students are challenged to defend the intent of their plot, their character, their life. From my writer’s perspective, it’s clever. Anyone who has ever read their tale a loud to a discerning group of writers will not only be amused, they’ll be delighted they aren’t a participant. I’m not certain a non-writer would view it with the same entertainment value. Still, even though it’s rather bookish for theatre, THE PEACOCK knows how to shake its tail feathers."
