Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...But "The Price" also looks at the residue of familial disaster from the point of the buyer. To clear the attic of this Manhattan brownstone, Solomon must come out of retirement and take a risk. What to one party is a task of despair — if you've ever left a dealer with a check so small that you feel at once enraged and guilty, you'll get one of this play's pervasive emotions — forms an opportunity for another party. Even as the brothers (and one of their wives) squabble over the wreckage of a family long eroded by lies, Solomon gets a blood-coursing project that might just keep him alive. So goes our interconnected lives. We dispose of the stuff someone we love collected and adored, and we go home and cry over our flimsy check. Meanwhile, the dealer, unencumbered by emotional baggage, begins to sell. You see it at estate sales every day; I was at one the other day. It seemed like a life of worth had been tagged with callous impunity. I had to leave."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Watch the 91-year-old actor as he moves through TimeLine Theatre’s gripping revival of “The Price” – Arthur Miller’s play about family, money, ambition, sacrifice, self-deception and the blackly comic joke that is life itself – and you are treated to something altogether rare and remarkable. It goes far beyond a matter of masterful artistry fully sustained and magnified over the decades. It is a combination of insight, experience, timing and, yes, pure magic."
The Wall Street Journal - Highly Recommended
"...For all his fame, Arthur Miller was never all that commercially successful. Only two of his plays, "Death of a Salesman" and "The Price," ran for more than a year on Broadway, and "The Price," though it was telecast on NBC in 1971 and continues to receive occasional high-profile revivals, isn't nearly as well known as "Salesman." So when Chicago's TimeLine Theatre Company announced that it was staging "The Price" and that the cast would include Mike Nussbaum, I knew I had to be there. Mr. Nussbaum (who is, believe it or not, 91 years old) isn't widely known outside his home town, but he's one of America's best character actors. I've seen him in everything from Shakespeare to Sondheim, and he's always knocked me flat. This time, however, he's outdone himself-though not at the expense of the production, which is so unremittingly taut that I found it all but impossible to look away from the stage long enough to scribble notes on what I was seeing. Maybe that's the definition of a really good show: one that Mr. Nussbaum doesn't steal because everybody else in the cast is as good as he is."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...Louis Contey's careful staging unfolds on a set (designed by Brian Sidney Bembridge) featuring old furniture stacked precariously to the rafters-an apt visual metaphor for the weight and wobbliness of the past. As the brothers, Bret Tuomi and Roderick Peeples sometimes seem too worn down to put up a proper fight. But Kymberly Mellen conveys a heartbreaking desperation as Victor's ambitious wife, and the remarkable 91-year-old Mike Nussbaum supplies an impish, untrustworthy charm as the dealer."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Beyond Nussbaum, Louis Contey’s production features terrifically specific performances from Roderick Peeples as the armistice-seeking Walter and Bret Tuomi as the suspicious Victor (Terry Hamilton takes over the latter role starting October 21); Kymberly Mellen is equally fine as Victor’s frustrated wife, Esther. Yet there are ways the play can leave us frustrated as well. The play frequently feels repetitious, the dialogue stilted; Miller sometimes seems to be stalling with reversal after reversal. Perhaps The Price really was meant to be a one-act."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...A seemingly private, personal piece, The Price seems to depart from TimeLine Theatre's usual fare of historically urgent dramas (and even from Miller's more socially minded Death of a Salesman and The Crucible). But, like All My Sons and A View from the Bridge, it's a conscience keeper: The Price indicts the American dream as a greed quest, dividing and conquering loved ones who badly need better bonds."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Despite everything, you can still see Victor's nostalgia on Tuomi's face as he first enters the room, and come to realize over the course of the play how dangerous that nostalgia is. As the wily dealer, Nussbaum has the funniest role, and ironically, perhaps the one with the brightest future. While Walter is in the frightening position of starting over, and Victor and Ester are unsure whether they have the courage to do so despite their misery, Solomon is reinvigorated by the prospect of making his first deal in years. He's nearly ninety, he tells the others, and after a difficult life thought it was time to fade away, when the challenge presented by the room put some spark back in him. Is Miller saying that's how long people have to wait before they start living, or is he suggesting that some people don't acquire the courage to do so until they're at that point? It's a sobering thought, but one worth contemplating. Though conventional aspirations have changed, The Price still strikes to the core of what people want for themselves."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"... Timeline has done it again! This amazing theater company brings the seldom done “The Price” by Arthur Miller to its stage. This play is one that goes into our pasts as two brothers must come to terms with the “stuff” left behind by their father. It is more than just a family situation though. It is about choices we make, some of our own mindset and others due to circumstances beyond their control."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...TimeLine has outdone itself with this revival of one of Arthur Miller’s finest plays. This drama, which sizzles to life under the direction of Mr. Louis Contey, features the artistry of a terrific cast and crew. Their collective work makes a family’s memories explode all over the stage. This production should not be missed. It’s one that Chicago audiences will remember and be talking about for years to come."