Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Dado treats each section in a nearly musical way, each with its own tone - from the slightly off-kilter realism of the Rose-and-Bert opening to the comic-book menace of the invasion of the Sandses to the darker encounter with Riley. But Fitzgerald is the solid anchor here in the center of an admirably well-tuned cast. Her Rose's fears, veiled prejudices and suggestions of OCD (constantly rearranging the piles of potatoes) capture someone who hates to see her world invaded by others, no matter how dire it may be without them."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Almost everything in “The Room” is enigmatic and open to wide interpretation. You might call this play a study in the many forms of trauma, or the violence of the passive and aggressive, or simply our powerlessness in the face of man’s inhumanity to man. The moral of the story? You can hide, but you cannot escape. Safety is entirely illusory."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Rose and Bert Hudd live in a one-room apartment-not unusual during the housing shortage that would linger for decades. On this wintry morning, homebody Rose speculates on the identity of neighboring tenants and frets over being left alone by her husband's going out for a drive. Her solitary day is interrupted by building manager Mr. Kidd checking the utilities in the run-down property, a cheerful couple ( introducing themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Sands ) house-hunting under the impression that the Hudds' unit is vacant, and a stranger named Riley, who entreats Rose to "come home." When Bert returns to discover Riley in his home, he proceeds to savagely beat the visitor, who is-just coincidentally-blind, scarred, mixed-race, cross-dressed and probably homeless."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...As Rose, Fitzgerald is a powerhouse, carefully tracing the thousand spidering cracks across the character's psyche. The cast as a whole is strong, and the off-kilter, pipe-heavy set by designer Grant Sabin manages to express the play's paranoid, claustrophobic atmosphere. The weakest part of the play, funnily enough, is the play itself, which spins out in its final act. The Room is very much a first play, and Pinter would soon learn to do more with less. That's the final reason The Room feels so Trumpy: It's an example of doing less with more."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...Presaging more darkness to follow, The Room, the first play by the late Harold Pinter, is an hour-long psychological thriller from 1957. Full of dour portent, it’s further proof that Halloween only needs humans for horror. Creepily directed by Dado at A Red Orchid Theatre, this six-person one-act practically patents Pinter’s tools of the trade: menace-packed pauses; sinister strangers barging in; unexplained rumblings; and unsought (and sometimes unseen) revenges, both psychological and physical."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...A Red Orchid Theatre's production of Pinter's The Room is, I'd say, recommended for an audience with a mature and sophisticated appreciation for theatre. Not that it's pretentious or elitist, but, if one is not willing to follow its absurd and esoteric progression thoughtfully, one will likely be frustrated and confused by its conclusion (though perhaps still entertained by its menace and occasional comedy). For it is a sobering production that demands something of you, and you will only get something out of it to the degree to which you give in to it."
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...Written in less than a week, this highly ambiguous drama about psychological isolation, apparently told from the point of view of a mentally ill woman, foreshadowed Pinter's break-out The Birthday Party less than a year later, as well as The Hothouse, which Dado directed for A Red Orchid ten years ago. In The Room, audiences can see Pinter's first efforts to explore how language can lack or obscure meaning, but the production is by no means an intellectual exercise meant only for theatre scholars. Dado's brilliant ensemble and design team make the closed-off section of mid-last-century working-class London utterly engulfing, and for seventy minutes, audiences are absorbed in a dangerous, absurd world."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...The story is confusing, yet exquisitely and impressively acted and produced. It does exactly what it sets out to do. This is a moody story that’s impossible to describe, yet horrifying to behold. It offers no answers. By the final curtain only questions are raised and each audience member’s interpretation of what he’s just experienced is as valid as his neighbor’s. This is a magnificent production, by a gifted director and her talented company, presenting a seldom-experienced Pinter classic that’s just made for these cold Autumn Chicago nights. A word of warning: leave a light on at home."
The Fourth Walsh - Recommended
"...Dado puts us in THE ROOM. The intimate confines force us to connect to Fitzgerald’s angst. We meet each stranger with fear and uncertainty. THE ROOM gets very dark. By the end, we aren’t sure what has transpired but we miss the simplicity of counting potatoes. Pinter gives us some answers but leaves us with more questions "
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...In the hour run-time, we’re under duress; Pinter’s early plays, the comedies of menace, are quite funny at the cost of their participants, both performers and audience. Helplessness and the madness of language seeps out from the doors lining the back wall and Dado’s decision to eschew some Pinterian conventions is beneficial. We’re steeped deep in this world of terror and alienation. Fitzgerald’s performance is nerve-wracking and the Sands are spooky as hell."
