The Sundial Reviews
Chicago Tribune- Not Recommended
"...The dialogue should cut like glass, whereas here it's played for uncertain melodrama. There are a couple moments that work as set pieces on their own - Edwards, as director, does capture Jackson's low-boil enigmatic dread - especially in a scene that centers on a young woman who tries to escape the grounds, only to be thwarted by a predatory cab driver (Edward Kuffert, increasingly and expertly menacing)."
Chicago Reader- Somewhat Recommended
"...While the uneven performances and graceless set give the production a persistent clunkiness, the coy spitefulness and well-tailored paranoia nicely evoke Jackson's postwar worldview. And once in a while it does the soul good to ponder whether any quarter of humankind deserves to be spared from the fiery furnace."
Windy City Times- Highly Recommended
"...In performance, the degree to which the individuals in this uniformly unpleasant tribe recognize their own shallow values imposes a brittle candor upon those resisting the growing malaise, while reducing those capitulating thereto to the helpless dithering found in Agatha Christie thrillers. A stage with more shadowy corners ( where lurk our own hobgoblins ) would also better serve this brand of creeping unease. No one can deny that Jackson spins a shivery-good yarn, though, nor assert that the cast assembled for this City Lit production doesn't exercise unwavering control of its atmospheric complexities."
Theatre By Numbers- Somewhat Recommended
"...There were some great performances. Kingsley Day's performance as the wheelchair-bound invalid, Richard, was great. As was his turn as Miss Inverness, a shop keeper from the town nearby. Each time Day came on stage, the show improved exponentially. John Blick's turn as Essex was intriguing. At moments he was despicable, at others he was the easiest to empathize with. Blick gave dynamism to what he was able to dig out of the script."
Stage and Cinema- Not Recommended
"...But Edwards’ staging does more harm than his dramatization. He ignores the cardinal rule that a play can be funny or scary but not both or they cancel each other out. With its crude camp (there’s some utterly gratuitous drag), screaming hysterics, and melodramatic histrionics, this mannered and rushed (but never urgent) Sundial, fails to either frighten or amuse. Free-floating fear and cumulative boredom can’t mix. A play about a plutocratic asylum cries “Wolf!” (about the end of the world) so often that Doomsday can’t come soon enough. And, when it does, it’s as anticlimactic as asparagus."
ChicagoCritic- Not Recommended
"...This sprawling work is simply trying to do too much. Mixing humor and fright only leads to silliness and incoherence. The base mystery is never solved and the easy acquiescence to impending doom ring hallow. Paul Edwards has had several successful adaptations of Jackson’s scripts but this is not one of them."
Chicago Theatre Review- Somewhat Recommended
"...A play about an unlikable group of people, none of whom love or care for each other, is difficult to enjoy. The story is confusing and the focus is all over the place. We never really know whose story we’re watching. Unfortunately, for all the talented theatre artists who have devoted so much time and energy into this production, waiting for the end to come is an excruciating event, both for the characters and the audience."
Picture This Post- Somewhat Recommended
"...Though there was some room for character development, the story is an interesting one that keeps spiraling as the characters approach what might be the end for them. You won't find many plays in Chicago involving the end of the world."
Splash Magazine- Recommended
"...While the nuances might be difficult for some audience members seeking to tie up loose ends to appreciate, the acting was often priceless. Fancy, the ultimately murderous girl, is portrayed with absolute gleeful cynicism by Lauren Mangum. Kingsley Day is sensational in his dual role of the querulous and dim-witted Richard- the invalid you love to hate- and in drag as Miss Inverness, the perfectly expressed small town creepy old lady. John Blick couldn't have been more smarmy and awful as Essex while Sheila Willis was a hoot as the sex and money obsessed murdering Orianna. Kudos to Morgan McCabe for an Aunt Fanny we all wish we could lure into a garden maze and leave."
NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended
"...The characters are hard to like and yet, with dialogue Oscar Wilde could have penned, their despicability is transformed into a delight. “I have not deserved this!” mewls governess Miss Ogilvie (Christina Renee Jones) after Orianna decides she must leave the house. “You must allow me my impulse of generosity,” Orianna replies, radiant."