Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...This “Brief History” has much to say about the elusiveness of beauty (“always leaving,” notes one character, “but never gone for good”) and the arbitrary way that teenage happiness is dispensed (or withheld) based on how we look and what our parents do, or don't do. It's the kind of piece that reminds you how miserable high school can be. And it's further evidence that Steep, which specializes in these dark dramas of despair, has matured into a fine Chicago theater with an uncommon understanding of, and interest in, the pain and struggles of ordinary people."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...A production I saw in London was agonizing but ultimately powerful. Joanie Schultz's staging for Steep Theatre gets to the same place by an alternate route, finding more comedy in Charlotte's misadventures--until the pain kicks in in earnest."
Centerstage
- Highly Recommended
"...Peter Moore and Neff create a moving father-daughter relationship: she's desperate for approval, with puppy dog eyes, and he's irrational, refusing to face his grief. In the end, the story is about the saving power of love, yet Moore and Neff pull it off without seeming trite or overdone. Real emotion weighs much more than shock value."
Time Out Chicago
- Recommended
"...What holds everything together in Joanie Schultz’s searing production (no relation between director and author) is Neff’s gutsy, almost febrile performance as Charlotte. Tasked with playing a character who’s unattractive in both appearance and personality, Neff turns the girl into a compelling, volatile bundle of raw, grasping adolescent need."
ChicagoCritic
- Recommended
"...Caroline Neff gave a strong performance as Charlotte. We see both her innocent painful side as well as her naughty vicious side. Neff never flinches as she gave a scary look into teenage grief and the search for acceptance. Neff’s performance makes this show worth seeing. Peter Moore was also excellent as the cold, grief-stricken father. Be warned that graphic references and depiction of sex acts and violence occurs. The brutality of life strikes Charlotte who is incapable of coping. This is riveting theatre that will shake you to your core."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Highly Recommended
"...Another pleasant surprise is to be met with the set, designed by Chelsea Warren. It appears incredibly simple at first, but the harder you look, the more brilliant it becomes. It's not about being complicated. It is a very realistic bedroom set with a window and a door. Except the walls are made of cloth. It takes a very sure hand at construction and a very creative mind to frame out a solid window and door into a wall that doesn't exist. Needless to say, I was incredibly impressed."
Chicago Theater Beat
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Strange that the scenes that falter most are those where Charlotte faces men who could really give a damn about her. Neff’s interactions with Thompson and Moore lose their bearings. That may sound really absurd, since Schultz pushes these characters into over-the-top, melodramatic surrealism. Charlotte reaches her heights in her crazy longing with Franklin and Harry. Nevertheless, something realistic must be fashioned out of the all-out collision between Charlotte’s fantasies and cold reality in these scenes, or the audience just can’t and won’t buy it. When Charlotte and Harry, or Charlotte and Franklin, go over the top, the audience has to be willing to go with them. Without a connection to these scenes that produce solid empathy, Charlotte just becomes another statistic in the cultural war on real girls."
