A Perfect Wedding at Circle Theatre

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...Director Joanie Schultz enlivens this essentially plotless evening with a strong, energetic cast whose every member performs with verve and riveting urgency. When my focus flagged during those overlong bits--mainly in the first act--Jessica Kuehnau's playful costume design and Bob Knuth's gorgeous set provided a little eye candy."

Windy City Times - Recommended

"...A Perfect Wedding fits the bill for adventurous audiences looking for something different. This unconventional piece is also timely since it is largely friendly—if slightly ambivalent—toward the message that all kinds of people should be allowed to form long-lasting marriages ( including gays and lesbians).

Chicago Free Press - Highly Recommended

"...Mee’s latest cultural collage also couldn’t be more relevant to the same-sex marriage debate. Joanie Schultz’ superb communal staging puts all 20 actors in place and at a pace to suit these rampaging viewpoints passing as conversation. The loosey-goosey plot depicts a marriage that instantly falls apart when the groom runs off into the woods and, following him, the family and friends fall in and out of love. As with “Mamma Mia!,” the perfect wedding isn’t the one that’s planned."

Copley News Service - Highly Recommended

"...Mee is one of American drama’s most personal dramatists. From time to time, one of his plays pops up in a Chicagoland production, always idiosyncratic and always theatrical. But they all make considerable demands on a theater’s resources, technically and dramatically. If the production works, the audience is treated to an evening of fresh, stimulating, often humorous verbal and visual theater. The Circle Theatre is presenting 'A Perfect Wedding,' and the production works. Does it ever!"

Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...Given its large cast and tricky stagecraft, the script is an ambitious undertaking for the moderate resources of Circle Theatre. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always pay off in Schultz’s production. She shoots for controlled chaos, but often—especially in several unfocused scenes with a dozen cast members or more on stage at once—she just gets chaos. Frenetic performances only add to the confusion, underscoring the script’s lack of an emotional center."

ChicagoCritic - Not Recommended

"...Mee’s play tries to be a comedy, a social commentary and melodrama all at the same time. Just as the action starts, we are interrupted by long speeches on the nature of love, or the stupidity of marriage or the pinning of one lover for another. Then manic events such as a mud fight or screaming foot chases occur. Act two starts with a long scene about the death of the bride’s grandmother."