After The Quake at Steppenwolf Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Not Recommended

"...I left the show feeling hungry for a freer interpretation of the material. Galati brings great tact and intelligence to each project. But "after the quake" harkens, in some admirable ways and some frustrating ones, to Galati's best known literary adaptation, "The Grapes of Wrath." There, as here, the text and the storytelling feel not just indebted to the source but constrained by it."

Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended

"...Galati, a director with a light, graceful touch, pieces together this two-story puzzle with an easy precision that never misses a beat. This dance of emotional rifts and fissures is played against a backdrop of curved steel bars (modernist set design by James Schuette) and urgent, romantic music provided by Jason McDermott (cello) and Jeff Wichmann (koto, a traditional zither-like Japanese instrument). The five-actor cast is seamless as they move back and forth between stories. Keong Sim serves as the connective narrator and also transforms into a dapper, chatty frog with just a few props -- bright green eyeglasses, gloves and socks -- and exacting body language. Hanson Tse smoothly captures the conflicting tides of Junpei's emotions."

Daily Herald - Recommended

"...The author, Haruki Murakami, returned to his hometown after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake disaster and chronicled the repercussions of the destruction in his short stories. Theater and storytelling are blended in the form of lively, descriptive narration - expertly integrating his tales."

SouthtownStar - Not Recommended

"...Unfortunately, this 1-hour- and-40-minute play disappoints because it doesn't speak to any of those important concerns. Instead, this stage adaptation of Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami's short stories is a slight piece of playful whimsy that lets us down."

Time Out Chicago - Recommended

"...after the quake is rare: a comfortable play to watch, but a haunting one to remember."

ChicagoCritic - Recommended

"...Director Frank Galati has assembled a first-rate Asian-American cast and he added a narrator to bridge the gap between the storytelling and actual events. This works to seamlessly weave the two stories into a cohesive whole. In these stories the ‘quake’ becomes a metaphor for the change each person faces in their lives and once they experience their personal quake and its inevitable aftershock, their life experiences are never quite the same."