Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...But Graney, for good or ill, is a messy, goofy, scrappy optimist. The takeaway of his super-sized show is that our lives usually start out being filled with external tormentors- enemies who wish to skewer our Achilles' heels or attack our homes and families or compete for whatever sliver of power we have gained for ourselves. And then, as we age, we end up more and more with ourselves. Our furies are internalized demons. For the record, 'right there myself."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...We see the full range of relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, sisters and brothers, politicians and citizens, generals and soldiers. We see the horrors and insanity of war in all their extremity, the gruesome payback for sexual betrayals, the high price paid for loyalty, the futility of prophecy and the wages of guilt. We see people driven to acts of both devotion and madness. We feel the lust for power, the ache for home, and the inevitability of death."
Gapers Block - Highly Recommended
"...Indeed. This prodigious show is not simply a play, but an experience in time and space. Few works are able to accomplish as much in terms of both entertainment as well as introspection. It is not easily shaken. As a piece of theatrical art it has no match, at least as yet we've encountered. All Our Tragic is a sprawling, messy, at-times-brilliant show, much like the lives of those it portrays and would hope to honor. It is a singular achievement, one not likely to be repeated any time soon."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...But if there's one theme of going through All Our Tragic in a single sitting, I think it's the power of story itself. You find yourself talking with your neighbors about the astonishing beauty of Jared Moore's lighting, about the endurance of the actors to do this two days in a row every weekend, about the ways these versions of the Trojan War differ from The Iliad, about how they pulled off that stage trick of the arrow piercing Achilles' heel. During the longer breaks, some of the cast members will come out and mingle in costume or in their street clothes. By midday, you can feel a change in the air in the room; everyone is all in this together."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...Honestly, I’m not sure which impressed me most, Graney’s bravura theatrical coup, the all-in commitment of a large cast of characters or the indefatigable enthusiasm of the remarkably youthful audience that came, stayed, watched in rapt silence and whooped their renewed engagement at onset of each act as if to proclaim, “We’re still here, let’s do it!”"
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...An ambitious production that exceeds expectation (as if it's possible to even know what to expect of a 12-hour performance!), All Our Tragic is simply unforgettable, on so many levels. It's not really a show or even a play, but an experience, a total immersion into the imaginations of Sean Graney and the Greeks. The end result is that the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides really do become ours: they are all our tragic."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...After a build-up of nearly twelve hours, the moment is well-earned, and the audience certainly feels that it has been put through the full range of laughter, sorrow, and moral dilemmas. All Our Tragic is a must-see for fans of the theatre and anyone who ever was interested in classical literature, who I think will be pleased with these new interpretations. There have been several fine adaptations of ancient tragedies this season which show why these stories remain interesting, but All Our Tragic provides the sense of an entire world being passed on."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...The best words I can use to describe All Our Tragic are the words of Graney himself. He threads his story together with a line at the beginning and end of each story, a moment to breath and think about what is to come and what has past: stasis and new stasis. It’s said in many different ways but always addresses the world, “We become it, it becomes us.” That is the foundation of the whole enterprise, the whole festival, every bit of theatre, a sharing of stories, of enthusiasms, an uncorking of feelings and airings of the questions we can never find the right words to ask. In its jokes both flatfooted and nimble, in its twists both heart pounding and head scratching, in all its wounds, All Our Tragic is one of the finest pieces of theatre I’ve ever seen. I would gladly sit through twelve hours of heart ache again, and again, and I know each time I would rise to clap thinking, “This is why these stories have survived. This is why we should take the time to listen to them. This is what theater should truly be.”"
The Fourth Walsh - Recommended
"...There is a lot to love about Graney's Greek-fest. The show is portioned off into segments. A person can purchase the 12-hour immersion package on Saturday or Sunday or see the show in quarters over four consecutive Fridays or Mondays. I saw it in its entirety on Saturday. I have experienced 6 hour operas. I've seen three plays in one day. I had never experienced 12 hours of concentrated folklore before Graney's colossal catastrophe tribute. As an audience member, I feel like I crossed some mythical finish-line. I did it! I did it! I did it! The accomplishment seems t-shirt worthy: "I survived 12 hours of tragedy""
