Chicago Tribune
- Somewhat Recommended
"...There are some thought-provoking nuggets here, and I?m inclined to revisit Mac?s ideas by reading the script. Unfortunately, the spectacle overshadows the substance in this bawdy sequel to a bloody play."
Talkin Broadway
- Recommended
"...It was a bit of a speed-through when I went to see Taylor Mac's dark comedy Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus at the Redtwist Theatre in Chicago on a "pick-up" Thursday night. Most of the big ideas and changes in identity were still there, under the direction of Steve Scott, with extensive technical direction by Jeff Brain. But if you'd blinked, a lot of psychological transitioning would have gone missing."
Stage and Cinema
- Somewhat Recommended
"...There are sequels and there are sequels. Few can be considered as aspirational or as pioneering as Taylor Mac's Gary, a continuation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus now playing at Redtwist Theatre. Easily the Bard's most sensational blood fest, Redtwist brought Titus's "vicious circle of revenge and counter-revenge" to their stage in late February and wowed the city with its excellence of production, visceral intensity and superb acting. It was Grade A Shakespeare triumphantly brought down to street level on Bryn Mawr Avenue."
Around The Town Chicago
- Recommended
"...Gruesomely gory and scintillatingly scatological, "Gary" is a mixed bag. Loosely based on "Titus Andronicus", one of Shakespeare's most violent plays, the title begs the question: What happens in the aftermath of battle? Who cleans up the death, the dismemberment, and the destruction? In this "sequel" to this classic tale, the cleanup is focused not on the battlefield but inside a huge hall: the planned site for tomorrow's inauguration of a new emperor. Currently, dead soldiers are strewn everywhere: men who have killed, raped, tortured, and pillaged. Their bloodied bodies have been intentionally lain across the room's huge banquet table. Beneath the table are the bodies of women and children-the victims of the war-who have been neatly tucked away out of view of the audience."
Buzz Center Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...Gary (brilliantly played by William Delforge) is a servant who aspires to the lofty status of Fool and wistfully dresses the part. His BFF (tho she may not agree!) is the maid Janice (Hannah Rhode), less imaginative but patently more astute than Gary. We encounter one old friend from TITUS: the delicious Cameron Austin Brown as Carole, the midwife who delivered Empress Tamora's baby, which was instantly and inarguably seen to have been fathered by the Moor Aaron (James Lewis). Inexplicably, Carol survives the resulting collieshangle [great word, yeah? Means donnybrook or argy-bargy. Aren't words fun then?] to reappear in the midst of the (very) bloody task of tidying up the corpses littering the palace."
MaraTapp.org
- Highly Recommended
"...What the corps of Taylor Mac's Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus pulls off on the heels of a violent coup is an artistic one full of humor, wisdom and hope. This play is a call to arms. Translation: Get off your bum and take action. More immediately make sure you catch this play, which will run in rotation with Redtwist's Titus Andronicus for a few weeks in June. It will escort you into Shakespeare's times and reveal the parallels to Trump's time."
Allie and the After Party
- Recommended
"...Set in the aftermath of Titus Andronicus, we're left with dozens of bodies that two maids are tasked with cleaning up. These characters are the unnamed characters throughout the original play and now represent something more that leads to the philosophical quandaries about societal change within Gary."
