Green Corridors Reviews

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...While the setting is the current Ukraine war, there are echoes throughout this Trap Door production to past conflicts and crises. It’s all too familiar—a point past which no society I know of seems able to progress. There’s this tribal instinct to claim one’s own people are above the barbarity of whoever is subjugating them at the moment, but that’s just wishful thinking."

Stage and Cinema - Recommended

"...Four women push mobile doorjambs around the stage as the audience filters in. Their movement is slow and halting, as if moving through fog. Once the theatre lights dim, the doors are moved to the back and the women—along with a couple other people—form a line in front of an immigration official. So begins Ukrainian playwright Natalka Vorozhbyt’s Green Corridors, Trap Door Theatre’s opening production of 2026."

Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...“Green Corridors” is written by Natalka Vorozhbyt (translated by John Freedman with Natalia Bratus), who is a leading Ukrainian playwright, screenwriter and director with many of her works exploring the human cost of war and displacement. That is the thrust of this particular piece as it takes us through actual stories blended with the filming of a story that tells the same story as the characters we are watching are experiencing."

Third Coast Review - Recommended

"...Green Corridors focuses on the stories of four Ukrainian women and other citizens trying to escape the brutality of Russian attacks on Ukraine in the war that Russia started in 2022. This new play by Ukrainian playwright Natalka Vorozhbyt is on stage at Trap Door Theatre, continuing its mission of producing “challenging and obscure works,” often by Eastern European playwrights. Kay Martinovich directs the play, which was translated by John Freedman with Natalia Bratus."

Werner's Theatre Reviews - Recommended

"...Vorozhbyt’s writing is both poetic and daunting, offering vivid descriptions of the horrors experienced by refugees in war-infested Ukraine. The detailed verbal imagery allows the audience to connect deeply with the fear and anger felt by the characters as they attempt to build new lives. Bukowska, Garneau, Mansfield, and Rentea truly shine through their emotional range, humor, and dramatic presence as four women navigating a world beyond the war zone of their country."

NewCity Chicago - Recommended

"...Their stories are presented primarily as a series of loosely interlocking vignettes. One recurring image involves the actress performing various scenes within a sprawling historical Ukrainian biopic. Each scene involves a national hero choosing not to take refuge a day or night before they are fated to be assassinated by either the Nazis, the KGB or the Soviets. They each sense the moment coming, but they’re powerless to prevent their demise."