Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...As directed by Ismael Lara Jr. in this intimate theater, it’s a tense affair that doesn’t want to let the audience know too much, too quickly. I’d argue it goes too far in that intentional obliqueness, given the play’s simultaneous desire to be an action-oriented thriller requiring investment in plot. But if you stay with it, the payoff comes."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...But this is A Red Orchid, the Chicago company renowned for producing theater on the edge. You're already inside the world premiere of "Last Hermanos" as you enter. The decrepit space looks to be some kind of visitor center, once. There's a flag with a lone star, a tattered map on the wall. Are those old chips bags on the floor? Is that grass growing through the floorboards? Is that just junk or a shoe? Scenic designer Mara Ishihara Zinky has left provocative clues. Pay attention to these signs of feckless hanging out, of waiting, of haste. You're locked in for a Becket-like ride."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...The cast is solid, but seemed under-rehearsed opening night, the occasional line being repeated or awkwardly mistimed. More troubling is the lack of movement in Julio's character. He starts out at frenzied peak intensity, leaving the character nowhere to grow. It's a flat line rather than an arc."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...Miguel and his brother Julio are in a bad place, two Latinos on a desperate run from pursuers who want to catch them before they can make it across the border to Mexico and safety. The hunters on their trail may be federal agents, or they could be hired guns, or perhaps even white vigilantes out to expunge the countryside of any and all Latinos. That part is not entirely clear in Exal Iraheta's gripping play "Last Hermanos." It really doesn't matter. Somebody is closing in on the brothers, and their flight has stalled."
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...Director Ismael Lara, Jr. does a great job utilizing a very small stage in a venue with only 63 seats. We see a functional set, mostly meant to look like a safehouse, nicely designed by Mara Ishihara Zinky. The borderlines of the set are meant to depict the outdoors. Lighting by Josiah Croegaert essentially demarcates the various spaces and the time of day, such that the scenery-and cinematography-is left to the audience's imagination. Sound by Joe Court is perfect, and costumes by Johan Gallardo are very appropriate. Props are good, and one of the most important of them is the pot inside the safehouse, which the brothers use to boil dirty water, so as to be able to drink it without getting sick."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...Like these three men, we live within our own world of uncertainty. The country is plagued by a continually mutating Covid virus. Infection rates rise and fall on a daily basis and we’re never sure whether the mask mandates are keeping us safe. But as we turn to our family and loved ones for comfort and support during these trying times, we can identify with the tense situation created in Exal Iraheta’s brutal, violent drama. It’s a story that will leave audiences white-knuckled, shell-shocked and questioning who can be trusted these days."
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...Last Hermanos by Exal Iraheta is a play about two brothers, set at some time now or in the recent past or near future, in an abandoned visitor center in a deserted park in central Texas. The brothers are escaping from something-possibly persecution by the US government-and trying to make The Crossing. At first they're waiting for a team that's been paid to take them; then, finding themselves deserted, they desperately seek a way to safety-to Piedras Negras across the river from Texas. The source of the brothers' fear is ambiguous but ever-present."
