Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...You just don't see any kind of progression, especially in the first piece, which is flat, overly pretty and mannered, and thus neither human nor credible. Both the second and third dramas are a little better (the third really is an extraordinary piece of passionate writing, and some of acting rises to meet it), but here, too, it feels in this production very much like the characters have been stuck in a series of wobbly tableaux, when the script is actually requiring them to gather speed down the highway of experiential change."
Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended
"... Holman’s rather contrived-feeling 1987 trilogy, stiffly directed by Erica Weiss, is far more about the wars that rage inside people than about any actual combat. Seen together, the plays also suggest that often we are our own worst enemies. As for real war, it can be oddly liberating as well as mutilating."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...This 1986 triptych by Robert Holman is evidently meant to work that way. I say "evidently" because the coherence never actually kicks in here. Sure, there's a potentially powerful theme running through the three vignettes. Set in 1944, 1982, and 1986 respectively, each of them portrays people trying to stay emotionally alive in the shadow of war. But director Erica Weiss never finds a way to make that theme dramatically resonant. The pieces are ponderous and stilted, the whole is inert."
Chicago On the Aisle - Not Recommended
"... Theater on a rough night can be so much like life when nothing works out, when all you get from a third swing is strike three. That’s the impression I took away from British playwright Robert Holman’s trilogy of vignettes under the collective title “Making Noise Quietly” at Steep Theatre. Whiff. Whiff. Whiff."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"... Eva Breneman’s astute coaching was evident in all the dialects, and Alarie Hammock’s costumes were fitting for each period, although the best costumes of the night belonged to Faber and Bell, who go Full Monty in the best act of the night. Sadly, that lovely work is wasted in the same way that a fine wine is squandered by spoiled meat."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...These three short plays demonstrate Robert Holman’s immense talent as a writer as he weaves a subtle glimpse into the damage that war can make in unexpected ways on common folks. Holman’s clarity and depth of character is rich in compassion and truth. The Steep ensemble, led by Josh Salt, as Eric, Patricia Donegan, as May, and Lorraine Freund, a Helene, contained strong character studies. This is a moving glimpse into the consequences of war. It is well worth seeing."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"... In times of war, people may change for the better and sometimes for the worst. In Making Noise Quietly the internal scars of warfare left on the minds and in the hearts of six characters, opens the stage for the release of intimate secrets and startling revelations surrounding each character’s life. Eric Faber (Josh Salt) and Oliver Bell (Nick Goodman) begin with a scene set in a field in Kentucky in 1944, where the two young men discuss and explore their truths concerning sexuality, occupations, family, friends, love, war and morality over a picnic."
