Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom at Strawdog Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...Schultz does craft a very interesting last 10 minutes (borrowing an idea from David Cromer's "Our Town") and suddenly switching to a kind of hyper-realism allowing you to view this landscape from numerous angles in a deft piece of technologically enhanced staging. But by then it's very late in the game, played in an invulnerable world that offers some mild thrills but never envelops."

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"... Haley's indictment of disengaged parenting and kids' addiction to screens occasionally slides from satire into sermonizing. But Joanie Schultz's production is exactly right: saturated in multimedia (designed by Kyle Hamman) and performed with an appropriate mix of realism and fantasy. The game-over finale is genuinely chilling."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"... A mere four actors representing an entire subdivision's worth of families is no easy task, especially when required to swap personae at the speed demanded by the 70-minute running time (although Haley is savvy enough to have them frequently address each other by name), but director Joanie Schultz reins in her cast well short of camp caricature, instead allowing the paranoia to arise from the very banality of what passes for filial conversation within this social stratum. Gamers in attendance may snicker at the inside jokes but Rod Serling, wherever he may be, would certainly approve the lesson we take away with us."

Time Out Chicago - Recommended

"... Schultz’s game four-person ensemble strikes a convincing and satirical tone, but it’s not until the last 15 minutes that the suburban characters transcend caricature. When they do, it’s delightful: a legitimate sense of doom in a theater."

Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended

"...Playwright Jennifer Haley is definitely onto something in her play Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, now receiving its Chicago premiere at Strawdog. In a suburban neighborhood in Anytown, USA, the local teens have become addicted to an Xbox video game in which the dissociative kids can role-play with each other, acting as superhuman robots out to destroy the zombies who have invaded their world. But, as with the best that Rod Serling could imagine, things are not what they seem."

Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended

"... Playwright Jennifer Haley has penned a fascinating reality. The teenager-parent, neighbor-neighbor, kid-video dynamics are dead on. The underlying messages of addiction and communication are present. But overall, this show is a thriller! And Joanie Schultz directs it with equal parts of intensity and humor. It has all the terror and frivolity of any of the “Scary Movie” franchise. Mike Dailey (dad), Leah Karpel (daughter), Kendra Thulin (mom), and Sam Hubbard (son) morph into all the people in the neighborhood. The Fab Four do a terrific job creating multiple, distinct personas. In particular, and in back-to-back scenes, Thulin and Hubbard climax the hilarity and the horror. Thulin perfectly plays two desperate mothers trying to understand the game situation. Hubbard plays the same kid with survivalist camaraderie to someone else’s mother and icy cruelty to his own mother. Disturbingly powerful!"