Occidental Express at Trap Door Theatre

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...His design team turns the small stage into an unsettled diorama of dismaying beauty, and the seven-person cast of Trap Door veterans display extraordinary fluency in Visniec's indecipherable theatrical language. The result is 90 minutes of masterful perplexity, as shadowy, clownish figures race in and out of their own troubled histories in failed attempts to create (or, unaccountably, erase) anything genuine."

Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...Episodic and poetic, Occidental Express is made up of slices of life from post-communist Europe depicting the complex relationship of their people with the countries they admire but are suspicious of, where they are officially welcome but widely disliked, and where traumas from wars and generations of repression are never far from the surface. With a wry tone and a vast number of strategies for creating unique pictures on a mostly empty stage, Szabó and the seven-person ensemble communicate deep-seated frustration and longing with an emotional clarity to match their cerebral style."

Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended

"...Szabó directs this thinly woven drama skilfully. He has an outstanding cast, who make the tiny Trap Door stage come alive with poetry and madness. I neglected to mention two other cast members who make up this cast of seven. Mike Steele is the Groom and an American traveller, who carries his trumpet (a pocket trumpet?) in his briefcase. Essential (and rarely seen) is the Stationmaster and DJ, Gary Damico, whose music is lively, mournful and spookily cheerful.'