Chicago Tribune
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Teatro Vista might have long operated under some radars, but its core group of actors knows each other intimately. And the way these actors viscerally connect on this stage under Chuck Smith's savvy direction -- I suspect he mostly got out of the way -- is a testament to the quality of such performers as Sandra Marquez, Sandra Delgado, Edward F. Torres and Henry Godinez. The gaunt, understated Godinez, who effects a fragile control of his own power, is especially good here."
Chicago Sun Times
- Recommended
"...Rivera's darkly comic play is now in a world premiere Teatro Vista production at the Goodman Theatre. Director Chuck Smith and the tightly knit ensemble of Latino actors bring the characters to life with an easy, realistic style that gives the play a polished believability."
Daily Herald
- Somewhat Recommended
"...The production, directed by Chuck Smith, feels stilted and self-conscious. And while you get the sense everyone's trying really hard, the material just doesn't measure up to the talent of this cast or the expectations of the Goodman audience."
SouthtownStar
- Somewhat Recommended
"...While the performers are superb (Henry Godinez, Joe Minoso, Edward F. Torres, Sandra Delgado, Sandra Marques, Juan F. Villa, Sonia Tatoyan and Anthony Moseley), the roles they play are unsympathetic."
Chicago Reader
- Somewhat Recommended
"...For Teatro Vista's world premiere production director Chuck Smith forces turbocharged, naturalistic acting onto Rivera's elevated language, making the dialogue stilted and the emotions hyperbolic."
Windy City Times
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Things certainly start off with plenty of high energy. Murky silhouettes seen through windows appear to be brutally murdering someone outside. Unsettling screams and jagged body blows are deafeningly heard. Then lighting designer Mary MacDonald Badger’s blood-red light spills out into the audience ( as if to say we’re all culpable ) as the cast bursts in all spattered with blood and grasping all sorts of bloodied sharp blades. Things start to go downhill from there."
EpochTimes
- Recommended
"...There is a wonderful feeling for an audience watching these actors in these roles- the characters are very realistic and each character intertwines with the others until the guilt and fear take over and then they are no longer a unit. While the performances are stellar, the set ( Brian Sidney Bembridge) a perfect backdrop, solid lighting by Mary McDonald Badger helps to solidify the moods that are set by the musical composition by Mikhail Fiskel."
Time Out Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Chuck Smith’s exceptional ensemble, mostly Teatro Vista actors led by fierce Marquez and Godinez, gives palpable reality to this work otherwise cast in a “magical realism” mold. Rivera has noted this genre has been used as an indirect government critique under Latin dictatorships. But in a country with a First Amendment that protects freedom of speech, does any play really have to take a circuitous route?"
ChicagoCritic
- Not Recommended
"...This cliché ridden plot isn’t plausible and smacks of manipulation by Jose Rivera. I never bought the mixed tones of the work—it moves from rawness to pontification to suspense to ambiguity. Is Joe alive? Is he a mythical figure? The devil? Add the false ending that has many in the opening night audience applauding only to see stage hands moving furniture for the last scene and Massacre unfolds as a work in need of rewrite to tighten the focus and smooth out the contradictions."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Director Chuck Smith’s production seems preoccupied with metaphysical doubts and speculations, but the production is too literal-minded to be a believable allegory or morality play. The second act delves into psychological manipulation as the voice of Joe (real or imagined, you guess) haunts the tribe until the final scene jolts us back in time 6 years as the conspirators prepare to come face to face with their adversary for the first time. "Massacre" may not reach the kind of theatrical bloodbath we’re promised in the opening scene, but it ultimately feels hollow and unconvincing."
