Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Indeed, "Passion Play" could be a great Anglo-American theatrical epic in the tradition of "Angels" or "The Coast of Utopia,' for it homes in on the great, central struggle of our moment. "Angels" declared sex a political act; "Passion Play" wants to do the same for art. But Ruhl, a great American writer, has yet to wrestle her massive canvas into manageable cohesion."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...The whole thing is at once wondrous, transfixing and vaguely hallucinatory (think Gabriel Garcia Marquez meets Mary Zimmerman). It also can be overly precious. Only so much ingeniousness can be absorbed, no matter how many charming surprises, whimsical riffs or darkly ominous dreams unspool."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...When does 3½ hours not feel like 3½ hours? When one spends them immersed in Goodman Theatre's remarkable production of Sarah Ruhl's "Passion Play: a cycle in three parts," a strikingly original work filled with beguiling images and sustained by big ideas expressed with a light heart rather than a heavy hand."
SouthtownStar - Not Recommended
"...Written by Sarah Ruhl, the play lacks coherence, plot and depth. It skips and jumps through centuries to depict three versions of the religious re-enactment of the Crucifixion of Christ."
Pioneer Press - Highly Recommended
"...This play, stunning as it is, will not be to everyone's taste. At the press preview, about five percent of the audience departed after the First Act and about an equal number after the Second. It is their loss, but to be fair, this is a difficult play, brimming with complex material that takes time to digest. Much is never explained, so it satisfies emotions while bemusing the intellect."
Windy City Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...Passion Play is ambitious and complex, and director Mark Wing-Davey has used Ruhl’s long-but-barebones text to create a modern theatrical pageant, layered with visual effects and technical devices—some as old as passion plays themselves—and a cast of 16. It’s dazzling and impressive, but it doesn’t all work because the three-and-half hour show (two intermissions ) doesn’t have a gut-wrenching emotional climax."
Chicago Free Press - Not Recommended
"...Ruhl (whose “Clean House” also liked to stir things up) tackles many truths here—the unholy marriage of politics and religion, the disconnect between mortals’ make-believe and their real motivations and the self-fulfilling power of a play to alter everyone connected with it. But the overlong, cluttered and scattershot plot, directionless dialogue, quixotic symbol-mongering, knee-jerk magic realism, self-indulgent side scenes and aimless, lazy apostrophes to the audience take a cumulative toll."
Gay Chicago Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...If you see no other play this season, see playwright Sarah Ruhl’s hilarious, haunting and at times horrifying “Passion Play: A Cycle In Three Parts.” The profundity and scope of the writing is matched by the excellence of the Goodman Theatre’s production, thereby constructing a convergence of creation that represents theatre’s potential to engage us in ways that not only entertain and enlighten but effect a change in the individual conscience that can subsequently impact the collective one."
EpochTimes - Highly Recommended
"...This is a sparkling production with a group of very talented actors directed by British director Mark Wing-Davey who makes this three and one half hours move at a swift pace (if one could call 3 1/2 hours "swift"). Each actor plays many roles and each one does so with great energy."
Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Wing-Davey’s production can’t make heads or tails of the script’s detached imagery (all those toy ships on sticks evoke, at best, a grade-school Columbus Day pageant), but the director is certainly adept at handling actors with eccentric gifts. Nicole Weisner, usually seen on the tiny stage of the Eurocentric Trap Door Theatre, is note-perfect as a sappy ’70s Jesus freak, while Craig Spidle’s three stage directors are each uniquely fussy and funny. And spectacular stage creature T. Ryder Smith leaves mouths agape as Queen Bess, Der Führer and the Gipper."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...Come see this provocative saga to see the fresh voice of the talented Sarah Ruhl on stage. Not all of the three hours work as designed, but there is enough meat to stimulate animated after show discussions. Originality dominates in Passion Play."
