Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...Chicago’s Shattered Globe Theatre is one of the very few American theater companies headed by a designer. To see the payoff, witness Kevin Hagan’s beguiling little revival of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” which immerses the audience in such an intense visual and audio landscape, it triggers a strikingly strong emotional reaction."
Chicago Sun Times
- Recommended
"...Though Hagan's "Glass Menagerie" is uneven, it is interesting. The director clearly took his cue from the opening monologue for Tom Wingfield, Williams' youthful alter ego, who is both narrator and character, who warns us from the start that we are about to see a memory play."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...The Shattered Globe Theatre cast is excellent. As Tom, the aspiring poet who narrates the story, David Dastmalchian (recalling the young Henry Fonda) conveys a subtle ambivalence; Linda Reiter fuses flinty resolve and frayed nerves as Tom's mother Amanda; Allison Batty nails the childlike sweetness and repressed hysteria of Laura, Tom's emotionally and physically crippled sister; and Mike Falevits is quietly engrossing as Jim, the "gentleman caller" who tries to elevate Laura's self-esteem."
Windy City Times
- Highly Recommended
"...The Glass Menagerie is an American theater landmark, even it if does prescribe to the outdated psychology of the day that an absent father and an overbearing mother lead to ( a strongly hinted at ) gay son. Shattered Globe's handsome production reminds us what a great piece of work Williams' play is, even when certain aspects of it get blown up to grandiose proportions."
Chicago Free Press
- Highly Recommended
"...It is Mike Falevits as Jim who charms the show from underneath his co-stars’ feet, though. Falevits is so genuine and honest that he actually breathes new life into this classic piece. This revelation is most important for anyone doubting that they want another go-around with Williams’ first important work. It is Falevits (and company) who truly make this old warhorse feel like something revolutionary and new—and therefore must-see theater."
Copley News Service
- Highly Recommended
"...The physical production, so vital to the success of this staging, resides in the accomplished hands of Hagan (the exceptionally realistic set), Shelley Strasser Holland (the crucial expressionistic lighting design), Joanna Melville (the fine 1930’s period costumes), and Mike Tutaj and Kevin Viol (the sound and video design)."
Edge
- Recommended
"...Perhaps best about this version is Linda Reiter’s performance as the unhappy, domineering mother, Amanda Wingfield. Her pretensions, her dreams of a long-gone Southern elegance and her controlling tongue are driving away her son, just as they once drove away her long-gone husband. She is "Mommie Dearest" with a big, sad hole in her soul, a wounded character who strives to do well by her two children, but whose vision is so muddled that she simply makes it all worse."
Time Out Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Director Hagan’s rendition of the textbook memory play—Williams’s autobiographical study of a family fettered by a drab St. Louis apartment and a mother’s oppressive memories of better times—has much to recommend it. Start with the design: Hagan’s shabbily appointed set, with abstracted fire-escape gangways hemming in on every side, feels just claustrophobic enough to be the way narrator Tom remembers it. The interplay among the scenic design, Shelley Strasser Holland’s subtle lighting and Mike Tutaj’s video projections—which threaten to distract but instead evoke the associative nature of memory—is a delight."
ChicagoCritic
- Highly Recommended
"...Shattered Globe, under Kevin Hagan’s tight direction, pays homage and respect to this moving work. Shattered Globe continues to mount outstanding shows—their “The Glass Menagerie” is a first-class treat."
