Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...On one level, Jason Wells' elliptical drama "Men of Tortuga" is a genre-based thriller a la James Bond or Quentin Tarantino. But Wells is sufficiently skilled to dig deeper than that. And, after all of the recent revelations of covert governmental and corporate nastiness, the idea that establishment men would want to knock somebody off isn't so hard to swallow."
Chicago Sun Times
- Highly Recommended
"...Wells has crafted a taut, cleverly orchestrated piece about power, personal psychosis, game-playing, morality and the terror of failure. The play's windup is just about one scene too long. But no one can deny that "Men of Tortuga" ("tortuga" is the Spanish word for "tortoise," and you can make of that what you will) is a sharp parable for our time."
Examiner
- Highly Recommended
"...The casting is ideal. As Taggert, Darrell W. Cox has a manic gleam in his eyes and – when displaying ingenious new ways of killing people - the pride of a first grader who has just finished his first chapter book. (Watch his reaction when a structural flaw is revealed in his machete-cum-brief-case. It’s cross between the righteous tantrum of a little kid and the shocked hurt of a puppy who’s just been kicked in the stomach.)"
Windy City Times
- Highly Recommended
"...All of these elements have been retained in the production currently running at Profiles Theatre, where a stop-on-a-dime agile ensemble of actors, under the direction of Rick Snyder, keep us chuckling too comfortably at the testosteronic repartee to think about the disturbing implications of their personae's descent into savagery."
EpochTimes
- Recommended
"...The set designed by Wayne Karl uses two doors of this small theater to enter and leave the board room- Profiles has seating on both sides of the stage so the 60 or so patrons can see each other viewing the play, but with the design we, the audience, might feel that we are in the room, eavesdropping on these plans and plots Jessica Harpenau's lighting effects work well and Eric Burgher's sound design has just the right touch in music to add a little more mystery to the play."
Edge
- Highly Recommended
"...Fred A. Wellisch (Tom Avery), Jeff Kling (Todd Lahrman) and Jack MCCabe (Kit Maxwell) are dead on in the suitably stereotypical roles of the faux placator, the hot head, and the deep-thinking, ego maniac who is willing to die for his reputation, respectively. The fact that you hate each of them (though less so with the egotistical fellow) throughout the production is, in this case, a good thing. They portray, in a sense, the poster boys for the white-male, elitist criminals."
Time Out Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...Profiles does right by this tangly-but-muscular text. Snyder’s calculated production, perhaps the most waste-free work he’s done, conceals the play’s violence just beneath the surface so that we’ve forgotten it’s there every time it makes a geyserlike reappearance. Of the roundly gifted acting quintet, Cox scores as an all-business hitman with no patience for croneyism, and Wellisch is marvelously vague as a bureaucrat who learns he can’t be the boss and the shape-shifter. Eat their bread."
ChicagoCritic
- Highly Recommended
"...As much as Snyder can work his actors, the production staff at Profiles knows how to milk their tiny storefront. Wayne Karl’s very efficient boardroom set is elegant in its simplicity and the lighting and sound design from Jessica Harpenau and Eric Burgher move the show seamlessly. The company has even managed an extra few rows of comfortable seating for this show, which is a good thing since it is certain to draw crowds as word spreads."
