Chicago Tribune
- Somewhat Recommended
"...The terrific 21-member cast—which includes such Seanachai ensemble members as Anne Sunseri, Thomas Vincent Kelly, Sarah Wellington, Jeff Christian, John Dunleavy and Barbara Figgins—provides real heft where the script is lacking, and their collective performances almost convince you that there is more here than really is the case."
Chicago Sun Times
- Highly Recommended
"...McCafferty's three-act play, expertly orchestrated by director Scott Cummins, runs about three hours and features a superbly unified, highly individualistic, generation-spanning ensemble of 21 actors. Enhancing the storytelling is set designer Joey Wade's deft rotation of the usual Storefront Theatre layout to create a broad, multilevel playing space. Its bare brick walls become a haunting slaughterhouse backdrop, hung with sides of beef."
Chicago Reader
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Scott Cummins's 21-member ensemble finds some gripping moments--especially in a hospital scene between Kat McDonnell as a distraught, infertile wife and Margaret Kustermann as an older woman with a devastating diagnosis. But awkward transitions between scenes dilute the action, which takes far too long to go nowhere all that compelling."
Windy City Times
- Somewhat Recommended
"...as frequently happens when this complicated narrative form is transferred to the real-time viewing of the stage, we waste precious time orienting ourselves amid our story's unfamiliar geography, dialects and relationships before we can attend to the characters' respective journeys ending in denouements that are too often inconclusive, when not drearily foreseeable."
Chicago Free Press
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Speaking the show’s funniest—and most ironic—line, a slacker says he doesn’t want to go to the movies because “it’s just us watching other people do something” (a pretty good definition of theater, too). “Scenes” is definitely that but it never creates a whole that’s bigger than its parts. Of course, no one day is dramatically decisive: The emphasis here is on drift and despair more than redemption and completion. McCafferty is honest enough to solve nobody’s problems."
EpochTimes
- Somewhat Recommended
"...There are some wonderful moments in this production and I suppose they are all needed to bring the entire conclusion, but it is a bit longer than comfortable in the chairs at the Storefront. Standout performances by Mr. McDonagh, Ms. Klein and Mr. Dunleavy will have you in stitches. Ms. McDonnell's desire for a full life will bring a tear to your eye and the very laid back style of Mr. Moeller's character will bring it all to a solid ending."
Centerstage
- Highly Recommended
"...A sure sign that you've experienced a great production is when, after almost three hours in the theater, you find yourself still thinking about its characters and wanting to spend more time with them. Seanachai's latest offering is that rare exquisite experience that both moves you and then haunts your memory long afterwards."
Time Out Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...With so many characters to make distinct—plant workers and wives, shopkeepers, teenage thugs, pub drunks and drug dealers—the playwright’s momentum takes a while to build, but by the third act, when the camera has pulled back to let us see the butterfly-wing ripples that connect each scenario to the next, the big picture comes into sharp focus. McCafferty and the seamless ensemble subtly, skillfully suggest the scenes’ often unseen links."
ChicagoCritic
- Highly Recommended
"...Scenes” is a long and complicated story that plays smoothly and is easy to follow. Credit director Cummins’ staging and McCaffery’s clearly succinct writing for keeping us engaged throughout. The clever weaving of each story into a whole works to produce a fine dramatic arc of theatricality. This ambitious work proves that, in the hands of crafty artists, multiple stories can be shaped into the ‘big picture’ of city life."
