Chicago Tribune
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Dissocia is like a twisted blend of “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” a Monty Python episode and a play by Sarah Kane. One certainly cannot accuse the plucky Profiles of coming up with the same old thing. Neilson is an established artistic name in Europe (he works for the Royal Shakespeare Company), but Profiles is the first American company to produce this dreamscape of a disturbed mind."
Chicago Sun Times
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Refrain from bolting from the theater at intermission, no matter how tempted you might be to escape the chaos, high-pitched noise and shrill burlesque of the first act of "The Wonderful World of Dissocia." For in the quietly breathtaking second act of Scottish playwright Anthony Neilson's drama, now in its U.S. premiere at Profiles Theatre, you will find a profoundly moving look at what it means to be a young woman in the throes of clinical depression. And you will realize that what the writer has done here is to perfectly echo the raging mood swings of the manic-depressive mind."
Chicago Reader
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Director Darrell W. Cox and his resourceful collaborators use every inch of the tiny Profiles space to conjure Dissocia’s bizarre geography, and the pop-up fluorescent stage design captures the spirit of Chicago storefront theater at its most exuberant. But Cox’s actors struggle to find a tonally consistent approach to the unruly material."
Windy City Times
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Director Darrell W. Cox manages to pull committed performances from a cast burdened with roles that seem like the fantasy of a disturbed six-year-old. The audience might be totally confounded ( and completely annoyed ) by Lisa's nonsensical adventures dropping bombs from a jerry-rigged laundry basket, listening to the screams of an anal-rape victim and facing down a lover/monster whose climactic appearance is never explained, but the cast pours everything it has into these antics."
Chicago Free Press
- Highly Recommended
"...Resembling a scatological version of “Alice in Wonderland,” the first act plunges us into Lisa’s imaginary, marvelously whimsical “Dissocia.” Here she encounters symptoms of her own suffering—“insecurity guards,” a Scape Goat who delights in being falsely accused and a whipping girl who keeps crime down by becoming the only victim. Lisa even participates in a bombing raid against the dreaded Black Dog King, only to discover that she is Queen Sarah, Dissocia’s long-lost last hope. In Darrell W. Cox’s stunning staging Dissocia becomes an enthralling, song-strewn topsy-turvy playland, its delicious dialogue teeming with wordplay and all-skewering satire. Pain was never so delightfully disguised."
Centerstage
- Recommended
"...The cast is wonderful itself and also includes Jeremy Lee Cudd, Sarah Loveland and Barb Stasiw, with all but Benson taking multiple roles. "Disocia" is a first-rate play, if at times confusing. But the word "Wonderful" is perhaps intended sarcastically, for watching the story unwind is like hearing about another's nightmare."
Time Out Chicago
- Recommended
"...Cox’s direction of this U.S. premiere can be overly frenetic in the first act, but Benson’s Lisa makes a terrific anchor, and the suffocating stillness of the second act chills. Scottish playwright Neilson’s script comes close to a Cuckoo’s Nest romanticizing of illness over treatment, until an unexpected exchange between Lisa and her bewildered, frustrated boyfriend blindsides us with the simple force of real-world emotion."
ChicagoCritic
- Recommended
"...This surreal trip features deft comedy, especially from Bob Pries as the goat and Joe Jahraus and Eric Burgher as the insecurity guards. Barb Stasiw’s Oath-taker was also a hoot! The journey has songs, dances and physical comedy aplenty."
