Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...So what’s the point of all of this metadrama? Well, I’m hardly the first to observe that it offers uncommon intellectual and aesthetic pleasures. That’s mostly because it sets you off thinking about drama and perception, about how life itself is, as Calderon famous observed, but a dream. I had trouble distinguishing the two states (and who’s to say it’s just two?) at around five this morning."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Call it chemistry, or alchemy, or an inspired combination of the two. Whatever the forces at work, the results are undeniable. Just consider the altogether beguiling beauty, wit and easefulness of Newell’s latest production, “The Illusion.” A lushly poetic, stylistically tricky romantic tragicomedy, it was penned at the age of 29 by Pierre Corneille, the 17th century French dramatist, and “freely adapted” by Kushner in 1990, shortly before he wrote “Angels in America.” The work here is so good on every front (with Kushner’s take at once cutting, poetic, musical and shrewd) that you wish it could be airlifted whole onto the stage of the Comedie Francaise."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Kushner's The Illusion is basically just a warm-up exercise for his magnum opus, it's a mighty successful one. Especially as staged by Charles Newell for Court Theatre, Corneille's Kushnerized tale of paternal crime and punishment comes across as a dark lark."
Copley News Service - Highly Recommended
"...The ensemble acting is uniformly excellent. Kane is particularly good in his comic turn as a blowhard aristocrat with a broad coward streak when matters of love threaten to turn violent. Elizabeth Ledo, who never disappoints, is outstanding in conveying the many personalities of the lady’s maid. Reeger delivers a vivid and complex portrait of a father who wants the reconciliation, though, at the end, maybe not so much."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...
Newell’s cast hits every note perfectly: Reeger drawing the contradictory feelings of affection, fear and anger that Pridamant holds for his son; Hillary Clemens progressing from giddy first love to woman scorned as the boy’s romantic interest; Elizabeth Ledo scheming as a done-wrong maid. And Timothy Edward Kane has what may be the comic turn of the year as a swaggering nimrod. They make Kushner’s vision a must-see."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...The blurred line between reality and illusion or fantasy hones in to change Pridamant forever. It is a joyous fantasy on the nature of love. The poetic language, the sarcasm and humor together with the excellent ensemble acting makes for a pleasant theatrical experience. Don’t miss this perfect production."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...This is a play filled with magic, not so much as magical tricks, although we do get to see a few men disappear, but theatrical magic as we take this adventurous trip with Pridamant to find what has happened to his son. The play is filled with humor and does open one's eyes to true and complicated love, the love of a father for his son, no matter what has happened in their past as well as the love stories that we see. There is a surprise twist to the story at the end, one quite comical and adds to the magic of the evening."
Chicago Theater Beat - Recommended
"...Rarely do two artistic pioneers collaborate when there is four-hundred years of distance between them. In that light, The Illusion is an uncommon delight. Under the steady hand and imaginative head of Newell, The Court has a fantastical triumph here. Although there are some bumps, this Illusion reminds and reassures us that theatre is a powerful art form when its power is harnessed by the right hands."
