Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...James Bohnen's new production for the Remy Bumppo Theatre Company is this artistic director's swan song (or goat song, I suppose). He is retiring at the end of the season. Emblematic of his contributions over the last 15 years, it's a skilled, unpretentious and passionate reading of a piece of dramatic literature with the focus firmly on the experienced-yet-hungry actors who make up his resident ensemble. And even though there are more glamorous spaces than the ground floor of the Greenhouse Theater Center, the stage is an uncommonly effective crucible when one wants to transmit life on a stage directly into an audience's gut."
Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...I confess, I had no love for this 2002 Tony Award-winner by Edward Albee when it was first performed here at the Goodman Theatre. But I was more than happy to have my mind changed by way of Remy Bumppo director James Bohnen, who will be leaving the company he helped found at the end of this season, who selected Albee’s work as his valedictory production in a season about “secret lives and public lies,” and who clearly wanted a big challenge for two of his favorite actors — Nick Sandys and Annabel Armour."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...in this Remy Bumppo Theatre production directed by James Bohnen, the piece comes off, finally, as a deeply unsettling exploration of what we mean when we talk about love. Unsettling not because it involves a goat, but because it's so surprisingly, surpassingly human."
Examiner - Highly Recommended
"...As far as exits go, Remy Bumppo's departing Artistic Director James Bohnen has crafted a pile-driving emotional -freight train wreck of a swan song. And by "emotional freight train wreck," we mean one of the highlights of the theatrical year. Long story made bearable: The Goat, or Who is Sylvia is simply one of the best shows Remy Bumppo has mounted. And given the high bar the ensemble sets with its consistently intelligent, engrossing and beautifully produced stagings, that’s saying praise that doesn’t come easily. Don’t let the title – or what you’ve heard of the plot - of Edward Albee’s masterpiece fool you. This is no trifling episode of Farmville. Nor is it a repugnant, gratuitous and incomprehensible shocker of man-on-animal sexual congress."
Centerstage - Highly Recommended
"...A lucid wordsmith, Albee has the unique ability to render the mundane poetic through elegant phrasing and calculated repetition. In life, people repeat themselves; in theater such reiteration must justify itself or risk boring the audience. Albee builds on repeating words and phrases like a composer revisiting and expanding upon a musical theme. In the end, the family’s soul wrenching fight is more than scathingly funny or shockingly grim. Instead, through meticulous examination of each member’s reality, Albee renders unmistakable the thin divide between the quotidian and the unfathomable."
Chicago Stage Review - Highly Recommended
"...Director James Bohnen has created many marvelous productions for Remy Bumppo. In his final show as Artistic Director it would have been easy to choose a less complicated script but instead he steps out of any previous comfort zones and leaps off the cliff, taking his faithful cast with him. The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? proves to be such a compelling free fall into oblivion that we are lemmings, happy to follow suit and take the plunge. This is a production that’s edges will become sharper and more piercing with each performance. DO NOT MISS your chance to see this spellbinding incarnation of this ravaging masterpiece."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...In her second Albee outing of the season after Victory Gardens’ At Home at the Zoo, Armour is at the top of her game as the righteously wronged, pottery-smashing Stevie. Allan, in a role that initially seems facilely sullen but takes crucial, unexpected turns, continues to be one of the city’s most appealing young actors. Sandys, though, remains a bit too coolly removed from Martin’s anguish—up until the play’s closing moments, when he connects with Allan and, ultimately, with Sylvia."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...This is great theatre. There is no way around it, no other word for it. Every single actor on stage is at the top of their game, and their game is tops. The set is beautiful, the space intimate – exactly what this kind of show needs, this small, personal kind of show that would get lost and depleted the larger the space got – the direction, casting, staging . . . all as good as you’re likely to see anywhere."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...Remy Bumppo has their hands on an excellent production. With an all-star cast performance and elegant set design by Tim Morrison, Albee’s work is in great hands. I must mention that this show is not for everyone. The topic of the evening is in fact bestiality, which may be upsetting to some audience viewers. For those of you who can laugh at this subject matter however, then you will have a great time watching Martin’s card house tumble to the ground as he loses everything. Director James Bohnen really captures the intensity of the script without making people extremely uncomfortable. Although many audience members around me were laughing, it’s difficult to tell whether or not they were laughing at the sight of comedy or just to relieve the tension in the room. Regardless the play is very comedical, and will force you to laugh."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Bohnen’s staging on a marvelous set by Tim Morrison in this very intimate theater truly has the feeling of the audience peeking into the living room and the lives of this family as they struggle to find the meaning of what has taken place. An event that has shattered what appeared to be a perfect family. This is one that should be on your MUST SEE list, a play that lasts almost two hours without an intermission ( any break would cause havoc with the continuity of the story) and yet feels as if it is far less; no uneasiness from the audience and no looking at their watches. The intensity of this production keeps the audience in full focus and while the story has some tragic elements, there are a great many comic moments, as we find that although we think we can handle anything that life throws our way, we really don’t until it actually does happen."
Chicago Theater Beat - Recommended
"...The play’s final moments build to a stunning release of emotion, and the actors hit all the right notes for the tragic end. As the 100-minute long demolition of a family concludes, the audience is left with a slew of questions regarding the nature of human sexuality, which may be the best part of an Albee play. Long after the production has ended, it’s themes resonate and resurface when we least expect them, because of the powerful experience within the theater."