Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Jahraus nonetheless gets the gutsy, hyper-naturalistic performances from this cast that the play needs. There are the right notes of sadness and confusion, leavened with the perennial attractiveness and theatrical excitement of sexual and emotional danger, especially felt by those least equipped to deal with the inevitable fallout."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...For what makes O'Connor's ideally rendered 90-minute play so real, and so poignant, is to witness the unexpected transformations that occur as each of these Boston area high school girls learns something about themselves, about men, about sex and about the perniciousness of lying and trying to be what you are not."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...That this 90-minute Profiles Theatre production doesn't come off feeling the least bit formulaic owes a little to O'Connor's easy touch with dialogue and a lot to Joe Jahraus's nuanced direction. The four-member ensemble work smoothly together, negotiating the always-creepy territory of intergenerational sex with sensitivity and assurance."
Examiner - Highly Recommended
"...O’Connor’s script captures the unique vernacular of 15-year-olds who don’t want to be seen as children but who are terribly fearful of leaving childhood behind and entering into the often ruthless world of adults In Profiles’ tiny space, the roller-coaster emotions of both teens and adults is unflinchingly intense."
Copley News Service - Highly Recommended
"...Jahraus directs the play with a perfect ear for O’Connor’s spot-on dialogue. There isn’t a false note struck anywhere in the 80 minutes. It’s one of those productions where the viewer can’t imagine the play being performed any other way."
Talkin Broadway - Recommended
"...While this may seem to be the setup for a major yuck factor, O'Connor navigates it fairly well. She maintains a decent sense of balance between empathy for her characters while compassionately satirizing their flaws. She's a little more sympathetic to the girls than the men, gently mocking Emmy's false sense of maturity and Claire's naiveté while showing the guys to be barely more mature than the girls. And clearly, the guys are shown to have no idea that their romantic targets are underage, so unlike many of the plays on this and other Chicago stages in recent years, it's not a story of sexual predators. Even so, the situation may leave you uncomfortably wondering if it's okay to laugh at O'Connor's insights into these people. By the close of the play, you see some other themes emerge. Does the willingness of the men to objectify the women at the nightclub increase the probability of something going wrong? If the men took the time to get to know women a little better before trying to bed them, would some disasters be averted? And what's up with a society and support systems that don't recognize kids mature at different rates and won't protect them from themselves when they take actions without knowing the risks involved or whether they're ready for them?"
Centerstage - Highly Recommended
"...All four actors deserve praise for creating such engaging and believable portraits of humanity, but special distinction is reserved for the two young actresses. As Claire, Rae Gray gives us an utterly believable teenage girl torn between the excitement of venturing into the adult world and the uncertainty and shyness of adolescence. As the seemingly more confident Emmy, Zoe Levin succeeds in a task that has daunted many more experienced actresses: she actually pulls off a sloppy drunk scene."
Chicago Stage Review - Somewhat Recommended
"...I needed Jailbait to be more, more foul or more loving or more explosive or more reassuring. Jailbait should be scandalous and controversial, like its namesakes. Britney and Lindsay grew up, crashed and burned, and are making slow recoveries. Taylor turned legal and her PR machine dialed down the use of sexy to sell her. Miley turns eighteen this November, at which point her love of taking cheesecake pictures of herself will no longer be of any interest to TMZ. America is rapidly approaching a jailbait void, the perfect time for a play like this one to ignite a national conversation on the early maturation of our daughters and the perils of not having the right information in the Information Age. Though bolstered by excellent performances and terrific dialogue, Profile Theatre’s Jailbait lacks the spark."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...
For all its sensitivity, O’Connor’s script treads a schematic path; it’s not hard to connect the dots in advance. But she has a deft touch with dialogue—“It gets less scary the more you drink,” Emmy tells Claire—and Jahraus’s smartly paced, well-acted production walks a tonal tightrope, allowing us to laugh alongside the rising sense of impending doom."
ShowBizChicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Clever design aside, “Jailbait” leaves more questions than answers, and they’re the wrong kind. Comedic scenes elicit more polite titters than boisterous laughs, and worse, dramatic scenes (including the suggestion of a young woman being taken advantage of) never quite reach the intensity for which the subject matter calls. As a dark comedy bereft of sardonic punch and a drama without the requisite stakes, ultimately this night on the town comes up short on truth."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...Playwright O’Connor explores the longings of youth, the hopes of rekindling love, and the meaning (or meaninglessness) of casual sex with clear, decisive dialogue and perceptive plot twists, and, under John Jahraus’s skilled direction, the fine cast does justice to her work."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Profiles Theatre is known for bringing us plays that tell a story- stories of the human spirit and this one does just that. The beauty of this storefront theater located on Broadway just north of Irving Park is the intimacy one feels and in this one, 90 minutes with no intermission, we do indeed feel as if we are in the bedroom, the club, the bathrooms and Robert’s apartment with just a small change here and there. The set by Sotirios Livaditis is simple, but works and Jess Harpenau’s lighting effects perfect. The sound design and original music by Jeffrey Levin are just the icing on the cake."
Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended
"...With a cast of actors adept at creating believable characters, Joe Jahraus directs a tense, provocative production that reinforces the themes of the script beautifully. Gray gives an outstanding performance as Claire, who is simultaneously struggling with the pressures of adolescence and the loss of her father. Claire blossoms in the liberate environment of the adult world, and Gray captures both the awkward teen and confident woman in Claire beautifully."
