Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...McPherson's plays often surprise actors and directors by how far they need to go to find their essence. The language in this piece is just beautiful and its human insights profound. In some of the best moments that Brown and these actors find, it can feel like you are watching yourself now, in the past and in the future, all at once, learning little. What chance do we have? Going with the flow avoids peril that usually proves pointless, yet fighting is essential to life."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...“Port Authority” requires intense listening, and about 10 or 15 minutes less of the play would only strengthen it. But these actors hold you at rapt attention. And McPherson sure can tunnel into the heart and soul of a man."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...In William Brown's plain, exquisitely orchestrated, 90-minute production, actors Rob Fenton, John Hoogenakker, and Patrick Clear listen to one another like fellow confessors at an AA meeting. Each one is vivid and true-though I may be most partial to Hoogenakker, inasmuch as his Dermot has the farthest to fall and the ugliest trip down. The show is funny and often tender, but entirely capable of inflicting wounds. It's worth it."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"..."Maybe there isn’t a soul for every person in the world. Maybe there’s just two. One for people who go with the flow, and one for all the people who fight," says Kevin (with Fenton, the youngest of the three actors, stepping up with electrically affecting work that matches that of sturdy vets Hoogenakker and Clear). As the play's title and undefined milieu suggest, McPherson's men are those who mark time in the way station, waiting for the flow to carry them where it may."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Rob Fention depicts Kevin's the somewhat adventurousness of youth; John Hoogenakker presents the self-doubting man who hides in booze while Joe felts regret that he never went for the woman he lusted for. Each of these men tells us of their ordinariness as manifested in their admitting to being "one's who go with the flow" rather than being "one's who fight." That becomes McPherson's definition of an ordinary man. There is both sadness and honesty in the three stories. Listening to these three fabulous acts present McPherosn's almost lyrical vernacular dialogue, we can't help but get thoughts of our own regrets from our decision to 'going with the flow' when we should have fought for life's treasures. Fenton, Hoogenakker, and Clear gave a master class on Irish story telling and stage acing. This is a 100 minute theatrical event not to be missed!"
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...The play is of a style called a monologue play: three men each tell their tale to us the audience, cutting away to each of the three in turn, as their lives meander through Dublin. The men represent the seasons of life: Rob Fenton, as the young, nearly lost Kevin, John Hoogenakker plays the seriously alcoholic middle aged Dermot, and Patrick Clear is Joe, in a nursing home and the most resigned of the lot. These actors have nothing to fall back on-they must keep to the story. They are masterful at storytelling but I did have a quibble with their accents, which seemed to come on strong at the beginning but flicker like a loose light bulb when they got up a head of steam. The few blaring Chicago vowels pulled me up and out of the moment. And the ending seemed to falter in pacing, but these lads do this play proud, and these are minor points."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...This is a play about choices- we all make choices and in many cases, the choices we make are those that decide our own fates, so those who complain that they were destined to fail or fall in love or land that job or be fired from that job, may have indeed made a choice along the way that caused them to fail ( or succeed). In these three stories, many will see some part of their life portrayed by these men and some of the female audience members may in fact find that they are attracted to these three men, who are as different as night and day, yet, share some slight characteristics. This is a warm and charming afternoon or evening of story telling, written by a truly "romantic" writer, directed by a briliant director and performed by three marvelous talents. Gray was filling in for John Hoogenakker, who I am sure handles this part as well as Gray."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...McPherson has given area audiences much pleasure in recent seasons with stagings of "The Weir," "Shining City," and "The Seafarer." But these were more traditionally conceived works. "Port Authority" is cut from different dramatic cloth and requires patience and attention from the audience. The show is rich in subtext and its form is accessible from first moment to last, but it's not a play in the conventional sense and patrons need to be good listeners, allowing the work to come to them. McPherson and the stellar three actors at the Writers Theatre take it from there. One question is left unanswered, or if it was, I missed it. I have no idea why the play is called "Port Authority.""