Quiz Show at Strawdog Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"..."Quiz Show" has been Americanized for this production, a strange choice given that the piece is so clearly a reaction to a series of specific events on the other side of the pond. More problematic, it has lost its period sense. The game show you can watch in Strawdog's upstairs space seems not to belong to any specific moment, but merely to be a generic parody. A lack of specificity and truth has torpedoed many a potentially important piece of theater, and so it goes here. No lie."

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...Repressing traumatic memories can result in debilitating psychological symptoms, even as the repression allows victims to move past the trauma. Childhood sexual abuse is bad. Also, game shows tend to be slick and vapid. Scottish playwright Rob Drummond overworks these commonplace notions as though he's the first to have considered them."

Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended

"...Max Truax, who did remarkable work with the nearby Oracle Theatre's The Mother, is a whiz at stirring up urgency even when it has no visible means of support. The six actors (including James Errico as the bland offstage "Voice") efficiently turn tricks on us and "reality." But their play is way too enamored of its own baffling intricacies to condescend to make sense, let alone feel Sandra's sorrow."

ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended

"...I ended up with conflicting thoughts about Strawdog Theatre's production of British playwright Rob Drummond's Quiz Show. Maybe if the early Quiz Show scenes were more like an authentic quiz show instead of getting those scenes dangerously close to parody. Maybe if there was a hint or foreshadow of the major change in direction of the play. As it now plays, Quiz Show is a reaction play to events in Britain that found a BBC game show host, Jimmy Savile, being accused of pedophilia and other crimes against children."

The Fourth Walsh - Recommended

"...Although I don't mind giving the spoiler for "Sixth Sense" - it's been 16 years, I don't want to ruin QUIZ SHOW. It's best experienced like a winding roller coaster... disoriented and speeding toward the unknown ending. And that's where I wanted the play to stop for me, breathless from the big reveal. I wanted to stagger out into the lobby still a little shaky. Drummond has other plans. He keeps it going without the high speed intensity. His script calls for Goeden to deliver a soliloquy. She does a fine heartfelt job. It just sounds like a preachy public service announcement. Still, QUIZ SHOW is a virtual, wild roller coaster ride with plenty of twists until it slams on the breaks and then drifts for 5 more minutes."

Splash Magazine - Recommended

"...Director Max Truax paces the action well and at ninety minutes offers a well realized and nuanced production. He also make good effect of such things as a roving camera crew to both create a live studio audience as well as to then keep that audience off guard. The first part of this play feels genuine, enough so that when the chaos ensues I still found myself looking to that applause sign for reassurance."