Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...The impact isn't as much as you'd think. Leff and Lino's story lightly touches on the merits and liabilities of innocence and optimism, but the backdrop of the largest mega-media conglomerate is mostly underused here as a juxtaposition for the image of burst blood packs. In this loud, mostly prototypical disaster adventure, New Colony dances around juicy topics like culture jamming, capitalism, religious fundamentalism, and anarchy, without committing to any of the above."
Rescripted - Highly Recommended
"...This world premiere is a bold step forward for The New Colony under the leadership of co-artistic directors Stephanie Shum and Fin Coe. Small World is a wild ride through the capitalist forest of false gods, survival skills, unrequited love, and a helluva lot of blood gags. In the last sobering minutes of the play, ribs still aching from laughter, I knew I would want to talk to all my friends about this piece as soon as I left the space."
Buzznews.net - Recommended
"...All of this is adds up to a "gonzo workplace comedy," as artistic director Fin Coe puts it, and loaded with "our signature weird humor and wild action."That is an apt description of what you will witness in Small World, but the breakneck pace of the non-stop gabbing frequently reveals an overloaded script occasionally more suited for reading than speaking. In the course of the conversation, the characters reveal themselves as an unlikely team in a quest for survival."
Chicago On Stage - Recommended
"...Small World finds both the laughter and the tears in the disaster it is portraying. Ultimately, it suggests, humans are not worthy of their small world. Without ever evoking climate change, Leff and Lino, whose script by the way is keenly aware that the Disney Corporation is not nirvana, allow us watch as something artificially beautiful is destroyed while we know that, outside, people have wreaked havoc on nature as well. Becca’s last plaintive a capella version of “It’s a Small World” seems to plead for a world where “a smile means friendship to everyone” even as we see what the destructive forces of man have unleashed."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...A brilliant ensemble and artistic team combine over-the-top hilarity, painful truth, and bloody horror into one jam-packed 85-minute theatrical event, making Small World an experience to remember. This writer certainly had no problem joining the uproar of cheers and applause at the end of the performance."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The characters are so detached from any larger context or actual social bonds that the idea of a “real world” beyond the park walls seems moot. The media universe and its commodified images are all they have. At the end, a forlorn employee breaks into the loathed “Small World” refrain, whose absence has become unbearable. It’s a complex and melancholy theatrical moment, as the chirpy melody becomes a minor-key elegy to the collapse of human connection. It’s a small world after all and a lonely one."