Smokefall Reviews

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...Some of the performances, at least on the night I attended, felt a little too soft-spoken, and a few lines were lost from time to time. But there are so many scenes that resonate, including an absolutely stunning scene with Lucky Star (who also narrates and provides the "footnotes" to the family history in Haidle's script) and Gallant as the in utero twins, and Isabella Isherwood as the mostly wordless Beauty (the character stops speaking one night after hearing her father's complaints about noise in the house)."

Talkin Broadway - Somewhat Recommended

"...What novelty exists in Haidle's theatrical portrait takes directly from Thornton Wilder's two great masterpieces, Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. A narrator delivers the expositional contexts surrounding the family as well as their interior thoughts and motivations in the form of interjections he calls "footnotes." The source of tension for the family stems from paternal abandonment, received primarily in theological terminology like "original sin" and allusions to Biblical stories. While Smokefall is not a bad play, it brings little in the way of novelty to a story about an American family and the lingering generational trauma that besets its dramatic framing."

Around The Town Chicago - Recommended

"...Welcome to Chicago, Wild Door Theater Company. This is a new, young, and vibrant company that will be doing bold stories and unique offerings. They are starting with a tough play with Noah Haidle's "Smokefall" which is still considered a new work. I believe that the Goodman did a production of this back in 2017 or 2018. The play itself is fairly new, making its debut in 2016/17. FYI- The script itself is 63 pages, meaning that it could be played out as a no intermission production at 105 minutes, but WildTheater opted to do a two hour production with an intermission."

Chicago On Stage - Somewhat Recommended

"...Many of the most renowned American playwrights are best remembered for their dramatic picturing of the American family story. Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Lorraine Hansberry have each painted their own portrait of American domestic life set amongst fraying familial ties. Noah Haidle's Smokefall is the generative AI version of that same portrait, a patchwork of overplayed metaphors, overcooked characters, and overstretched sentimentality. Framing his portrait within the world of magical realism, Haidle's three act structure presents a triptych of generational trauma spanning nearly eighty years across one family's search for love and belonging. But the play falls short of a deserving space on the altar of American domestic drama."

Allie and the After Party - Recommended

"...A philosophical play that dives into family dynamics, history, and futures, Smokefall takes a deeper look at one family’s situation from ailing parents to unborn twins. We see how one decision can impact the family tree for years to come."