Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...There are a few moments in Campbell's script that feel precious — but then, the Beats were a youth-driven movement and it's the prerogative of young people to engage in self-indulgent myth-making. Not even the sneering coverage by Paul O'Neil of Life magazine (enacted here in a gleeful interlude) could derail the heady provocations of one of America's most transformative home-grown literary movements. And when the whole cast joins at the end in delivering "I Am Waiting" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (who braved obscenity charges in publishing "Howl" and is still, at nearly 92, keeping the movement fires burning), you may well feel like going out and searching for your own rebirth of hip and heartfelt wonder."
Chicago Sun Times
- Highly Recommended
"...Adapted by Marilyn Campbell, and first seen at Writers’ Theatre in 1997, “The Beats” is now getting what will surely be the defining production of this generation at Berwyn’s now hotly competitive 16th Street Theater. Director Ann Filmer has done a “bang-o” job of things, gathering a cast of five bravura young actors whose parents might not even have been born in the era. But they clearly all have channeled back to the days of coffeehouses and manual typewriters, poetry-filled nights and smoky jazz clubs, consumer culture and conformist lifestyles — as well as the oppressive cloud of the atomic bomb and the Cold War. And superbly backed by two onstage musicians who probably do recall the beatnik world from their most youthful years — drummer Grant Strombeck and bass player Doug Lofstrom — they create a “word jazz” incantation that easily will knock you off your feet."
Chicago Reader
- Recommended
"...Still, the show is entertaining, thanks in part to Campbell's eye for great Beat material--but mostly because of Ann Filmer's young, energetic, earnest ensemble. John Taflan makes a great Allen Ginsberg and Carly Ciarrocchi is so winning as Diane di Prima that I kept wishing Campbell had built The Beats around this too-often-overlooked poet."
Time Out Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...
The Beats re-creates the genesis of the cult of counterculture, as performed by its great modern disciples. Remounting it at the apex of the “angelheaded hipster” revival serves both to celebrate America’s first wave of tight-jeaned, cigarette-and-coffee eggheads and to remind us that today’s dissident youths ape the style but not the substance of their forebears. That the show speaks so eloquently to 2011 is a testament to the literature that Beat generation writers produced, but also to the tenacious intractability of the culture that so horrified and enraged them."
ChicagoCritic
- Recommended
"...Director Filmer has cast quite strong, articulate actors deft at enunciating the words and the emotions of the Beats. This show is both informative and entertaining. Once you tune-in to the pace and language of The Beats, it’ll engage you and propel you into the revolutionary world of change proposed by these mavericks. The range of the material covered in two hours is impressive and the performances by all five players were truthful and heartfelt. I can’t think of a finer way to experience the important contribution to the American Experience by the Beats of the 1950′s than by seeing Ann Filmer and Marilyn Campbell’s spirited ode to The Beats. You’ll have fun and you’ll be impressed."
Around The Town Chicago
- Recommended
"...The wonderful venue at the 16th Street Theater is ideal for an intimate show such as “The Beats”, allowing us to almost feel as if we were in one of those little “beatnik” coffee houses along Sheridan Rd., Wells Street or in Rogers Park. Yes, we were without drink and of course, smoke, but the feeling wa sthere and the cast of five truly brought the feeling of the words to us with the meaning of the writers. Malcom Callan, the adorable Carly Ciarrocchi,John Taflan, Jon McGilberry ( his “marriage” reading is sensational) and Adam Poss ( who has an incredible vocal range and stage presence) are all dynamite. The jazz musicans behind them, Doug Lofstrom and Grant Strombeck complete the picture that Filmer and Campbell have painted for us- this is pure art!"
