Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...The root of the play's humor lies in its contrasts, the wildly intense smacking up against the offhandedly quippy. That's a very funny combination. The trick is to capture how one might be blase about one type of violence and feel deep moral indignation over another, and to make it feel like a ride - like a roller coaster picking up speed and banking around corners - rather than a car with a very loud, stalled engine."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...McDonagh has a message (an eye for an eye blinds everyone), but in Derek Bertelsen's noisy, chaotic production for AstonRep, it's hard to see it—or the dark comedy—amid all the blood and gunfire. Worse still, Bertelsen's ensemble seem divided on what kind of work they're in, some playing up the comedy, others the gore. The only actors who never lose their footing are John Wehrman, as a psychotic terrorist, and Nora Lise Ulrey, as the savage girl who would kill to win his love."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...John Wehrman, Robert Tobin and Nora Lise Ulrey deliver performances steeped in amoral anarchy, while Scott Olson and Matthew Harris deflate their posturing with impeccable tag-team timing. Jeremiah Barr's ingenious property design keeps the Tarantino-esque spectacle within the boundaries of audience tolerance ( barely ), as does Ray Kasper's precision-foleyed gunfire. After all this messy misanthropy, the collective sigh of relief that arises in the final moments when a four-footed actor listed in the playbill only as "Widget" makes his belated appearance is as palpable as it is welcome."
Gapers Block - Highly Recommended
"...Director Derek Bertelsen does an excellent job moving us through these nine scenes and choreographing the blood, dead cats and human body parts. The Celtic punk rock music arranged by sound designer Ray Kasper creates just the right atmosphere. Kendra Kargenian has done a good job with dialect coaching, although I confess, I may not be able to judge the difference between Galway and Northern Irish accents."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Inishmore marks the second installment in a never completed trilogy, and it ranks among the most outrageous penned by McDonagh. Unlike his other works, in which the anti-hero sentiments and empathy are more in balance, this 2001 play feels like a cheeky all-out assault. There's a brilliant scene late in the play where blood-smeared Padraic stands a few feet in front of the mindless carnage he creates, and then waxes poetic about how he just wants the children of Ireland to be free. More than stage blood or bones (delightfully grisly props by Jeremiah Barr), it's easy to imagine the mirror McDonagh held up to Irish viewers about their history and seedier elements of its independence movement is what led to the play's early provocation and sharpened the one-act play's edge."
Theatre By Numbers - Somewhat Recommended
"...Because of the approach, the scary man around whom the play revolves doesn't seem so scary. Even when he's torturing a man (Scott Wolf) who hangs from an impressive steel rig, he seems to be a buffoon. The other men within the cast who are supposed to be villains are also nothing more than clowns. The set design is somewhat simplistic and scattered, which adds to the feeling of unreality in a show that could really shine were it to be well executed."
ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended
"...I don’t like to harp on just one thing, but if I hadn’t already read the play, I would have had a very hard time following this production. You can do an authentic accent and speak slowly, or hint at one and go your normal pace, but doing it thick and fast compromises telling the story. Also, a brogue doesn’t require speaking falsetto. The show has potential if this issue improves. It’s a strong script and the actors have a lot of comedic talent. The guns look silly, but the dead cats and butchered people are worth seeing. Some of the humor still comes through, but the more serious theme about the stupidity of violence gets lost when people sound like chipmunks."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...AstonRep's production of Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore (directed by Derek Bertelsen) is perfectly bloody for the Halloween season. Drenched in bloody spatters and macabre body parts, this show gives a good hearted try at this amusing play's dark humor. McDonagh's sharp script is what saves this production and is a joy to hear regardless of whether it is done justice to or not."
- Bellisant Corcoran-Mathe
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...It is often difficult for theater audiences to get in to the Irish plays that are presented as the language is often difficult to understand. yes, it is English that we hear, but with the thick brogues that actors bring to the table, we often lose some of the words that have been written to carry us along the path of what the playwright wanted to tell us. Aston Rep, in their current production, “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” Makes Martin MCdonagh’s story easier to follow than most other productions I have seen. Ye, the actors do have fairly heavy Irish accents, but under the direction of Derek Bertelsen, on the smaller stage at The Raven Theatre Complex, I found it easy to understand the story."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...AstonRep continually ups the ante, demonstrating why they’re a storefront theatre to be taken seriously. Consistently offering Chicago audiences a finely produced combination of new works, older classics and rarely-seen past comedies and dramas, this company enters the Fall season with gusto. As McDonagh’s twisted, exciting, offbeat comedy both repulses and impresses audiences with it’s black humor and stirring performances, this impressive company provides an Autumnal treat that also harbors a few tricks up its theatrical sleeve."