The Unseen Reviews

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...Craig Wright's 2009 play takes place in a prison in an unnamed authoritarian country. Two men, Wallace (Jordan Gleaves) and Valdez (Carlos Andres Mai), who have been incarcerated in adjoining cells for years without ever seeing other, recover from their waterboarding sessions by telling stories, often by building them through objects listed alphabetically. They spar occasionally as well, especially over Valdez's insistence that there is another prisoner in a cell somewhere between them who is trying to communicate only through taps and other noises, rather than speech."

Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended

"...The Unseen is Tin Drum Theatre's second show of 2025 and solidifies the company's willingness to mount challenging works which embrace the beauty found on the edge of human depravity. And with a run-time of only 80 minutes, the difficult and weighty content ensures audiences won't drown in lengthy despair."

Around The Town Chicago - Recommended

"... “The Unseen” tells the story of two men who undergo tremendous agony as political prisoners. Held in solitary confinement and tortured physically and mentally by a ruthless prison guard, they have only each other for comfort and for some measure of sanity. Originally written by Craig Wright in 2007, the play is timeless in its description of cruelty and depravity and the lengths that people will go to further evil… or keep it from happening to them. While I can appreciate how well constructed this production is, with its fine directing by Steve Needham and its skillful portrayal of violence, it’s nevertheless a disturbing play to watch, because the human suffering within it is so palpable."

Third Coast Review - Recommended

"...It seems there's a goldrush for plays people sense might be prescient or "timely." Which in 2025 means shows that predict devastation and authoritarian nightmares. Tin Drum Theatre Company's The Unseen, written by Craig Wright, directed by Steve Needham, on stage now at Bramble Arts Loft, fits neatly in that prescient category. In it we're transported to an unnamed totalitarian hellscape where two isolated prisoners build a friendship speaking through a shared wall."

Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended

"...The Unseen is a 2007 play by Craig Wright which presents the torturous conditions of liminality. Though written in the shadow of the United States’ Global War on Terror and its brutal treatment of prisoners at facilities like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Wright’s play enacts liminality as its core mimetic engine. Are we witnessing events set in the past, reliving America’s sins committed against foreign actors on distant soil? Or are we thrust into the unseen horrors of ICE detention facilities that sit near our own backyards?"