Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...The show certainly is a welcome return to what I'd deem significant theatrical events at American Blues, a company still finding its footing in its new Lincoln Avenue space. Bullard is what you might call an old-school Chicago director and the show has the city's signature sardonic style and its famously intense mode of acting from a group of all-in performers."
Chicago Sun Times
- Recommended
"...For the most part it works, due in large part to Bullard, whose Second City chops are on full display in the impeccable comedic timing of the show. Santana pulls the audience along with humor and wit, at one point stopping the show to explain the geography of New York City, so the room full of Chicagoans could understand the characters were trapped."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"... Rothschild, arguably the father of disaster capitalism, allegedly said, “The time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.” Substitute “water” and you’ve got the premise for Kristoffer Diaz’s pitch-black comedy, Things With Friends, now in a sharp and pungent world premiere at American Blues Theater under Dexter Bullard’s direction."
Talkin Broadway
- Highly Recommended
"...Ultimately, Things With Friends is a play of ideas. The performances are finely wrought, it's staged with fleet and captivating brio, and the visual and design elements are all clean and sharp. But outside all those clean, exactingly structured surfaces is a city and a world in turmoil. Adele and Burt want to stay put and regrow the community; Vy and Chabby want to burn it down and profit from the collapse. Both think they can control their destiny, but that's impossible in the face of natural forces that are untameable."
Stage and Cinema
- Highly Recommended
"...The twists and turns of the plot are yours to discover, but with our principal quartet in place, steak is consumed, bottles of wine are cleverly produced and drained, voices are raised, threats exchanged, tempers ratcheted higher and higher — yet for all its manic intensity and anger, this is still a hilarious play, and director Dexter Bullard keeps all the balls in the air with admirable skill."
Around The Town Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...Is this the greatest work by Diaz? Only time will tell , but this production with all of its parts is solid and entertaining and who could ask for anything more. By the way, the tech aspects of the production are truly sharp. Levi J. Wilkins ( lighting), Rick Sims (sound), Lily Walls ( costumes), and R & D Choreography (violence design) are all on target for putting all the puzzle pieces in just the right spot."
Chicago Theatre Review
- Highly Recommended
"...American Blues has a real treat in store for the adventurous theatergoer. As they say on the BBC television series, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, “Now for something completely different.” It’s a play stuffed to the gills with themes, ideas and questions. THINGS WITH FRIENDS, filled with fast-paced dialogue, will amuse, astonish and possibly even astound or anger some audience members. But the unexpected events and character developments, served with wine and a side order of absurdity, will be difficult to forget."
Third Coast Review
- Not Recommended
"...Things With Friends, the newest play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Kristoffer Diaz, directed by Dexter Bullard, makes its debut at American Blues Theater. It's a surrealist, climate anxiety comedy of errors that takes place over one wild dinner party. At the show's conclusion one walks away with some vague anti-commercialist messaging, but also more than a few questions, or just one in particular: Why did I let myself suffer through that?"
Chicago On Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...Ultimately, Things With Friends is a play of ideas. The performances are finely wrought, it's staged with fleet and captivating brio, and the visual and design elements are all clean and sharp. But outside all those clean, exactingly structured surfaces is a city and a world in turmoil. Adele and Burt want to stay put and regrow the community; Vy and Chabby want to burn it down and profit from the collapse. Both think they can control their destiny, but that's impossible in the face of natural forces that are untameable."
PicksInSix
- Recommended
"...American Blues Theater kicks off its 40th anniversary season by kicking down the fourth wall with the world premiere of “Things With Friends” by Tony Award nominee, Pulitzer Prize in Drama finalist, Jeff Award Winner, and American Blues Theater Artistic Affiliate playwright, Kristoffer Diaz. Diaz ushers us in voyeuristically, with the help of an immersive narrator, to this absurdist dinner party trapped in a Manhattan high-rise. Bring your metaphorical silverware and be prepared to dig in existentially: the menu includes (actual pan-cooked) steak, bottomless red wine, and never-ending euphemisms for the title of the play."
MaraTapp.org
- Highly Recommended
"...One of the pleasures of Things with Friends is the many ways it explores "things with friends" through a cocktail of simple and rich language, metaphors, warnings and surprises. I'll not spoil them for you other than to say that one heartbreakingly reveals family bonds. The clashes between these two couples over whether New York is "crumbling," riddled with "lawlessness" and who a New Yorker really is are classic and familiar yet fresh in the hands of Playwright Kristoffer Diaz, whose play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity remains one of my favorites. That wonderful play was about wrestling but really life; this one is also about so much more than it first appears."
NewCity Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Imagine the worst dinner party you've ever thrown, featuring guests who arrive unconscionably late, bully and abuse you while hard-selling real estate, then stick you with the bill for the ultra-pricey wine they've brought-and all this in the shadow of calamity, like the pandemic or 9/11. Sounds like fun, no?"
