Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Directed for Invictus Theatre Company by founding artistic director Charles Askenaizer, Chekhov’s three-hour classic (translated by Paul Schmidt) serves a turbulent sea of curdled ambitions lined with slivers of desperate, futile optimism. The latter holds sway when soldiers arrive at the home that Irina (Ellie Duffey), Masha (Katherine Schwartz) and Ólga (Maria Stephens) share with their brother Andrey (Michael B. Woods), a gambling addict."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Each of them embodies in every glance and gesture the essence of Chekhov’s wounded souls. Duffey, in particular, is incandescent as the youngest, Irina. Watching her be ground down over the course of the play—she begins as an energetic naif and ends as just another emotionally scarred wretch—is utterly heartbreaking. And very Chekhovian."
Talkin Broadway - Somewhat Recommended
"...Invictus Theatre Company is staging the Paul Schmidt translation of Anton Chekov's Three Sisters. As is typical of Invictus, the production is thoughtful about the text and well staged. Moreover, the performances are, on the whole, strong. Nonetheless, the direction by Charles Askenaizer is uneven at times, and those performances don't always entirely connect with one another. This unfortunately tends to take the audience out of certain moments and contributes to the awareness of how long the play can feel."
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...This translation by Paul Schmidt is fairly easy to follow and the set by Kevin Rolfs is pretty amazing. Some of the furniture appears to be museum quality, as if taken right from Russia and brought to Irving Park Road. The direction by Charles Askenaizer was smooth, but there were times of confusion when different exits and entrances were made. It was hard to figure where the characters were coming from. The “fire” in the second act was probably the most confusing to me."
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...Chekhov’s Three Sisters has a timeless staying power that still resonates in the modern world and is a perfect existential piece to juxtapose against the beautiful Chicago summer evenings. Invictus Theatre Company took on the lofty goal of putting on the production as the first run in its new home at The Windy City Playhouse in Irving Park. Paul Schmidt’s translation and condensation of the four-part play into two acts highlights all the key points and themes. Set against an intimate and enchanting set by Kevin Rolfs, Director Charles Askenaizer transports us to the small Russian town filled with existential woe, philosophical debates on life and love, and bridges the centuries with this timeless classic."
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...Melodrama gets a bum rap. It’s silly, the cynics say, unrealistic, it’s too much. But when melodrama is done well there’s nothing else like it. The genre appeals to the emotional scavenger, searching through art for new feelings like a hog in the woods searches for truffles. Anton Chekhov, the playwright and short story writer, was a realist in his time, though watching Invictus Theatre Company’s production of Three Sisters at Windy City Playhouse, I was struck by how its emotional veracity hit the same as my favorite melodramas."
NewCity Chicago - Recommended
"...It's a humble place, very far from the culture and urbanity of Moscow, where the play's title sisters-spinsterish Ólga, unhappily married Masha, and young, fancy-free Irína-were born and desperately long to return. But "Three Sisters" is not the sort of story where dreams come true. Written less than twenty years before the Russian Revolution, it's a portrait of a tired and decaying world where dreams are perpetually deferred, painful compromises are made and more effort is put into rationalizing misery than alleviating it."
