Three Soldiers (for Sisters) Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...Gage Wallace delivers a series of direct addresses to the audience as he embodies several characters, including Turd, an abusive former commanding officer of Sully's, a luckless soldier and a terrorist. Though Sawyer has these characters describe themselves sardonically — "Hello, I am a generic soldier" — he hasn't fully solved the problem of reducing them to stereotypes while scolding us for viewing them as such."

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...As high-speed military drawdowns force thousands of troops back into civilian live, it's a good time to get to know the country's soldiers. Aaron Sawyer's wry, sympathetic, and straightforward view of the modern soldier is by far the strongest element of this intriguing (if muddled) retelling of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters for Red Theater."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...Red Theater calls its version an "aggressive retelling" of Chekhova-braggadocio often connoting a license to self-conscious excess-but except for the introduction of a Brechtian device in the form of a protean everyperson dubbed "Misfit" ( whose purpose remains unclear to us for too long ), Sawyer's analogies parallel his source material with remarkable accuracy. The actors likewise engage our sympathies, easing us into our milieu-in particular, Jim Poole's avuncular senior officer Alex, Johnard Washington's cheerful Petro, and Victoria Alvarez-Chacon's Cookie, whose willingness to sacrifice even her gender identity for love and country makes her loss the most tragic of all."

Time Out Chicago - Not Recommended

"...In military terms, the doctrine of shock and awe is about overwhelming power and might. In its effort to evoke power emotionally, Sawyer is wise to choose a subject matter as dramatic as the troubling reality of our modern armed forces. It's focusing only on the overwhelming part that robs Three Soldiers of its potential might."