Uncle Vanya Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...Simply put, it's a bold and interesting choice to do Chekhov in a factory, but it's not enough. Next time, and I sincerely hope there is one, Huffman should take many more risks. Why not? People are paying attention now."

Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended

"...I suppose you could argue that works because “Vanya” is fundamentally about disappointment, but on a way different, existential scale. The play, and particularly its titular character, embodied here by veteran Chicago actor Lawrence Grimm (whose last name could not be more fitting), expresses excessive disappointment, excessively. The playwright Aaron Posner wrote a contemporary adaptation of this work, which Lookingglass Theater staged in 2016. He called it, “Life Sucks.” As that suggests, the play can also be extremely funny in its poetic pondering of the unhappy."

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...We're watching each other laugh and wince across the playing area, through the candlelight, realizing that we're each other's mirrors. And we're all of us filled with doubts about who we are, and wondering just how we ended up where we are. We may feel as out of place as 19th-century Russians in a 21st-century Chicago factory. At the end, there's just one little candle (Representing hope? Peace? A flicker of gallows humor?) lighting the way. But whatever it is, it's still a light."