Chicago Tribune
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Redtwist Theatre's current production isn't bad. Under the direction of Jimmy McDermott, the dynamic between the two tramps, Estragon (Bob Wilson) and Vladimir (a nice chatty turn by Mike Nowak), brings to mind the kind of begrudging tolerance and ennui that can settle over a marriage like so much dirt from the road -- where the men stand day after day waiting for that blasted Godot. It works. So does Andrew Jessop's performance as Lucky; Jessop manages to be pathetically funny and heartbreakingly pathetic."
Chicago Sun Times
- Highly Recommended
"...McDermott brings no radical rethinking to "Godot" -- a work that mixes a vaudeville-simple veneer with the most profound meditations on faith, man's hideous inhumanity to man, the tedium of daily existence, the human hunger for companionship (and the annoyances attached to it) and the ways we invent to amuse ourselves while almost literally 'killing time.' "
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...Bob Wilson's Gogo is choleric and suspicious, while Mike Nowak's optimism as Didi tends to elicit hollow laughs--especially when he says, "What’s the good of losing heart now, that's what I say. We should have thought of it a million years ago, in the 90s." The two actors balance skillful physical slapstick with well-calibrated vocal inflections that subtly emphasize tiny differences between them, which is right to the point: in a blasted world, it's the little things that matter."
Windy City Times
- Highly Recommended
"...Assisted by the up-close vantage of their tiny storefront space, Michael Nowak, employing the slyly subtle facial twitches known in the trade as "eyebrow acting," and Bob Wilson, his deadpan face stripped of the paint he customarily wears in his capacity as Dada Dondi in the Soiree Dada troupe, deliver performances steeped in empathy-inducing intimacy, as do Noah Simon and Andrew Jessop in the more flamboyant roles of Pozzo and Lucky. Whether engaging in Marx Brothers-styled vaudeville shtick or thousand-yard staring into the empty universe that is our part in all this, together they make the two and a half hours we spend in their company pass rapidly, indeed."
Time Out Chicago
- Recommended
"...McDermott, pulling double duty as director and set designer, gives us a world of black stage partitions, a cable wheel and found objects: It all could well have been in the theater for 20 years. It’s a neat bit of reinforced purgatory, enhanced by Christopher Burpee’s startling lighting."
ChicagoCritic
- Highly Recommended
"...Redtwist’s four main characters give depth to the observation that “nothing happens in Godot” is irony in its purest form. So much happens that nothing seems to happen—that is the art that Nowak and Wilson embody on stage. This is an “actor’s show” that ultimately is all about what is being done in front of us. Nowak and Wilson give a clinic on character acting—they were tremendous!"
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Recommended
"...Director Jimmy McDermott utilizes the very small stage quite well. We watch our two lovable tramps Vladimir (a brilliant performance by Mike Nowak) and Estragon (Bob Wilson) as they meet in the park to wait for Godot. Each day for many years they have met and argued, comforted each other and seek diversions to their lives filled with "nothing". Now they have a goal, to meet with the mysterious Godot. They plan and wait and each morning begin again. Each day they feel will be the day as they idly talk about "nothing" waiting for the time to near. Any distraction is a welcome sight as they are hungry and tired men with only this one goal."
Chicago Theater Beat
- Highly Recommended
"...I could throw superlatives at this production all day long. But why bother? Just go see it. Redtwist Theatre has fulfilled its mission to produce great drama in a little black box theater space. For a couple of hours during this play, that little black box contains the whole world."
