Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Polt and Clark are standouts in the solid cast, with the former's steely but vulnerable sense of righteousness complementing the latter's world-weary cynicism. Interstitial snatches of music and a simple but brilliant approach to that famous show-closing cri de coeur make this production of "Lefty" a show you shouldn't wait to see."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Director Matt Foss adopts the "living newspaper" look of Depression-era theater but, in a radical departure from the script, removes any hope of success for the little guys. Lopping off the famously rabble-rousing conclusion, Foss lets the fat cats carry the day-which is both a bummer and an accurate reflection of American corporate power. Ultimately, the show feels less like a call to arms than an elegy for Odets's brand of idealism."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...Dramatically, Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty is as irrevocably tied to its historical period as William Pratt's Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, but while the social crimes ascribed to alcohol addiction in 1868 meet with skepticism today, pro-union sentiments as they existed in 1935 have lost none of their allure for audiences in 2013 ever-ready to denounce capitalism and its stereotypical representations. Given that this unabashedly propagandistic view doesn't leave much room for argument, a certain similarity is inevitable in productions of this American classic ."
Centerstage - Recommended
"...Foss often has his actors max out with full-volume intensity that easily overwhelm Oracle's intimate confines. But the play's opening sequence, complete with song, and a chalk-drawn skyline is a powerful moment of theatricality. Bursts of poetry, like Stuckey's tender tracing of Polt's outline, or a piano key's invoking of a heart monitor, continually shine through, even as the scenes themselves remain a little one-note. And Foss's closing is really a stunner. One might say that it kind of rains on Odet's parade, as his rallying call "Strike!" is left implicitly unheeded, but it speaks plainly to the modern culture of cynicism. Odet hoped his audiences really would strike, Foss seems pretty sure that we're not."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...The show has many terrific moments and features nice work form Jeremy Clark, Stephanie Polt, John Arthur Lewis and Dylan Stuckey. The 55 minute drama will stir up your rage as you ponder the contemporary plight of the American worker. Too bad the contemporary solutions are not as obvious as the 1930′s were. The staging was imaginative and the leads performances were terrific, especially from Jeremy Clark as Fatt and Dylan Stuckey as Joe. This is an example of the fine body of work that Oracle Theatre continues to mount. Their unique funding approach would make Odets’ smile. This is worth a look."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Highly Recommended
"...WAITING FOR LEFTY is a perfect opportunity to step into the Oracle experience. Not only is the show well-done, it's short and free. It's a no-risk opportunity to enmesh yourself in the Chicago Storefront Theatre scene."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...As director, Matt Foss understands the show. He has brought not only top notch actors, but a myriad of design elements that works so well together. He keeps the actors moving through their paces, but at no time does the show get preachy or cartoon like."
Huffington Post - Highly Recommended
"...Waiting for Lefty can be deadly: Odets liked speechifying and was big on telling the audience what to think. Somehow director Matt Foss and his ensemble have teased out of a manifesto this actual play about actual people whose suffering feels like our own. The moment in which Joe (Dylan Stuckey) woos Edna (Stephanie Polt) by leaning her against the wall and outlining her in chalk is indescribable (obviously), beautiful and erotic. We see how Joe's inability to make a living has destroyed a genuine thing: their love. By the same token, Jeremy Clark so effectively turns the corrupt union boss Fatt from Odets's cardboard villain into a believable horror that it's as if James Gandolfini were reincarnated. I only wish the show were longer -- and how often do we say that?"