The reviews are in for SiNNERMAN Ensemble’s “Sweet Confinement,” which runs through Saturday, Dec. 17 at the Viaduct Theatre and the ensemble is proud to say they have another hit on their hands.
Tickets are still available for the 12 remaining performances of the show’s run both online by clicking here or by calling 773-296-6024. For those of you in the industry, performance will take place Monday, Nov. 28 at 7:30 p.m. Please bring evidence (headshot, business card) of your industry status (industriousness?) to qualify for the special $12 reduced-price admission.
Writes Justin Hayford of the Chicago Reader in his rave: “It’s a condensed, grotesque variation on Chekhov, and Carini’s astute orchestration of telling behaviors renders it pathetic, absurd, and harrowing. The restrained performances that director Brea Hayes gets from her stellar Sinnerman Ensemble cast make Amy’s ultimate breakdown—played with horrifying intensity by Cyd Blakewell—seem all the more volcanic. … [T]heater doesn’t get much better than this.“
Nina Metz of the Chicago Tribune wrote in her three-star review: “Ultimately, Sweet Confinement is worth seeing for the quality of Cyd Blakewell’s turn as Amy, who is the kind of mild-mannered woman who keeps it together until she doesn’t. But her breakdown doesn’t take the usual path. Blakewell lets it build gradually without snacking on the scenery along the way. The character isn’t meant to be a drama queen, and Blakewell’s understated approach suggests there’s more going on with this woman than meets the eye.”
Writes Kris Vire of Time Out Chicago in his three-star review: “Playing out over the course of a single, ultra-tense day, Sweet Confinement deftly depicts the fluid loyalties and giddy gallows humor that can be triggered by tragedy. … Carini displays skillful plotting, parcelling out the reveals of the friends’ histories carefully and organically. … John Wilson’s sharply detailed set provides a vivid backdrop.”
According to Lawrence Bommer of Chicago Theater Beat in his four-star review: “Pulling against the occasionally elegiac style of the valedictory dialogue are the actual activities that people undergo after a crisis or a crime. This essentially human urge to put things right brings decency and depth to this one-act amply reinforced by Hayes’ perfect casting, tonal control and committed cast.“
Neal Ryan Shaw of NewCity Stage wrote in his review that the show is “something of a sentimental juggernaut. … [t]he production features superb acting from the entire cast, in particular Blakewell, who derive convincing action even from the play’s talkier moments. The broken shower rod might serve as a metaphor for the show as a whole; if only our bigger life problems were solved by a trip to Target.”