Back of the Throat Reviews
Gay Chicago Magazine
By Venus Zarris
May 4, 2006
The show is as technically impressive as it is masterfully executed. The stage is perfectly set with a first-rate design team. This show is as polished as the shoes of a fledgling Federal Agent.
Chicago Free Press
By Louis Weisberg
April 26, 2006
The play manipulates us to sympathize-against our better judgment and reason-both with the twisted reasoning that guides the Kafka-esque interrogation and the sense of injustice and oppression that motivated the attackers. This is not a comfortable experience, but it's gripping and worthwhile in a way that few plays manage to achieve.
Windy City Media Group
By Catey Sullivan
April 26, 2006
It's harrowing to the point where it's difficult to watch, and not because the performances are anything less than excellent or because Stuart Carden's direction never misses a step... With a cast capable of moving in a blink from hilarious absurdity to horrifying intensity and a story that is tragically timely, Back of the Throat deserves a place on the must-see lists.
TimeOut Chicago
By John Beer
April 20, 2006
Yussef El Guindi's pitch-black exploration of the domestic war on terror opens, like Kafka's Trial, with an Arab-American man confronted in his home by investigators whose strained politeness barely covers an underlying menace. The first half of the play is bitterly funny, an apt and chilling depiction of the corporate-minded police state: Writer Khaled (Bandealy), accused of shadowy links to the perpetrators of a recent, unspecified Tragic Event, may not have access to a lawyer, but he's more than welcome to fill out an evaluation form about his interrogation.
