Critic’s Pick of the Week - Jonathan Arbabanel and Kelly Kleiman, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio 4/11/07 - “Never have the multiple meanings of the term "absurd" been on better display than in Theater Oobleck’s new play which is called "The Strangerer". "This represents a head-on collision between Camus’ novel about existential meaninglessness and the U.S. Presidential debates. And as ludicrous and absurd as that sounds it’s also practically the first time I’ve understood what was going on in American politics this decade. There’s John Kerry presented as a sleep walker, I mean literally a sleep walker which of course explains everything about his candidacy, and moderator Jim Lehrer as a clueless, self-satisfied nincompoop. And in the middle of it all is George W. Bush played by Guy Massey who is astonishing -- I could not praise him highly enough -- trying to find some meaning and authenticity through completely random acts of violence. It is funny, it is beyond brilliant. Don’t mistake it for a parody which is what it sounds like, it’s the best piece you’ll see this year about American politics, the news business, or existentialism."


Critic’s Choice – Albert Williams, Chicago Reader 3/1/07 - "Guy Massey’s brilliant performance as George W. Bush anchors Theater Oobleck’s new political satire, which imagines the Decider as a present-day equivalent of Mersault, the antihero of Albert Camus’1942 novel, The Stranger. In this absurdist comedy by Mickle Maher--who costars as John Kerry--set during a 2004 candidate’s debate, Bush tries several times to murder unflappable moderator Jim Lehrer (Colm O’Reilly) on the air, giving his reasons in a narrative as scrupulously detailed as Mersault’s. Massey has Bush’s mannerisms down cold: the odd pauses and arbitrary emphases when he speaks, the heh-heh laugh that sounds simultaneously ingratiating, contemptuous, and paranoid, the wide-eyed, eager-to-please smile that morphs into a mean, squinty grimace. But more than an on-target impersonation, Massey delivers a richly detailed portrait of a man whose profound isolation reflects society’s emotionally charged political, religious, and cultural schisms" –


Critic’s Pick – Christopher Piatt, TimeOut Chicago 2/22/07 - “All of the show-room–floor qualities of The Strangerer—the handsome but pulled-from-stock scenery; the pointed, parody-ripe setting (2004’s Presidential debate narrated by Jim Lehrer); the spot-on performances by three character actors at the top of their game—might make Mickle Maher’s new play look like an SNL lampoon. But don’t get too cozy: The Strangerer is anything but satire as comfort food. Instead, this weird Camus allegory, for all its dazzling erudite humor, has the kind of haunting resonance to which most political theater ascribes but doesn’t have the maturity to summon. In the last decade, President Bush has been easily caricatured as an illiterate despot void of humility. Were he to see this expressionistic, thoughtful and humane permutation of himself (credit Massey with all three), he might be conversely humbled. Sparked by Bush’s 2006 announcement that he’d read The Stranger during a brief sabbatical, The Strangerer frames the man Molly Ivins dubbed “Shrub” as a murderer experiencing an existential meltdown. (He tells us offhandedly that his mother’s screaming, undead corpse has been keeping him up at night; the coroner, it seems, has yet to take the body away.) Although the play is written in soaring, sorrowful oratorios conveying Bush’s crises of conscience and intellect, Maher’s heady writing can still have a Beckett-like distancing effect—a chilly breeze blows across even the humorous apexes. But as this modest brain-candy fantasia makes a bigger villain of Kerry (portrayed by the bouffant-wigged author as a literal somnambulist), and priceless O’Reilly transforms bloodless, stone-faced Lehrer into a sterling critique of media amorality, the haunting result is far stranger than fiction"


Critic’s Choice – Brian Kirst, Chicago Free Press Mar’07 - “As in any good theater, one leaves "The Strangerer" contemplating our own lives. We chuckle and grin, but wonder if we are rendering our own lives meaningless by not taking a closer look at the information that we are being fed. Perhaps with assistance of theater such as "The Strangerer" we can grow, eventually proving Camus’ famous theories to be wrong"


Reinna Hard, Centerstage.com - "An inevitable and completely obvious pairing of the 2004 Presidential Debates with the Absurdist philosophical works of Albert Camus - Brilliant" is a word to avoid. For one thing, it’s generally an overstatement. Worse, it’s worn out, robbed of its singularity by years of careless use. You might as well say "double plus good." But "The Strangerer," a new play from Theatre Oobleck, has in its double plus goodness such peculiar qualities (lightness, hardness, endless facets) that it could tempt that old word out of retirement. "Brilliant" should make you think of a gem—something that shines through cutting. "The Strangerer" is practically all sharp edge" -