The Skriker intrigues with deranged chaos. Under the multi-faceted direction of Eric Hoff, the experience is part fun-house, part haunted-house, part mad-house. The imagery is fascinating! The movement (choreographer Myah Shein) throughout the show compels for its elegant and gaudy eroticism. Rogers‘ entrance is particularly transfixing and she continues to hold court throughout the show. Walls move. Demons dance. And Rogers dominates. The part is demanding. And Rogers meets the challenge like a woman possessed. She is phenomenal! Carrie Drapac (Lily) plays it perfectly superficial like the pretty girl victim in any horror movie, over and over. Amanda Drinkall (Josie) is disturbingly poignant. A crazed Drinkall is the unexpected voice of reason. The entire show is orchestrated with ever-changing pageantry. -Katy Walsh, Chicago Now
The most chilling experience in Chicago at this moment. Smartly staged as a shape-shifting promenade by Eric Hoff. The moment you enter Red Tape, Hoff and company set a sinister tone that never loosens its grip…Sadie Rogers crackles as the Skriker. Bring an open mind, a sense of adventure and comfortable shoes. -Bob Bullen, Huffington Post
One of the most striking theatrical experiences currently running. Hoff creates a full-on hellscape replete with shifting walls, bizarre creatures and eighties power ballads. Rogers absolutely owns the Skriker, ringing out every last ounce of wit and rage and dreadful malevolence. – Alex Huntsberger, Centerstage
Rogers is absolutely brilliant as the Skriker. A wild ride through shifting walls and surreal characters. The cast is superb, with millisecond synchronous movement. Eric Hoff’s direction is perfectly controlled chaos culminating in a stunning night of edgy theater. Go see it! -K.D. Hopkins, Chicago Theater Beat
The ensemble, particularly the fearless Rogers in the title role, are consistently engaging and on top of Churchill’s relentless language. It’s an original, disorienting trip to a dark realm. Disney it ain’t. -Lisa Buscani, New City Stage
RECOMMENDED As director Eric Hoff put it in a Reader interview, you find yourself facing your demons while they stare back at you. The skriker’s Joycean babble is sometimes more rhythmic than coherent, but, paired with Myah Shein’s sinister choreography, it certainly loosened my grasp on reality. —Marissa Oberlander, Chicago Reader
A marvelous concoction of magical realism and supernatural horror, “The Skriker”, on the page, is a theatrical experience without peer. Having the surreal creativity of the Muppets while overflowing with the sort of brazenness and intellectual fervor characteristic of the acclaimed and always innovative Churchill. Though often verbosely lyrical and containing some mighty stimulating gender, relationship, and socio-economic commentary, this play is completely accessible and approachable. And in “Hit The Wall” director Eric Hoff’s promenade staging at Red Tape Theatre, with essential scenes occurring six inches from your nose, quite literally so. The ensemble’s complete commitment to their creepy-crawly demonic personas keeps the audience constantly glancing over their shoulders for who might unexpectedly pop up. Rogers is terribly funny, and carries a razor sharp sarcasm that only centuries of mischievous, shape shifting omnipresence could impart. The other rather impressive factor of Rogers’ performance is the anticipation she coerces. In the later scenes that feature the Skriker only intermittently, the audience anxiously awaits her return – fully understanding her evil, but too intoxicated to care. Drinkall, in addition to owning piercing eyes that quite brilliantly reveal psychopathic turmoil, must be applauded for her strong dialect work (Dialect Coach Lindsay Bartlett) – paying extreme attention, not only to its common Britishness, but to its urban quirks as well. Drapac, as the pregnant Lily, never cheaply elicits the audience’s pity, but quite contrastingly, bathes the character in sensuousness and abrasive luxury. “The Skriker” is certainly the most unusual play I’ve seen in recent memory. The text, itself, is the pinnacle of what it means to be out-of-the-box, and Red Tape’s promenade configuration takes the story even further outside of that once constrictive box. But the proud weirdness, discombobulation, paranoia, transformation, and sinister magic of this play and of this production harmoniously come together to build something unquestionably singular and blatantly eclectic. -Johnny Oleksinski, Podunk critic
