RECENT CRITICAL REVIEWS

“Go and see the work of Cromer, Graney, and Berry and you’ll get a snapshot of what might well be a hefty chunk of artistic future of Chicago theater…  Berry gets a lot right – he makes strong powerful choices and can cast very well.  And he makes low budgets look like inspired choices, not necessary economies.

Cromer, Graney and Berry:  Fall is a tale of 3 hot directors

Chris Jones – Chicago Tribune – 10/17/08

“One of the most prolific, respected storefront directors in the city…A mercurial theater artist whose storefront work has been some of the most exciting in recent years.”

Our Berry Own

Chris Piatt – Time Out Chicago – 9/25/08

PUNK ROCK by Simon Stephens

Griffin Theatre Company, January, 2012

Stephens’s deft writing portrays intelligent, articulate, complex, brooding figures whose small town problems indicate the state of the unfolding century. After two previous productions of Stephens’s work, Griffin clearly has a grasp of his style, which shows in this detailed, engaging and often devastating show.

Neil Ryan Shaw, New City, 1/26/11

SPRING AWAKENING by Sheik/Sater

Griffin Theatre Company, Chicago  December, 2011

In its first Chicago-born production, Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s electrified update of Frank Wedekind’s 19th-century play retains the honesty and energy that make it such a successful portrait of timeless teen angst.

Kris Vire, TimeOut Chicago, 12/6/11

Griffin Theatre’s production is far more intimate — and more impactful. Theater Wit’s small, black box space is much more suitable than Chicago’s expansive Oriental Theater where “Spring Awakening” played earlier this year and during its 2009 Broadway tour. There’s an immediacy to director Jonathan Berry’s up-close-and-personal production which places the actors so close to the audience, they can see the tear tracks running down Salt’s face.

Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald, 12/8/11

SUICIDE, INCORPORATED by Andrew Hinderaker

Roundabout Theater Company, New York, NY – November, 2011

a provocative work from a new playwright, with a good cast and canny production… Director Jonathan Berry repeats his Chi assignment here with different cast and designers, and like Hinderaker shows promise. His use of visual freeze frames and brusque scene changes — with Ebert mechanistically thrusting scenic pieces off through the wing — helps propel the action

Peter Suskin, Variety, 11/2/11

Under the strong direction of Jonathan Berry, “Suicide, Incorporated” has the feel of a production that has been nurtured and finely tuned over time. Berry returns after directing the play’s premiere production at the Gift Theatre in Chicago… his characters are successfully brought to life in this well-cast, well-directed play, which in the end is as much about personal regret and redemption as it is about the language of suicide.

A dark comedy that evolves into a more sober drama about the painful legacies that suicide can leave behind, the play doesn’t quite resolve the tension between its sardonic humor and its more sincere aspects. Still, it’s brisk and enjoyable (at a mere 85 minutes) and well acted by its small, all-male cast.

Charles Isherwood, NY Times 11/4/11

FESTEN by David Eldridge

Steep Theatre Company, May 2011

Top 10 plays of 2011:  Chicago Sun Times, TimeOut Chicago, WBEZ,

“I’ve admired Berry’s directing for several years, but “Festen” is his best work to date. Berry makes it feel like this script was specially written for an immersive little theater, where all of this shocking stuff is coming down just a few inches from your face. Berry catches the honesty of the horrific revelations, but he just as skillfully shows us the consequences of denial. This is a true ensemble piece, directly with economy and simplicity. And thus you get to unpack the truth from all the layers of repression.

(4 Stars)”

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune,   5/6/11

“Jonathan Berry, whose exceptional and stylistically wide-ranging work in recent seasons — much of it for Steep and the Griffin Theatre — suggests he is the easy heir apparent to David Cromer’s now gilded crown.  Berry is a master, and for “Festen”… he has gathered a large and brilliantly tuned ensemble cast that compels you to watch each ferocious scene of this 95-minute play with a combination of fear and loathing. “

Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times, 5/9/11

 

PORT by Simon Stephens

Griffin Theatre Company, January 2011

“Berry doesn’t employ inauthentic gimmicks, but his production…is deftly paced, imaginatively staged, and bracing throughout.  And when he needs to slow things down… he does so.  Simply. He knows how to let ordinary pain fill some space, as all Stephens plays need” (3.5 Stars)

Chris Jones – Chicago Tribune – 1/18/11

“From early on it also is abundantly clear that Caroline Neff, the young actress who portrays Racheal in Griffin Theatre’s emotionally searing U.S. premiere of the play, deserves to be catapulted into the star category herself. So does Jonathan Berry, whose direction of a pitch-perfect ensemble could not be more flawless”

Hedy Weiss – Chicago Sun Times – 1/18/11

SUICIDE, INCORPORATED by Andrew Hinderaker

Gift Theatre Company – June, 2010

“I still can’t get over a couple of the scenes in Berry’s sure-footed and wholly truthful production. One involves Thornton’s character describing the night when his marriage went wrong, when he became “one of those men,” when the fog descended. It is a jaw-dropping few minutes.”

(4 Stars)

Chris Jones – Chicago Tribune – 6/15/10

COMPANY by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth

Griffin Theatre Production, October 2010

“Yet Sondheim and Furth tapped into some truths about the detachment of urban life that have yet to be proven non-universal, and Berry and his outstanding ensemble find some new comic notes in the alternately cynical and hopeful material. Berry’s three-quarter-round staging, with set designer Jessica Kuehnau providing a bi-level backdrop, makes remarkably efficient use of 14 actors on a small stage, and the group numbers all sound fantastic. “

Kris Vire – Time Out Chicago – 10/7/10

THE HOSTAGE by Brendan Behan

Griffin Theatre Company, September 2009

“directed by Jonathan Berry, a major Chicago talent who, despite a series of sensational productions in recent years, remains a bit under the radar.  Berry possesses a grand gift for illuminating complex plays, and for creating a tight ensemble spirit among large casts who invariably generate a vibrant, organic, lived in feeling on stage.  “

Hedy Weiss – Chiago Sun Times – 9/21/09

“But I still thought this was one of gutsiest productions I’ve seen in months, and in a strange but powerful way, it manages to channel a lot of the messy brilliance that Behan represented. If, like me, you’re a fan of the man’s work, I wouldn’t miss it.”

Chris Jones – Chicago Tribune – 9/20/09

THE HOLLOW LANDS by Howard Korder

Steep Theatre Co,  June 2009

*Midwest Premier

Director Jonathan Berry and his Steep colleagues approach this epic (and I do not use that term lightly here) with such visual imagination, unbridled enthusiasm, appealing verve and, for the most part, decent acting chops, that “The Hollow Lands” turns out to be quite a distinctive evening of Chicago theater.

Chris Jones – Chicago Tribune, 7/1/2009

“…First produced in 2000, this superbly written play has been expertly cast and envisioned here by Jonathan Berry (now one of the hottest young directors in Chicago), who enjoyed direct input from the playwright. And Berry and his actors brilliantly capture the feverish drive of those caught up in the promise of self-creation and success.”

Hedy Weiss – Chicago Sun Times- 7-5-2009

ON THE SHORE OF THE WIDE WORLD

by Simon Stephens

Griffin Theatre, October 2008

*North American Premier

“Griffin Theatre’s moving production of [OTSOTWW] is both a beguiling glimpse into the future of Chicago theater and a heartening continuation of tradition.  You get to see a bevy of Chicago talents at the start of their career, including the skilled young director Jonathan Berry, and his prodigiously talented, strikingly confident, just out of school crew…”

Chris Jones – Chicago Trbune 10/8/08

“The exceedingly gifted director, Jonathan Berry, and his ideally chosen, generation spanning cast of 10 have homed in on the play’s wonderfully crafted scenes, focusing all their energy on a truthfulness and intimacy that grows increasingly magnetic.”

Hedy Weiss – Chicago Sun Times 10/6/08

“remarkably precise and empathetic work of Berry and his well matched cast.”

Kris Vrie – Time Out Chicago – 10/9/08

JOURNEY’S END by R.C. Sheriff

Griffin Theatre, January 2008

“Flawless in look, accent, costume, and attitude, the cast put us there powerfully…This is as good as it should have to get”

Lawrence Bommer, Chicago Reader  2/7/08

“A superbly crafted, very moving, powerfully intimate, and thoroughly engrossing Chicago-style revival from skilled director Jonathan Berry.  You do not want to miss it”

Chris Jones – Chicago Tribune 1/30/08

DEAD END by Sydney Kingsley

Griffin Theatre, September 2006

“Most professional theaters today would find the play prohibitively expensive to produce, but non-equity Griffin has tackled the project with impressive success under Jonathan Berry’s impressive direction.  The 27 person ensemble…capture both the engaging exuberance and the desperate dangerousness of these career criminals in the making.”

Albert Williams – Chicago Reader   10/13/06

“We think the talented members of this behind-the-scenes quintet could- one day at least- be among the great theater city’s artistic leaders…  Jon Berry’s production of Sidney Kingsley’s “Dead End” for the Griffin was a consummate Chicago experience – oodles of young, non-Equity actors all stuffed into a tiny stage, acting their hearts out.  But as well as coaxing remarkable intensity from a clearly devoted cast, newcomer Berry also showed his staging chops in this prosaic space at the Theatre building Chicago.  Many of his stage pictures were intensely provocative.”

Top Five Directors to Watch

Chris Jones – Chicago Tribune 12/15/06

THE PIANO TUNER by Jim Grote, adptd from Daniel Mason

Lifeline Theatre, January 2007

“Berry’s great triumph is in creating a fascinatingly foreign world with a small but tightly focused cast and Lifeline’s tiny space.”

Kris Vrie – Time Out Chicago, 2/22/07

“The Piano Tuner is expertly scripted by James Grote and ingeniously directed by  Jonathan Berry…[it] offers  sublime storytelling and a grand tour.”

Hedy Weiss – Chicago Sun Times, 2/12/07

THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI –

by Bertolt Brecht

Steep Theatre, June 2007

Steep Theater’s large scale, small stage take on the play is sensational.  And gifted director Jonathan Berry… once again demonstrates his flair for animating period pieces, shaping large ensembles, and orchestrating dialogue as if it were musical notation.”

Hedy Weiss – Chicago Sun Times  6/4/07

“The most cohesive and satisfying show I’ve seen from this company to date… a not to be missed production”

Kerry Reid – Chicago Tribune 6/6/07