History: Press

It seems there are some folks in the establishment who like our work.

Curious Theatre Branch... one of the most intriguing and influential avant-garde companies in Chicago... have tapped their imaginations and collected some of the most radical, poetic, life-affirming fantasies Chicago has seen in recent years.—Chicago Reader

Curious Theatre Branch's Beau O'Reilly and Jenny Magnus are two of Chicago experimental theater's most reliable perennials, blooming each year with indelible thoughts and pictures for the faithful. Their commitment to original, low-cost theater continues, as does their ability to leverage The Curious' reputation to attract multi-generational collaborators from across the disciplines to their particular brand of creative madness.—Newcity

If Curious Theatre Branch had been based in New York... this troupe of mature and accomplished performers would be receiving national attention. Graduate students would be writing masters' theses on its intense, collectively conceived work; progressive magazines would be writing laudatory articles; its shows would be appearing on college art series all across the country... this rich, complex, and stylistically daunting work is every bit as fascinating as, say, Mabou Mines...—Chicago Tribune

...rude, strange, often brilliant original work...—Chicago Reader

...an actor and writer-driven ensemble, with an emphasis on inquisitive and rebellious voices sometimes silenced in the mainstream.—Newcity

...one of Chicago's most active and esteemed independent theater companies.—MCA Chicago

Going to the Curious Theatre Branch is like visiting the back room of your favorite bar: the place is a dump, the people are friendly, and by the time you leave, your mind will be wonderfully altered.—Chicago Reader

...share in the exaltation of language as a self-sufficient narrative engine that's always been this company's hallmark...—Time Out

Clean, spare, and electrifying... [Curious] builds intensity and intricacy the way the best of David Mamet's plays do.—Chicago Reader

The Curious Theatre Branch doesn't have a lot of money, but its members are never lazy and they're full of boundless creativity.—Chicago Reader

By turns marvelous, thought-provoking, important, trivial, tedious, infuriating, fascinating, vague, confusing, absorbing, off-putting, flawed and flawless... really shouldn't be missed by anyone who cares about experimental theater...—Newcity

What amazes me most about Curious Theatre writers is the way they mix rich, musical language with morbid, ugly images. No group can wax poetic about rats the way Curious can. No theater is better at turning an ordinary romantic betrayal into an underground, worm-infested odyssey. And no company creates more damaged, dysfunctional characters while simultaneously giving them an aura of beauty.—Chicago Reader

What kind of plays are we talking about here? Intimate, character-driven pieces about life in this challenging world, often including original songs and original incidental music. There's hardly a subject these folks won't write about, yet nothing they present is ever mundane.—Lumino Magazine

If the theater world valued rarity as much as the art world does, they would be considered priceless....—Chicago Reader