THE REALISTIC JONESES

by Will Eno

In director Jeremy Wechsler’s capable hands, the wry humor and fragility of the situation shines through to make The Realistic Joneses an inventively staged, touching and uproariously funny story of aging and endless possibilities.”

— Picks in Six

Director Jeremy Wechsler, who has a long history with the playwright, demonstrates the surest of hands in guiding his flawless cast through the shoals of zig-zag emotions and verbal quirks without ever losing control of the characters as realistic human beings. I didn’t find a single false note struck during the evening, not one moment when the play turns silly or willfully obscure. The play weaves an almost otherworldly spell over attentive and sympathetic viewers.

— CLTR

But as the performances in director Jeremy Wechsler's gentle yet rigorous staging make clear, the four Joneses run not from indeterminacy but from excessive certainty, astutely and affectingly capturing its myriad gray tones. Uniformly excellent.

— Chicago Reader

“a flawless production with top notch performances under the expert direction of Jeremy Wechsler”

— Chicago Arts and Theater

★★★1⁄2

“polished to a sublime sheen by director Jeremy Wechsler”

— Chicago Sun Times

“Director Jeremy Wechsler’s production grounds the flightier aspects of the play in a Chicago-style reality. This play felt weird on Broadway but more at home on Belmont Avenue.”

— Chicago Tribune

Director Jeremy Wechsler has tapped into the deftly conjured, fragmented, offbeat rhythms of Eno’s characters with impressive skill.

— WTTW

From an interview with Will Eno in Storefront Rebellion, 1/7/2019

Kris Vire: I’m frankly surprised it’s taken this long to get The Realistic Joneses to Chicago. It’s going to be almost five years since the Broadway run, right?

Will Eno: Right. It’s always nice to have things going, but Jeremy wanted to do it very early on, and so it was just a matter of sort of scheduling things—just trying to figure out when that play works. It’s been a while but I'm glad Jeremy’s doing it, and I’m psyched for these two different theaters to collaborate on it.

KV: I was glad to see that Jeremy’s attached to it. This is, I think, the fourth time that he’s directing a Chicago premiere of one of your pieces; he really seems to have the right kind of directorial sensibility to mesh with your sensibility as a writer.

WE: Agreed.

KV: That has to be gratifying to find that kind of partnership.

WE: It’s great because it’s one of those things like a lot of stuff in life: I don’t take it for granted a bit, but it just feels very easy and true. Jeremy’s got a great, a really, really good sense of humor. He’s got a really big heart. He’s a super, super intelligent guy about theater and all that stuff. I think I mean those things roughly in that order. I might even put heart first—I think he's got a big, sympathetic good heart and so I think he leads with that. He’s interested in finding simple, straightforward human stuff. And so I really appreciate that because I think it’s findable, I hope it’s findable.