Okay, Bye by Joshua Conkel

 P R E S S:

"All three First Look productions are startlingly well realized, in fact, even if you disregard the "developmental" caveat. None more so than Margot Bordelon's staging of Okay, Bye, a 70-minute two-hander by Joshua Conkel, about former schoolmates"

                 - Tony Adler, Chicago Reader

"The direction by Margot Bordelon is truly inspired. She creates a sensitive view to this world, but there is clearly no room for precious indulgence."

                  - Will Cameron, Chicago Stage Standard

"Persuasively directed by Margot Bordelon and deeply indebted to Marsha Norman’s ’Night Mother (even in the sound of the title), Joshua Conkel’s 70-minute, two-person Okay, Bye is a mostly engrossing depiction of two addicted women, former high school classmates in the 90s whose lives took different turns to the same bottles of booze."

                  - Lawrence Bommer, Chicago Theater Beat

 "The show is deeply haunting and while it explores futuristic possibilities, it is real, grounded, and absolutely authentic. “Okay, Bye.” challenges its audience in every sense of the world. It implores us to dwell in the realm of “what if”. As we watch Jenny and Meg wrestle with their demons, we cannot help but be reminded of our own. Their realness is heartbreakingly affecting; the journey that it takes us on is short in length but large in significance."

                  - Emma Rubenstein, The Depaulia