Shining City Conor McPherson  | Jungle Theater - 2007  | Photos: Michal Daniel

A brilliant Shining at the Jungle     - Metro Magazine

“Joel Sass is a highly sought-after director and designer whose credits range from the Guthrie Theater to the avant guard Mary Worth Theater...His brilliant staging of Shining City puts a striking cap on the Jungle Theater’s 2007 season... Sass’ direction is superb, anchored by a terrific cast, and the set he has crafted is the latest in a long line of amazing Jungle creations...”

A shining performance          - Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Joel Sass helms a beautifully designed and directed Jungle production...In his staging, Sass has an unerring eye and ear. He uses light and sound to spin a keen, stylistic naturalism and sophisticated flow that approaches cinema... and should you require nothing more than a mesmerizing performance to get you into a theater, you must see J.C. Cutler’s portrayal of a man haunted by his wife’s ghost and more deeply by his own loneliness..”

The ghosts within      - City Pages

“Spectacular...a painfully rich portrait of modern life rife with unsatisfied desires, miscommunication, and time lost in the limbo of the unfulfilled... Sass directs his actors in a way that allows McPherson’s cryptic dialogue to breathe...this production grabs onto the yearning for meaning in McPherson’s script and makes a lasting and profound statement about the limitations against which we bash our foreheads on a daily basis...”

Dark tale of Irish loneliness        - HowWasTheShow.com

“Another amazing presence on the stage is the incredible set design by Joel Sass, who also directed the show. Every detail, from trickling rain on the windowpane to the deep, ominous hallway outside the flat, is perfect.  Everything about the space is realistic, and even clouds move by in the background, through the window...No detail is overlooked, down the table lamp with a British-style plug...”