Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"..."Late Bus" is the piece that really pops — mostly because of the amazing work by Alana Arenas, a young Chicago actress (and new Steppenwolf ensemble member) with seemingly boundless talent."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...Eclipse Theatre continues its Pearl Cleage season with a couple of well-acted, astutely directed gems."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Eclipse Theatre Company continues its season of work by Pearl Cleage with this pair of one-acts featuring four black women. Neither could be called a brilliant experiment in dramatic form, but they handily reflect issues of race, gender, and the creative impulse, and Cleage's gift for sharp-elbowed dialogue allows actors to pull out all the stops."
Windy City Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...In all, Late Bus to Mecca shines with wit, warmth and intelligence. Unfortunately, those first two qualities are lacking in the evening’s opener, Hospice. Also a two-hander, Hospice deals with a mother in the last throes of cancer and her pregnant daughter. Neither character invites empathy, but Cleage’s dialogue is more problematic; it sounds like speechifying rather than genuine conversation."
Gay Chicago Magazine - Somewhat Recommended
"...African-American playwright and novelist Pearl Cleage is best known for her stage works of “Blues for an Alabama Sky” and “Flyin’ West” (produced earlier this season by Eclipse and Court theatres, respectively), both written in the mid-1990s and first staged by the Atlanta-based Alliance Theatre. As a continuation for their “One Playwright - One Season” on Cleage, Eclipse chooses a pair of her more obscure one-acts, “Hospice” (1992) and “Late Bus to Mecca” (1983). Unfortunately, these aren’t the best choices to showcases the writer’s work. Thematically, both explore the planning to escape, but the message never satisfies, as the first piece is overburdened with metaphoric and culture cliches and the other a one-note, repetitive musing on searching for second chances."
Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Where Hospice suffers from meandering dialogue, Mecca benefits from it, cutting a satisfying slice of life. It’s helped too by an amusing, delightfully understated Wilkerson (the two actors will alternate the parts). An unexpected yet plausible bond develops between this unlikely duo, a much happier union than that between these two wildly divergent one-acts."
