Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Since Ross has set up a structure where Annabel has agency over her own story — part of the point is that she did not have agency over her life — she is able to take us backward and forward in time as she pleases, showing us shadows of what she wants us to understand about her life, and offering some information on what we will find when we die. This is a popular kind of play in the American theater — realistic but stylized, quirky and metaphysical, one foot in "Our Town," one foot in the mystery thriller, a genre it wants to rescue from its history of exploitation."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Ross spins the story of Annabel Anderson McCafferty (Cyd Blakewell), a horticulturalist in a small Ohio college town who is eight months pregnant when she vanishes on Christmas eve of 2004, leaving behind her car; her husband, Jeff (Jay Worthington); her adored father, Tom (Paul D'Addario); her tempestuous mother, Grace (Lynda Newton); a veteran police detective, Bill (John Kelly Connolly), who loved her mother; Bill's young assistant, Sam (Rudy Galvan), who was Annabel's high school sweetheart (and the guy she should have married); and Polly (Darci Nalepa), a tough-as-nails young mother with a past connection to Jeff."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...But dramatically, the play is a nonstarter; the murder mystery lacks intrigue, and the veneration of ordinary life is too pat by half. Still, director John Gawlik's contemplative production has warmth and sincerity to spare. While a couple of performances feel oversize for the Gift Theatre's intimate space, as Annabel, Cyd Blakewell shows yet again how much resonance understatement can contain."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...The Gift Theatre's ensemble, directed by John Gawlik and led by Blakewell's affecting, engagingly off-kilter delivery, sells the central everyperson premise with gusto: None of us is ever more than a single bad decision away from becoming a headline. Annabel's life, despite its tragically early end, was one that was not extraordinary but extra ordinary. Cherish, then, the ordinary good times."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...This is a play that will haunt audiences for a long time. It evokes as many smiles as tears, and will be impossible to forget. There are everyday scenes filled with the familiar as well as moments that stand out, making theatergoers laugh in delight or cringe in horror. An evening of memory and mystery combine at the Gift to tell a story filled with all the richness that makes up an ordinary life."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...The specificity of Ross' language in Life paints a detailed picture of Annabel, her parents, and others around her. At the same time, Annabel's life is painted with restraint; as narrator, she skips years of her life, focusing on moments of import to her and those closest to her story. While the picture we see is richly drawn by playwright, director, and ensemble, the play ends with many questions lingering deliciously as we venture back into the evening. We are haunted by our memories of Annabel's memories, pedestrian and extraordinary, which have stirred the way we remember our crossroads."
NewCity Chicago - Recommended
"...“A Life Extra Ordinary” doesn’t illuminate any new corners of the mortality dilemma. While it occasionally dips into existential platitudes, Ross and Gawlik by and large keep things unsentimental by focusing on specifics and separating the politics from the personal. In focusing on the unspectacular nature of death, the play suggests that since no single life is precious than perhaps all life is."