Hushabye at Steppenwolf Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...Saracho, a longtime Chicago playwright who has moved on to writing for HBO's "Looking" and "Girls," has a gift for pungent (and often overlapping) dialogue that gets a terrific workout here, aided by Yasen Peyankov's sharp-elbowed direction. But the ultimate resolution of the conflicts feels pat, with too many secrets and lingering wounds left either unrevealed or untended in order to facilitate an artificial sense of closure. I found myself thinking of Jonathan Demme's 2008 film "Rachel Getting Married," which also spotlighted a fresh-from-rehab young woman who had caused the death of a family member and is trying to reconnect with her loved ones. There, the process of breaking apart and rebuilding felt far more honest and painful than what Saracho delivers in this often-funny but underdeveloped portrait of a family in crisis."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...Contrasting with these gloomy sermons is Tanya Saracho's Hushabye, a comedy boasting linear structure and externalized action uninterrupted by imaginary scenarios/murky flashbacks. Its setting is a newly rehabbed loft apartment in Pilsen, occupied by a likewise newly rehabbed artist named Erika, one of two sisters recovering from the death of their parents. With the intervention of Erika's hipster landlord and happily gay cousin, siblings Erika and Cynthia reclaim administration of their late father's real-estate business from the dubious control of the latter's status-conscious husband, thus restoring the broken family's stability."