Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Far more than Geraldine Page, who starred in the belated but much-admired 1985 movie version of the 1953 play, the fiercely unsentimental Smith plays this central role low in the body, far back in the throat and deep down in the gut. As first seen at New York's Signature Theatre, this is Carrie Watts as Mother Courage, and her trip to Bountiful has nothing to do with memory or whimsy and everything to do with raw survival. There's guilt, fortitude and, therefore, gravitas."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...actress Lois Smith gives what is surely the most achingly beautiful performance of her long and distinguished career. She plays the role of Carrie Watts, the elderly woman hellbent on making one final journey back to her roots -- traveling by bus from Houston to the Gulf town of Bountiful, Texas, after 20 years to see her crumbling house, relive memories of a lost love and buried children, and feel the soil beneath her feet and the smell of sea air. In Smith's performance, certain to linger for decades in the hearts of all those lucky enough to see it, you get the sense she has stitched her own soul to her character's, for they appear to breathe as one. She also gets impeccable support from a peerless supporting cast."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...Praising Smith -- whose luminous performance has earned her Obie and Drama Desk awards along with a handful of other honors -- amounts to gilding the lily. Her Carrie is a combination of strength and resourcefulness, determination and despair. Often Smith appears lit from within. And while lighting designer John McKernon deserves credit for his glowing lighting, I can't help feeling that much of the radiance emanates from Smith herself."
SouthtownStar - Highly Recommended
"...As revived by Harris Yulin's exquisite, pitch-perfect direction and, with Lois Smith's mesmerizing performance, this is the kind of theater that pierces your heart and brings chills down your spine long after the final curtain."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Foote's telling is infinitely sweeter and more accepting than Shakespeare's, but no less affecting in its way--especially in Harris Yulin's production starring Lois Smith, who marvelously embodies the foibles as well as the wisdom of age. Hallie Foote is triumphantly unbearable as Jessie Mae."
Chicago Free Press - Highly Recommended
"...Heart is the soul of this unashamedly sentimental script, originally performed by Lillian Gish on television and Broadway, then made into an Oscar-winning 1985 film starring Geraldine Page. Its power is its portrait of a frail but flinty Carrie, vulnerable with age but refusing to abandon the last dream standing, Lois Smith, fondly remembered as Ma Joad in Steppenwolf’s 1988 “Grapes of Wrath,” is her natural. Shimmering with resilience and resourcefulness, she makes old age into an adventure. You can understand why strangers would want to help her and also why loved ones would find her aggravating."
EpochTimes - Highly Recommended
"...The true star of this show, other than the script which is a work of art by Mr. Foote, is the cast. I am in love with Lois Smith. No matter what she says, or how she moves, the stage is hers and this character is so real. A trapped person looking to escape and return where they feel safe is something that we hear of but probably never experience ourselves. We feel her fear of dying without ever going home and we want her to have what she wants."
Copley News Service - Highly Recommended
"... Harris Yulin repeats his insightful directing from the 2005 revival. E. David Cosier designed the sets that impressively show off the Goodman backstage technology as the stage morphs from the Houston apartment to two bus station waiting rooms to the outside of Carrie’s now dilapidated house in Bountiful."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...A crackling fire burns behind Lois Smith’s ice-blue eyes. For much of her performance as Mrs. Carrie Watts in Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful, she restrains that fire to glowing embers: a joyful, childlike spark that lights her from within even at Mrs. Watts’s weakest, most defeated moments. But when she lets the fire burn bright in the character’s quest to visit her childhood home once more, we’re delighted but not surprised; it’s clearly been ready to reignite all along."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Lois Smith anchors a marvelous cast that features terrific work from Hallie Foote (the playwright’s daughter) as the selfish daughter-in-law, Jessie Mae. Devon Abner’s Ludie and Meghan Andrews’ Thelma offered excellent work. James Demarse as the Sheriff and Frank Girardeau as Roy supported nicely. But The Trip To Bountiful surly belongs to Lois Smith—she gave a must memorable performance. Get to the Goodman Theatre to experience a master actor wonderfully performing a classic American play."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...Director Harris Yulin seems to have used The Goodman's considerable resources to bring in a group of folks who already know what to do and subsequently neglected to meld them into a cohesive ensemble. I certainly was not looking to see any new interpretation of the work - it is perfect as it was written and I, too, just want to relive the past - but I had hoped for a bit more emotion than was present on opening night."
