Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...the best scenes here are very powerful. The most emotionally reachable performance comes from the terrific Joe D. Lauck, who plays Eurydice’s father and whose love for his daughter seems to flow out into the theater in great waves. Once she settles down after an overly cutesy first scene, Lee Stark is very appealing in the title role—and has a quirky, Ruhl-like quality that helps when you’re starring in a Ruhl play. Jamie Abelson is an honest, likable Orpheus, albeit one needing a bit more fight. And character actors like Beau O’Reilly and William J. Norris are in fine fettle."
Chicago Sun Times
- Highly Recommended
"...Further proof of the writer's rightness for such a project can be found in the wholly captivating, subtly madcap, heart-piercingly lovely production of her 85-minute play, "Eurydice," that opened Monday at the Victory Gardens Theatre. The production, which is very much about Eurydice's journey, has been co-directed by Sandy Shinner and Jessica Thebus in a way that feels magically at one with Ruhl's sensibility."
Daily Herald
- Highly Recommended
"...These days, the theater has the resources to meet "Eurydice's" demands and Shinner and co-director Jessica Thebus, along with set designer Daniel Ostling, use them to wonderful effect in this lovely and delicate revival, whose bittersweet conclusion might not break your heart, but will most certainly bruise it."
Windy City Times
- Recommended
"...by weaving a modern sensibility with a lyrically pattering sprinkle of magical realism, Ruhl makes the myth ( and all its implications ) as accessible as a picture book. Directed by Sandy Shinner and Jessica Thebus, Eurydice is defined by a simple, clean poetry and beguiling staging."
EpochTimes
- Recommended
"...Eurydice is directed by Sandy Shinner and Jessica Thebus with a marvelous cast of actors, some stirring music and a set by Daniel Ostling that features a raining elevator. There is a beach scene with sand, boardwalks that glide on and off and objects of great fantasy used to make this stirring and very intellectual piece come alive. For ninety minutes with no intermission, your attention will be drawn to the marvelous prose of this play and the work of each cast member."
Centerstage
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Your enjoyment of her work, I think, will depend upon your taste for this kind of theatrical language. While some critics have judged Ruhl's brand of whimsy to be a little forced, I've found it can be devastatingly effective in the right production. The version up at Victory Gardens only occasionally hits that sweet spot."
Edge
- Highly Recommended
"...In any event, this Eurydice is a first-class production. What the play lacks in the quirky charm of "Dead Man’s Cell Phone," it makes up in a tone of profound longing played out among attractive, funny characters. Eurydice, her father and her husband all end up wet because passing through the river’s mind-eraser process is preferable to being too conscious."
Chicago Stage Review
- Recommended
"...Victory Gardens Theater’s production is filled with beguiling imagery. Eurydice’s decent into the underworld is facilitated on stage by an amazing raining elevator and the simplest of items, a few helium balloons and a bathtub, produce some of the most marvelous visual effects."
Time Out Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Watching Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl’s spoken-verse play about the Orpheus myth, is like being born into a bubble. And then you rise up. You rise and rise and rise. But then the bubble bursts, and you fall. You fall and fall, and it’s sad. It’s so, so sad, and you cry."
ChicagoCritic
- Recommended
"...I have not seen a more engrossing and lovely mounting of a classic Greek myth on stage that Sandy Shinner and Jessica Thebus’ cleverly told “Eurydice.” Sarah Ruhl fans (I am one) will enjoy her take on the myth."
