Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...As directed with a delightfully light and caring touch by Tara Mallen, Marquez offers up a formidably honest and deeply moving performance that captures both the fullness of a maternal bond and, richer yet, the messiness of life."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Hudes plumbs serious questions of heritage and identity in a script well-marbled with exuberance, and director Tara Mallen elicits fluid, lyric performances from the four-member cast of this collaborative effort between Teatro Vista and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. Regina Garcia's simple, angular set and Diane Fairchild's versatile lighting form an intriguing, understated canvas for powerful performances from Sandra Marquez as the Cuban immigrant mother and Ashley Neal as her assimilated child."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Tara Mallen's direction likewise allows the action to unfold gradually and seamlessly, each new discovery arriving in a flash—but never a blast—of illumination. An early publicity release incorrectly called this shared Teatro Vista/Rivendell Ensemble production a "Thelma and Louise" adventure. The emotion fueling Hudes' odyssey is not the anger that finds deliverance only in destruction, however, but a sensitive quest for the cosmological equilibrium so often emerging peripatetically from the simple act of Getting Away From It All."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...That their arc from estrangement to reconciliation feels preordained from the second they get in the car doesn’t make it any less moving. In her 2009 play, Hudes’s characters are finely wrought, and she understands a quality crucial to the survival of any family: forgiveness. As Olivia and Beatriz, Neal and Marquez have a steeply raked set to contend with, but they’re a joy to watch together. Neal gives Olivia that mix of hope and hurt unique to adolescence, while Marquez, brimming with emotion, reaches beyond the “fiery Latina” stereotype and presents a woman driven primarily by longing and loss."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...Thankfully, Hudes doesn’t resort to a sentimental after school TV special format, rather she packs the journey with realistic and character appropriate responses. This is a charming, moving and quite funny 90 minutes that garners hope that along the rode to life we can makes new worthy relationships. We can have fun along the way as do Olivia, Beatriz and the audience."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...To produce a product such as this it takes a lot of behind the scenes people, all of who share in the glory of what the audience sees as the final production. It should be noted that these are what might be called the unseen heroes, but without them, the perfection that we see on stage would not be so. Here’s to, Joe Minoso( assistant director), Christine Pasquel ( Costumes), Mikhail Fiskel ( Sound), Diane Fairchild ( lighting) and Julie Silver ( props) and a special tip-of-the-hat to stage manager Jaclyn Holsey, who make s sure that all the pieces fit each and every performance- Bravo!"
Chicago Theater Beat - Recommended
"...Director Tara Mallen has mapped the journey with purposeful appeal. Mallen doesn’t settle with poignant performances by a talented cast. She adds in paper flying, music blaring and Blues Brothers’ scene transitions. The extras provide the scenic route on what could be a long road trip. The scenery itself also supplies a subtle layer of storytelling. The set, designed by Regina Garcia, has a slanted floor with suspended stairs that don’t quite connect. The backdrop is a snippet of Olivia’s journal with pictures and words. It’s a trip! Teatro Vista and Rivendell travel well together; all the parts work together for high performance. It’s the truly collaborative effort that catapults 26 Miles to go the distance."
