Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...The setup for "Death Tax" is that an elderly woman named Maxine, played with great intensity by the unstinting Deanna Dunagan, has decided her daughter is trying to kill her (for money and tax reasons) by paying off her nurse, Tina, played by J. Nicole Brooks. To counter her daughter's presumed diabolism, Maxine offers a bribe to Nurse Tina to keep her alive. Incredibly - and I mean that in the full sense of the term - the nurse finds the offer attractive and concocts a scheme to extract money from her patient - to the chagrin of Maxine's daughter, played by Louise Lamson. Nurse Tina's doings are both facilitated and complicated by her supervisor (played, very nicely, by Raymond Fox), with whom she has had an affair."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"..."Death Tax," expertly directed by Heidi Stillman, and played out on a nearly bare stage, also confirms Hnath's shrewd intelligence, his flair for modern theatrical game-playing, his dark sense of humor and his whip-smart sense of character. You really can't ask for anything more. Although you might well be tempted to file charges against the nursing home in which his story unfolds."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Hnath never lets us forget that the play itself is yet another fabrication, using devices like (a) having Tina introduce each new scene and (b) specifying a minimal set, at once starkly and elegantly realized by John Musial in Heidi Stillman's sharp staging. For all that, however, Death Tax is as securely tethered to the world as, well, death and taxes. (It also offers a neat 11th-hour twist; when I spoke to Hnath for the Fall Arts feature, he mentioned that audiences tend to react to that twist with "a sharp intake of breath" or an "oddly blissful laugh," and he's right.)"
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...It's the Tony winner, Dunagan, who's on the poster, and she's admittedly delightful as this spiteful old witch, spouting proclamations like, "People who have money are preserved." You may find yourself wishing, though, that Hnath's fable offered us a little more about how Maxine got to be this way. But it's Brooks who really shoulders the play, remaining onstage nearly for its entirety in mostly two-person scenes. Her guarded, unshowy embodiment of a woman of complicated motivations is what keeps this production breathing."
Theatre By Numbers - Recommended
"...I do think this play raises some interesting questions and things to ponder about once we've walked away from the theatre. That's good. What I wish, is that we'd have been shown the complete story of the original set of characters, or that we had been introduced to Maxine in a way that we'd still care about her when she ends up being the only of the original four characters to make it to the end of the play. The acting, the direction, and the lighting were superb. The script was, too, for about 80% of the way through."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"....Actors, of course, are by definition merchants of deception. Death Tax is catnip for skilled players. Not surprisingly, Stillman's quartet differs dynamically in transparency, truth-telling, and trust. Indelibly establishing Maxine with her usual matriarchal implacability, Deanna Dunagan corrosively underlines this un-mother's lonely pursuit of every pointless advantage that her sense of entitlement demands and deserves. J. Nicole Brooks brings bracing immediacy to Hnath's chameleon-like nurse, as well as to a well-intentioned social worker in the final scene. Raymond Fox effaces himself in two vulnerable roles: Tina's would-be lover and Maxine's seemingly weak-willed grandson. Finally, Louise Lamson as the daughter levels the situation with sterling realism and embattled honesty. What you see is not what you get in Death Tax because nothing fails us like our fears."
ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended
"...We witness a common dilemma, who is responsible for seniors when they need help? The daughter or the grandson or who? Again, since the character of Maxine is so nasty, it is reasonable to see how the grandson diplomatically withdraws from helping Maxine. Death Tax suffers from a too extreme plot that necessitates us believing that nurses are easily corrupted and that nursing home can keep an unhealthy patient alive for more than twenty years. Also, no one seems willing to consider that Maxine's paranoia is a delusion. Since Maxine is so nasty,I couldn't care what happens to her. Death Tax is simply to contrived. The performances were terrific, especially from Deanna Dunagan and J. Nicole Brooks."
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"... It is rare that a young playwright has two plays running in our area at the same time. I am sure that over the years with as many theaters as we have in the Chicago area, that we have had a few Neil Simon and William Shakespeare productions running, but one would think that the name Luca Hnath would not be one in a similar situation. While his “Isaac’s Eye” is running up in Glencoe at Writers Theatre, his “Death Tax”, is now having its Chicago premiere at Lookingglass Theatre on Michigan Avenue. While these two theaters are very different in location and size, the one thing that both of these plays have in common is that they are “unfinished”. Having said this, let me explain what it means. Our sophisticated Chiacgo audiences expect a play to come to an end that has meaning and will at least satisfy our minds. Hnath just ends his stories when he feels the need to end."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Hnath’s drama alternates between darkly comic, repetitious dialogue and situations juxtaposed with tensely dramatic scenes brimming with the needs and desires of each character. Heidi Stillman’s captivating, tightly-crafted production plays like a runaway snowball, rolling downhill at breakneck speed and increasing in size and danger. In this production, all bets are off and it’s impossible to determine who the winner will be…if, in fact a winner will emerge. Sometimes, when the stakes are this high, the winner may also become the loser."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Recommended
"..."Death Tax" at
the Lookingglass Theatre consists of five scenes. The middle scenes can be
largely disregarded as melodramatic filler. It's those first and last scenes
that give the play its dramatic punch, with a major shout out to a terrifically
nuanced performance by Deanna Dunagan as a fearsome and presumably dying old
lady named Maxine."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...Hnath’s story bulldozes through scenes 1-4. And within each scene, there is an unexpected shift. And then the set-up for scene 5 is the biggest surprise of all. I’m being intentionally elusive. DEATH TAX is an enigma. The ongoing reveals make it enthralling. The dark humor bring comedic relief. And the premise stirs up suspicion in me. I find myself wondering who is manipulating me for their own benefit."
