 Lucinda's Bed
Chicago Dramatists
Chicago Tribune- Somewhat Recommended
"...This premiere production is, in fact, a bit too decent, overall. It could use less clutter—one watches a whole lot of furniture coming and going—and a whole lot more menace. The casting presents some problems. Given the forcefulness of Laidlaw’s insufficiently vulnerable character, it gets tougher and tougher to believe she is actually intimidated by the various incarnations of Neff’s rather wimpy monster, attractive and complicated as he may be. If the stakes are to rise as this promising script needs, more dangerous flames will need to burn between the two."
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Chris Jones
Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended
"...In a series of expertly limned scenes we follow Lucinda's complete "sentimental education": from the jarring loss of her virginity in college, to her eventual marriage to Adam, to the pair's problems with conception, to their subsequent difficulties adapting to the arrival of a son (with their ever-morphing bed -- a neat contraption designed by Grant Sabin), to the inevitable growing apart and (for Lucinda, at least) the profoundly upending dissolution of their marriage, to the departure of her son for college and (most devastating and powerfully imagined of all) to Lucinda's recognition that her heart might be frozen for good."
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Hedy Weiss
Time Out Chicago- Somewhat Recommended
"...in McCullough’s uneasy wedding of melodrama and whimsy, the rules change too often. Any notion that the Monster is Lucinda’s psychological construct is negated by his one-time interaction with Adam. By the time we reach the overstretched ending, each character’s motivations are anyone’s guess. Grant Sabin’s scenic design allows Neff to make nifty entrances and exits; if only Hill’s lengthy scene transitions were as seamless."
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Kris Vire
Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended
"...Through college hookups to a stale marriage and a rocky divorce, Lucinda's monster keeps resurfacing. Performed with the lights up during transitions, so we can see the cast do the physical work of aging their characters, this witty portrait of a life of wrong turns examines the monster hidden in the recesses of everyone's bedroom."
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Marissa Oberlander
NewCity Chicago- Somewhat Recommended
"...For some, bed can be a sanctuary, where even the worst days must end, often to be reborn the next morning with a fresh hopeful start. But Lucinda’s bed is an altar, where life’s “great moments” transpire and, ultimately, a prison she tries to flee. Yet this clever conceit of McCullough’s traps the play in its own device when the characters we are watching fail to develop with any depth. In spite of the valiant exertions of the ensemble, Lucinda is something of a cipher; Adam moreso. The monster of Lucinda’s imagination seems just as real as his maker, which is less a compliment to the latter than a complaint about the former."
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Brian Hieggelke
Windy City Times- Highly Recommended
"...McCullough has packed a great deal into this pithy work of magic realism, including impressively rich subtext deeply interpreted by director Jessi D. Hill and a flawless cast. Physically impressive Laidlaw often plays Amazons ( she was Xena in About Face's adaptation of the TV show ) , so it's a breath of fresh air to see her play a character—girl-to-woman—of fragile and changing nature. Neff emerged last year as a young actor to watch, and has not disappointed through several leading roles to date, playing innocence and worldliness with equal aplomb."
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Jonathan Abarbanel
Copley News Service- Highly Recommended
"...Jessi D. Hill’s directing isn’t showy but it guides Lucinda’s roller coaster personal life with insight and a savvy blend of comedy and intensity. Grant Sabin designed the effective bedroom set and presumably the assortment of beds, likely with the assistance of properties designer Jennifer Thusing. Diane Fairchild designed the lighting, Kat Doebler the costumes, and Nick Keenan the effective sound."
Dan Zeff
Chicago Theater Blog- Recommended
"...The Chicago Dramatists are hot right now – their world-premiere of Keith Huff’s A Steady Rain is currently running on Broadway, starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig - and they continue to roll with Mia McCullough’s Lucinda’s Bed. This play provides deep insight into the weighty sorrow one feels after trying to live up expectations and move past its cruelty in the world before it sucks the life right out of us. Chicago Dramatists present what would be a dark drama with great humor and an overall entertaining experience. This tragedy is a comedic experience that will give you lots to talk about."
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Timothy McGuire
Steadstyle Chicago- Highly Recommended
"...Director Jessi D. Hill has cleverly put together a smooth running 100 minutes roughly with no intermission. I am glad that there is no break as we would lose the continuity of what McCullough has put before us. The need to be good and the temptations not to be. Are we destined to be what we were molded to be as a child and are the childhood monsters we imagined capable of detouring the path we were set on? If there is a monster beneath our bed, are they there to get back what was taken from them? Do they get to remain on Earth by making someone else's heart turn to stone? These are some of the questions that are posed by McCullough and Hill makes it all seem very clear."
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Al Bresloff
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