Late: A Cowboy Song
Piven Theatre

Chicago Tribune- Recommended

"...If you are drawn to Ruhl, there is a rare moment here in this little room to better understand her genesis, the insecurities that spawned her astonishing inherent theatricality. There is Noonan, a little older, but perfectly capable of returning to that shared Evanston experience and re-living it, completing a quiet but crucial circle."
Read Full Review

Chris Jones

Time Out Chicago- Not Recommended

"...Thebus and Noonan have a long history of collaboration with Ruhl, which appears to have been of almost no help in rendering this production watchable. No one connects: Simpkins’s remote Red, strumming a half-tuned guitar, seems to attract Noonan’s sappy and ingenuous Mary primarily by leaving her alone, unlike Grimm’s relentless, spazzy Crick. A late-breaking fantasia on holidays comes off as awkward and disjointed. One positive note: Stephan Mazurek supplies some pretty projections of clouds."
Read Full Review

John Beer

NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended

"...“Late: A Cowboy Song” is the kind of play that traffics in feelings and emotions more than it does concepts or themes. That’s not to suggest this Chicago premiere, by playwright Sarah Ruhl, is bereft of ideas. Far from it, the play has huge things to say about relationships, love, the elusiveness of happiness and, to a more subtle degree, the touchy subject of gender roles in society and the gendering of intersex babies. But it’s told so simply and directly that it tugs at the heartstrings and connects with the soul, and makes the experience memorable for how and what you felt while watching it. It’s afterwards that you marvel at how something so simple could ultimately be so complex. And concurrently how something so complex could come across so simply. Considered intellectually, it’s brilliant. Considered emotionally, it’s human. These are the marks of a great play, and I wouldn’t be surprised if “Late: A Cowboy Song” quickly becomes a modern classic. In Piven Theatre Workshop’s production, under the flawless direction of Jessica Thebus, and boasting three amazing performances, it already feels like one."
Read Full Review

Fabrizio O. Almeida

Windy City Times- Somewhat Recommended

"...Jessica Thebus' direction deftly skirts the potential mawkishness inherent in Wild West metaphors ( did I mention that Red also plays guitar and sings quasi-cowboy songs? ) and reduces, insofar as possible, the annoyingly heavy-handed feminism underlying Ruhl's trademark enigmatic motifs—fortune cookies with blank messages, the similarities between training horses and husbands, etc. Polly Noonan does her reliable Baby Alice turn again, while Lawrence Grimm lends a refreshing sensitivity to another of his likewise familiar jugheads. The scenes we await eagerly, however, are those where Kelli Simpkins' charismatic Red appears, bathed in the glow befitting a cultural icon with whom you might, yourself, find comfort in a shared late-night Chinese restaurant meal."
Read Full Review

Mary Shen Barnidge

Chicago Stage Review- Recommended

"...Late: A Cowboy Song is an unusually fascinating play and Piven Theatre Workshop places it in loving hands that overcome its shortcomings, accentuate its wonder and ultimately deliver a compelling production."
Read Full Review

Venus Zarris

ChicagoCritic- Somewhat Recommended

"...To me, the play seems underwritten and much to vague yet it suggests that a woman’s education can be a life changing experience. This play left me scratching my head. I’m still not sure what it is about? Polly Noonan’s performance is haunting."
Read Full Review

Tom Williams

Steadstyle Chicago- Not Recommended

"...Where are all the good cowboy stories these days?  Not I am afraid at the Piven Theatre, where Sara Ruhl's "Late: A Cowboy Song" is making its Chicago Premiere.  It's an extremely tepid and empty three character play that takes hardly any risks other than lulling its audience to sleep.  Almost from the moment Polly Noonan opened her mouth, I felt repelled.  Her tinny, whimpering little voice may be appropriate to the childlike character of Mary, but I found it grating and annoying to the ear.  Her lost soul character was almost as irritating as Ruhl's episodic love triangle stretched the bounds of tedium to barely fill its two act format."
Read Full Review

Joe Stead

Around The Town Chicago- Somewhat Recommended

"...I found the one and a half hour production to be a little long and would have preferred this to be a 90 minute , no intermission story so that we could stay in focus on the characters and what happens to them. This is hard sometimes for a writer to visualize, but often, during intermission, the audience must work harder to recall where the story left off and that can be distracting to the thought process."
Read Full Review

Alan Bresloff