Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...West's main point, I think, is to observe that home and hearth can be just as oppressive as a many-headed media monster that suddenly has smelled female blood in the water: Valerie may well have been better off squirming on Fox News than heading back to the cuckoo's nest."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Under Nate Silver's direction, Dana Black's Valerie, Ann James's Janet, and Abby Pierce's Molly form a triangle tight enough to bring out the sickness in West's funny/nasty language without pushing it over into the schematic. Similarly, Pat Whalen pitches his Danny in such a way as to keep us off-balance even though we know exactly where he's headed."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...West's script strolls Chekhovianly through its characters' lives, which is a difficult balance to maintain, but Silver keeps everything upright. The ending doesn't quite work-on the page or the stage-but the rest of it works beautifully. One the reasons Rolling will age so nicely is because the problems it tackles are not going anywhere soon."
Theatre By Numbers - Recommended
"...Director Nate Silver gives us a lived-in, magnificently ordinary landscape to evoke the two story homesteads etched firmly in our memories. There is beauty in the tackiness, and comfort in the generic flowers that adorn the walls. This is home."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...Director Nate Silver keeps this family real. They assess each other with the cynicism of a lifetime of experience. The loving support is there. It's just below layers of resentment and competition.We watch these women learn to coexist together again. Pat Whalen (Danny) is the outside male influence. His alliance continually shifts throwing the hen house balance off. His presence delivers laughs and suspicion. Even after the curtain, I'm still questioning how deliberate some of his actions were."
Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended
"...Banny’s an integral part of the plot. But throughout – and with marvelous impact in Janet’s final, wordless moments – West has crafted a feminist story that ably depicts the flawed, messy reality of both the family and the workplace. Erdely dealt the entire women’s movement a blow with her article. When Rolling Stone retracted “A Rape on Campus”, a thousand patriarchal talking heads used that one article to absolutely crucify feminism and feminists in total. With Rolling, West reclaims part of the power that was lost in the uproar. It’s a gratifying thing to see. And in Rolling it is also marvelously entertaining."
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...West writes like the room is on fire. Her prose is urgent but occasionally distracted by the forces of nature with which she is attempting to contend. Still, if you are interested in a theatrical work in progress by a writer who’s developing a unique and, with some additional experience, potentially authoritative voice, then I can think of no better example than “Rolling.”"
