Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Weiss has cast the piece very well: Barrie and Neff are credible as sisters but they simultaneously read as binary opposites, which serves the play. Both of these fine actresses are on fire here - you don't normally get such an intense emotional current bubbling under what's otherwise a commercial thriller. It's all Tovar and Moore can do to keep up with their cast mates, but they both understand that they are not the stars here. They're turning in generous performances."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...The animating crisis in Caitlin Parrish's new drama is nonsense; in truth, Robin's risk of postpartum psychosis is about 3 percent. This sloppy dramaturgy should sink the play, but Parrish creates such emotionally nuanced characters and shepherds them through such an intricate moral minefield it's foolish to resist the story's considerable allure-an allure further enhanced by director Erica Weiss's impeccably performed premiere for Route 66 Theatre. Even with the extraneous final scene, it's a deeply affecting show."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Erica Weiss directs a formidable ensemble unswerving in their matter-of-fact tone: as portrayed by Brenda Barrie, Robin's bouts of delusion arise out of lucid moments almost imperceptibly ( as such seizures are inclined to do in real life ), while Caroline Neff's Hazel, forced to take on the responsibilities of protector, never succumbs to gratuitous emoting. Peter Moore and Stef Tovar likewise find strength in patience and nurturance—traits not often associated with males, but essential to playing any useful part in domestic crises. The results forge a refreshingly intelligent reassessment of a centuries-old scourge, concluding in hope for victims of improvident lineage."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The Downpour is not a typical "revealed past causes drama in the present" story. For Parrish the past is here, all the time. The girls may have survived their mother's abuse, but that period is not over-it will never end. Hazel may be maladjusted, but she understands how close to the surface their past is, while Robin's denial costs her dearly. This isn't just engrossing, but accurate: Mental illness and trauma can become permanent specters, haunting even happy lives."
Theatre By Numbers - Highly Recommended
"...The best part, for me, was that it was entirely possible to find parts of each character to identify with. I found both good and bad aspects of myself in each of them, and I'm sure that others will find parts of themselves (not necessarily the same parts as I did) in each of them as well. The parts were all well-drawn in the script, and when this cast breathed life into them, they became the very real people who we cared about completely for a couple of hours. That is remarkable work."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...Not to give away the game, the story focuses on two sisters and the men in their roller-coaster lives. Not just a big sister but a surrogate mom, Robin (Brenda Barrie) was there for Hazel (Caroline Neff) when the world failed to care. The favor may not demand a return. But it could sure use one. Now a successful writer of children's fiction (based on their own harrowing childhood), Hazel is partnered by Miller (Stef Tovar), a genial cop much like the good one in HBO's Nurse Jackie. Robin is married to an equally caring lawyer named Fred (Peter Moore), who's looking forward to their first kid."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Child abuse and bad parenting are things that make the headlines every day! In fact, hardly a week goes by without something on the news, in the papers or being discussed by friends. In "The Downpour" , now making its World Premiere at The Greenhouse Theatre, playwright Caitlin Parrish, takes us deep into the bowels of the lives of two sisters, Hazel (Caroline Neff) and her older sister,Robin (Brenda Barrie). As we meet each of them in the opening, we learn that they have had a somewhat different type of relationship since their childhood. Robin is married, living in Chicago and Hazel, who writes children's books is a loner. As the story unfolds, we learn of some of their childhood problems, but it is not until much later, when Robin announces that her and her husband, Fred( deftly handled by Peter Moore) are going to have a child, that the inner fears come out, allowing us to see how protective Robin was over her little sister."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...With mental health ever in the forefront of daily news, Caitlin Parrish’s new drama is timely and important. It speaks of secrets hidden behind the closed doors of big cities and small towns, of people in unspeakable pain from afflictions no one else knows about or understands. Erica Weiss and her small cast of beautifully talented, honest, empathetic actors have created an evening of theatre that’s both illuminating and entertaining. The emotional storm falling nightly on that tiny Greenhouse stage results in a flood of unexplored feelings for the cast and audience, alike."
