Three Hotels at Athenaeum Theatre

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...The play is structured as a series of monologues, each set in a different hotel room, in which Ken and Barb recount-and relive-their crisis. Baitz's theme of moral responsibility and his critique of global corporate bottom-line ruthlessness is, if anything, harder-hitting today than when the play premiered off-Broadway in 1993. Directed by Luda Lopatina Solomon, this Bluebird Arts production features imaginative multimedia visual and sound design, and actors Dave Belden and Jaimelyn Gray bring fierce conviction to their storytelling."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...Under director Luda Lopatina Solomon, Three Hotels is devastatingly effective. Belden's Ken is more aggressive than I've seen, less slick and more visceral. Gray's quiet counterpoint is powerful because one doesn't know at first where she's headed or why. That's the beauty of Baitz's writing, too. Rick Frederick's set features Lucite furniture and opaque hotel walls, warmly lit by Carl Ulaszek, as if everything was transparent when, in fact, almost nothing is."

ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended

"...Leaving the theatre after the show, feeling weary from want of catharsis, my lasting impression was that this production, neither good nor bad, was just OK. Unlike others, which I’ve either detested for its pandering simplicity or cherished for its emotional beauty, Bluebird Arts’ Three Hotels inspires only a detached respect for the actors’ efforts and the artistic director’s choice of play. In other words, unfortunately, it is unmemorable."

Dueling Critics - Highly Recommended

"...superb acting by the two cast members, a deep investigation of the moral compromises that destroy a marriage, an examination of motherhood in all its forms: a smart, the political-is-personal play, exceptionally well done."