Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"..."Visiting Edna" is longer than it needs to be. I'm also not convinced that director Anna D. Shapiro's typically unstinting production has yet solved the design challenges — the string-centered sound design bothered me greatly, as did the visual presence of the sky, as if this play gives you much hope. But there are times when the writing soars with Rabe's remarkable fusing of wisdom and ignorance about life, with his compassion for troubled souls and yet his fury at how from one another we find ourselves wrenched apart."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Earlier this year, in "Good for Otto" - which received a riveting world premiere by The Gift Theatre - Rabe dove into the world of mental illness with honesty, bravery and surprising flashes of humor. Now, in "Visiting Edna," another world premiere - produced by Steppenwolf Theatre - he confronts an equally fraught and difficult subject: The interaction between an aging parent facing increasingly serious health issues, and her grown children who live thousands of miles away geographically, and, even more crucially, seem to be at an even greater distance emotionally."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...The renowned naturalism of the Steppenwolf Theatre gets a hearty dose of meta in "Visiting Edna," the opening play of artistic director Anna Shapiro's first full season as curator. The boob tube, television, and the Big C, cancer, appear onstage as characters in a tug-of-war pulling the lead players in opposite directions."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...A middle-aged father spends a few days with his widowed mom when it becomes clear that palliative care could be fast-approaching reality. Cancer and television are personified as full-fledged characters, details that ring true-in those claustrophobic confines, you're damn right a TV feels like a welcome soul in the room, though the metaphysical analogy gets muddled. Anna D. Shapiro's Steppenwolf production ultimately falls victim to Roger Ebert's Human Centipede conundrum, in which something sets out to be agonizing, then succeeds."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...Plays depicting deathbed dynamics being typically rooted in the playwright's own experience, it seems churlish to suggest that Rabe's disclosures may be unnecessarily protracted ( a common flaw of world-premiere productions ), or that his anthropomorphism risks injecting opportunities for inappropriate humor. The ensemble of mostly-seasoned actors led by Debra Monk and Ian Barford soldier through their repetitious text, accompanied by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen's minimalist musical and meteorological soundscape, but by the time Andrew offers us no less than two accounts of Edna's final moments, our only hope for this unhappy clan lies in its matriarch's swift and peaceful departure."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...Admirably, this nearly three-hour Visiting Edna respects an audience's attention span as it demands a kind of dogged patience that's not always rewarded by the revelations. But the sheer ordinariness and unpretentious straightforwardness of this very representative tale amount to a cumulative virtue. There's nothing flashy or phony on this sprawling Steppenwolf stage (perfectly pictured by David Zinn). We just visit Edna."
ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended
"...Visiting Edna is too long and the surreal elements prove more of a distraction than essential elements. I'd advise a more focused tighter 80-85 minute one act with emphasis on Andrew and Edna connecting and facing the realities of Edna dying. As now presented, we see mother and son using distractions and everyday events to keep them from connecting. The problem is that by the time things start to get resolved, we are so bored and we don't care anymore because the mundane turned us off. The slow pace and the memory speeches just wore me out. Debra Monk did yeoman work as Edna."
Around The Town Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...I am sure there are some values to the plot, but being someone who has experienced the loss of a loved one to cancer, I did not see them. There were many little flaws as well. This is 1990 and I am sure Medicare was already in place, yet, when Edna talks about not getting treated properly she blames her HMO. Medicare would have taken care of all this, so I think Rabe missed the boat on this part of the story. Not wanting to spoil some of the other parts of the story, I will only tell you that there were many instances in the scenes with Barford and Murphy that were confusing and somewhat mindless (understanding who her character was). I did not stay for the discussion after, which perhaps would have given me a clue as to exactly what Rabe was trying to express about the Mother/Son relationship in his play."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...While David Rabe’s latest play explores the love and complicated relationship between a parent and her grown child, it also deals with loneliness, health issues and death. It faces each of these elements of life with unabashed, unflinching honesty. Sentimentality is absent from this drama and the real world starkly lies before each theatergoer. A bit too long and a little absurd, with actors portraying nonhuman characters, this world premiere offers an evening of heartfelt understanding, all centered around a beautiful woman with whom a long visit is its own reward."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Recommended
"..."Visiting Edna” is a relevant drama with a mature view of the two central characters. For many Steppenwolf attendees, the play takes them onto uncomfortably familiar ground and they will appreciate the taste and literacy of Rabe’s handling of a delicate and painful subject. With some prudent cuts, the play should have a future beyond the Steppenwolf premiere, but any production will require stars of the presence of Debra Monk and Ian Barford to grab and hold the audience’s attention and sympathy.
The Fourth Walsh - Somewhat Recommended
"...Rabe’s clever idea to illustrate disconnection and distraction with a television works to its detriment. VISITING EDNA needs to be a shorter, tighter visit. Although Monk and Barford are likable, the show itself isn’t memorable. The only life takeaway for me is not to watch TV when I visit my mom."
Third Coast Review - Somewhat Recommended
"...David Rabe’s whimsical character additions save Visiting Edna from being maudlin, but the play’s good intentions just don’t quite gel into a coherent, moving story. Director Anna D. Shapiro’s direction is smooth but a little too tentative, given the length of the script. The play is 20-30 minutes too long and act one seems like the place to cut."
Splash Magazine - Somewhat Recommended
"..."Visiting Edna" is not an easy play to sit through. The subject matter alone is tough, but so is the extremely slow-moving pace of this piece. I'd blame my Millennial-generation attention span for feeling unnerved and bored by it, except, I also took note that the majority of theatregoers, of all ages, were either dozing off, yawning, struggling to stay awake, or looking downright impatient throughout this play on the performance I attended."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...How does Rabe maintain audience interest for a wordy "self"-centered piece that's more than two and a half hours when everyone already knows the ending? Partly he creates secondary characters who provide a tragically funny and creative view into some of the things that distract us from considering the meaning of our lives. But mostly he relies on superb performances from the two principals, Monk and Barford. Monk vividly captures the no-nonsense, emotionally shriveled, nakedly vulnerable woman whom Rabe's dialogue conveys. Meanwhile, Barford stirringly crosses a wide swath of emotion as he goes from detached in the first act to devastated at the end. He grieves deeply-as much for himself as his departed mother."
