Woman in Mind presented by Eclipse Theatre Company at Athenaeum Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...Eames, who never leaves the stage, unfolds a lovely and modulated performance as Susan, even as the character faces increasing befuddlement and fear. Affelder and Baldacci deliver little comic gems as semioutsiders to the Susan-Gerald-Rick triangle of resentments. Their attempts to provide comfort - Muriel with horrible food, Bill with awkward attempts to humor Susan's imaginary family by making bunnies out of handkerchiefs - backfire on a regular basis. We simultaneously laugh and squirm in recognition at the narrow confines of Susan's real life. By the end, "Woman in Mind" is a requiem for a dream life that keeps too many of us stranded in emotional deserts masquerading as gardens."

The Wall Street Journal - Highly Recommended

"...What follows is a hard-edged comedy that is simultaneously funny and horrific. It is also extraordinarily well performed, especially by Ms. Eames, who plays her part not as a tour de force of comic ingenuity but as a stingingly true-to-life study of a woman who can no longer bear the pain of her disappointments. Stockard Channing played Susan when "Woman in Mind" was first produced in America by the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1987, and I can pay Ms. Eames no higher compliment than to say that you won't wish you were seeing Ms. Channing instead. The rest of the cast is identically convincing, and Steve Scott's is-she-crazy-or-not staging keeps you on your toes all the way to the end."

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...Ayckbourn supplies some funny-sad lines about Susan's predicament, but the script never deepens or darkens into a convincing portrait of madness, and Steve Scott's staging for Eclipse Theatre Company tends to lurch ungracefully between reality and fantasy. The supporting cast is solid (especially Larry Baldacci as a solicitous doctor), but there's not enough pain and longing in Sally Eames's perpetually outraged Susan."

ChicagoCritic - Recommended

"...Sally Eames's performance as Susan is firmly compelling, with a fiery intensity and an almost conscious awareness of the contrived circumstances her life has presented to her. Her Susan is never so much a docile victim of her life as she is a woman who cannot bear herself anymore and on some level accepts insanity as the price she must pay for once daring to settle for less. As for the rest of the cast, each brings immense color to the stage in their quirky and nuanced characterizations, with notable supporting performances from Jeannie Affelder as Susan's hysterically overwhelmed sister-in-law, Muriel, and Larry Baldacci as the lugubriously pathetic GP, Bill."

Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Recommended

"...WOMAN IN MIND is thought-provoking. Eames, in particular, builds an empathetic connection. I want her fantasy to be her reality. Of course, I want that for a lot of people."