Chicago Tribune
- Somewhat Recommended
"...In terms of style, it's a tricky play to catch. Most of the time, it's a stylized satire somewhat akin to "The Office." But Dresser also wants things to turn serious at times. Occasionally, he asks too much. And it's not a drama ideally suited to this triangular structure. It needs some more players."
Chicago Sun Times
- Recommended
"...Richard Dresser's play "Augusta," which opened Monday night in a tight, zestily rendered production by the American Theater Company, captures that sense of perilousness, and the resentment and Darwinian responses it can trigger. This pitch-black comedy of manners, morals and disappointing lives is part Michael Moore (in the way Dresser serves as provocateur) and part George Bernard Shaw (who often noted that morality only goes about as far as one's checkbook balance)."
Daily Herald
- Recommended
"...The drolly written, wickedly satiric "Augusta," in a snappy Midwest premiere at American Theater Company, examines the American dream from those stuck on the lowest rung of the economic ladder. It's about power, manipulation and the lengths frightened, desperate people will go to protect their jobs (a point eloquently expressed in the play's final moments by Buddeke's Molly)."
Chicago Reader
- Recommended
"...If you want a reason to be happy Nora Dunn is working in Chicago theater, it’s this: she’s good. Her 90-minute production has a crispness that’s never slick and a comedic punch that’s never cheap. She tunes the tension among characters to a giddy pitch and keeps her actors focused on moving the play forward, even when the playwright is content to dawdle. And she knows how to tell a story onstage. Chicago should look forward to the day when she applies her talents to a better play."
Windy City Times
- Somewhat Recommended
"...If Kross's talents are squandered, that goes double for Kate Buddeke, a powerhouse actor who radiates an unconventional, battle-scarred beauty. She's a master craftsman whose seen-it-all, world-weary expressiveness often seems to be barely containing an inner imp that, if unleashed, could turn a High Latin Mass into a Fat Tuesday bacchanal. Sadly for Chicago, Buddeke is now based in New York. It should be a joy to have Buddeke back and performing with the company she helped shape. But there is no joy in Augusta."
EpochTimes
- Recommended
"...Live theater in Chicago runs the gamut from big musicals- Classic Shakespeare and everything in between. Every once in a while, we are treated to something new that will make us forget all the troubles in our lives and just let us laugh for 90 minutes or so. Such is what American Theater Company's latest offering, "Augusta" is! A charming comedy by Richard Dresser directed by Saturday Night Live veteran Nora Dunn, this is a story that deals with two working class women and their struggle to survive working as a "team" of cleaning service employees who have the daily task of cleaning the estate of a wealthy widow."
Copley News Service
- Somewhat Recommended
"...The opening night audience laughed long and often at the stage action, which may or may not please the author, who thought he was writing a searing indictment of the socio-economic class system in this country. But the play works better if the spectators find it funny. As a profound statement about American society today, “Augusta” is ludicrously oversimplified and implausible."
Time Out Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Like Nickel and Dimed, Augusta comes across as a story about being poor by a writer who doesn’t know what it’s like to be poor: well intentioned but kind of embarrassing. There are tonal problems with the clash of the snarky and the sincere; the mashup of class commentary and corporate satire (in Kross’s scene-stealing performance, Jimmy comes across as a menacing cousin of Michael Scott) confuses things as well."
ChicagoCritic
- Recommended
"...In Richard Dresser’s Augusta, now on ATC stage, the playwright tried to write a comedy with strong dramatic elements and somewhat succeeded. His Augusta is a slowly paced work that has elements of humor built around a disturbing story of the working poor and an ambitious pure company-man aspiring to both seduce women under him and climb the corporate later."
