Cygnus Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended

"..."Cygnus" is one of the most sophisticated small shows of the Chicago year so far and represents off-Loop theater otherwise firing on all cylinders. There is much wisdom in here on how mothers and daughters communicate, or miscommunicate, but also a driving sense of hope. Especially with a starring role this attractive to performers, there's no question this play will have a future. I doubt any subsequent production will feature a performance exceeding this one in Chicago right now."

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...But if you can surrender to the play's rhythms and odd yet endearing locutions (Stanton conjures references to Blade Runner, the Unabomber, Nepalese customs, and biblical verse alongside the overarching Leda imagery), you'll be rewarded with a bold vision of what it's like to live inside profound trauma while everything around you remains frustratingly "normal." (There is also a good deal of oddball humor in this play, which shouldn't come as a surprise to fans of Succession)."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended

"...The Gift Theatre's new play Cygnus now on at Filament Theatre by Succession writer Susan Soon He Stanton takes Greek Mythology and a kind of collective consciousness about swans and throws it into a magical realism blender and comes forth with a tale about the male gaze and entitlement, and the complex nature of mothering and daughtering."