Chicago Tribune - Not Recommended
"...Barclay would be better to pare down these themes and symbols and allow us to spend quality time with folks trying to patch their lives together, like the rest of us. “Freedom” doesn't have to try everything at once."
Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...Sometimes psychological fences are far more impenetrable than real ones. That is the idea at the core of “Freedom, NY,” Jennifer Barclay’s impassioned but overly schematic three-character play, now in a vividly acted Teatro Vista production directed by Joe Minoso."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...the main message conveyed by this 75-minute Teatro Vista production is that the script is still unfinished. Things that ought to be clear (like precisely what happened at the middle school) are garbled, and oddities that ought to be accounted for (like why nobody calls the police when doing so would make sense) are either ignored or treated implausibly."
Examiner - Recommended
"...
Freedom, NY centers on one Mayflower Justice, an avid gardener who is homeschooling her young granddaughter Portia (could Barclay’s heavy-handed yet irrelevant references to The Merchant of Venice be anymore, well, heavy handed? Short of having young Portia actually break into Shakespeare’s Quality of Mercy speech, no.) Actually, Portia is more than homeschooled – she’s home-bound. Since a school shooting /child abduction a year or so earlier (how the former led to the latter is never clear), Portia hasn’t set foot outside her yard. In Barclay’s opening scene, Portia is all agonized worry as she debates with anguished furrowed brow whether to make the ground-breaking decision to pick a flower that’s sprouted on the other side of the yard’s front fence. Dare she? Care we? Yes, but no. The moment, like much of the production, is labored, overwrought and ultimately unimportant."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...This is a lot of story to pack into a mere 70 minutes, but director Joe Minoso and the muscular ensemble of Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Desmin Borges and Paige Collins reject propagandistic caricatures to deliver cliché-free interpretations of complex personalities. And if the metaphors sometime crowd as thickly as memento mori on a calavera-bedecked shrine, the symbolism of the Mayflower home's carefully-tended garden is prevented from becoming labored by Regina Garcia's scenic array of autumn blooms so vivid, you want to pick them."
Centerstage - Recommended
"...Teatro Vista’s production of Jennifer Barclay’s “Freedom NY” is that all too common creature: a mediocre play that’s ultimately still enjoyable because it’s in the hands of terrific actors. The 75 minute drama focuses on Portia (Paige Collins), a 12 year old girl living in upstate New York who survived a school shooting the previous year. Her grandmother and sole caretaker, town Justice of the Peace Mayflower (Cheryl Lynn Bruce), has kept her from leaving her house for an entire year. Portia naturally chafes at this, but her own fears keep her from rebelling too actively. Despite not having any formal legal training, Mayflower’s position puts her in control of all law enforcement in town, and she sees herself as a tough but fair ruler."
Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...The actions taken by Barclay’s characters follow the blueprint of her plot rather than believable human behavior. That’s despite strong efforts by Minoso’s three-person cast, particularly the charmingly off-kilter Borges, to free them from their schematic shackles."
ChicagoCritic - Not Recommended
"...I left Theater Wit feeling that I didn’t see a complete play – that not much happened and yet too much was presented with little motivation from characters - I never got to appreciate this play. This murky play’s vagueness left me scratching my head wondering what I missed? Then I realized that there simply wasn’t much there in the first place. If Barclay desires to deal with border relations as the press notes indicated, she needs to make a stronger storyline and more fully present her characters. As presented, Freedom, NY feels unsatisfying."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...Although the metaphors are a bit heavy handed and I disliked the frequent overlapping dialogue, there was much I did like about this three-character play and the lovely Teatro Vista production. There is never any doubt in the performance of the powerful Cheryl Lynn Bruce that Justice loves her granddaughter with every fiber of her being and would give up anything for her, and for her community. She is a marvelous salt-of-the-earth matriarch who keeps the play grounded in rich humanity. We also see the suffocating power of that love as Portia yearns to step outside Justice's fenced-in garden."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Highly Recommended
"...
Cheryl Lynn Bruce (Mayflower) commands the stage and her neighborhood with self-righteous entitlement. Bruce bullies her daughter, her neighbor, and her town. She contrasts this confident facade with desperate, rambling phone calls. The interspersed vulnerability is heart-breaking powerlessness. Desmin Borges (Gabriel) plays a vivid and colorful devoted son. His lively conversations with and about his mother inspire 'ahhhhh' and laughter. Borges is engaging in his eccentric resolution to honor his ethnic traditions. Paige Collins (Portia) gives a beautifully simplistic and poignant performance. Questioning her past, her present and her future, Collins awakens on stage with charming innocence and decisiveness."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...This play is a “Think Piece”. A story that will cause one to think about how we treat others, ones that are not like us. Is this little girl safe from the outside world by being in her home and yard, away from the people of her community? Can her grandmother, who evidently made some of her own mistakes, truly protect her from making some of the same errors in judgement that her mother made? This is a wonderful experience and yes, all will not agree, but I found it to be a treasure of thought provoking emotions- tender and heartwarming characters who make us care."
Chicago Theater Beat - Recommended
"...Minoso’s sensitive staging builds tiny epiphanies into moments of truth that cumulatively matter. Cheryl Lynn Bruce plays stubborn but well-intentioned Mayflower with tough tenacity and enough defensiveness to show she’s human beneath her fear. Desmin Borges’ Gabriel, almost too vibrantly colorful for the conditions, brims with open-hearted trust, even as his apostrophes to his dead mother question his stability. Most amazing is the awesomely natural performance of Paige Collins as questioning Portia. She represents America’s future, when we finally prove that, yes, Rodney King, we can all get along."
