Going to a Place Where You Already Are at Redtwist Theatre

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...With shades of Calderon's 17th-century allegory Life Is a Dream, Bekah Brunstetter's 2016 drama follows an avowed atheist couple's spiritual splintering after Roberta (Kathleen Ruhl) receives a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Her newfound faith is met with passive discomfort from her granddaughter and-inexplicably-totally unsympathetic condescension and a sense of personal betrayal from her husband. Matt Hawkins's Redtwist Theatre production makes a clear-eyed case for faith even if Brunstetter's script relies too heavily on a straw man to do it."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...Even a cosmological approach as rational and egalitarian as Brunstetter's could quickly succumb to sticky sentimentality in the wrong hands, but director Matt Hawkins never allows his actors to engage in stereotypal cuddliness, whether of the geriatric, millennial or ambisexual varieties. Kathleen Ruhl and Art Fox anchor an ensemble making the most of Redtwist's tiny studio space ( no easy task when stage furnishings include a laptop screen, a hospital bed and a motorized wheelchair ) to invoke a cozy intimacy belying the weighty issues under scrutiny."

Chicago On the Aisle - Somewhat Recommended

"...There's a native directness about veteran Kathleen Ruhl's acting that never fails to connect the viewer to her character. Call it authenticity. But no amount of straight shooting from the stage can magically turn a weak play into something terrific. Ruhl has demonstrated that proposition in two different plays in recent weeks - currently in Bekah Brunstetter's "Going to a Place Where You Already Are" at Redtwist Theatre."

Around The Town Chicago - Recommended

"...This is a play that deals with religious belief and makes it hard to rate, which is why I have only given it a "recommended". Perhaps, prior to all this "critic schtick" that has taken place since "Pass Over", I felt that this was enough. There is some humor in this gut-wrenching story about how one can look at what was previously decided and realize that the first choice may not have been what was destined to be the right one."

Picture This Post - Recommended

"...Scientifically-minded religious skeptics are supposed to be willing to accept new evidence of an afterlife, if any is ever found. But what could really count as “evidence” of such a thing? In her 2016 slice-of-life drama Going to a Place Where You Already Are, playwright Bekah Brunstetter explores how an irreligious family is disrupted by the impending death of one of its members, who suddenly becomes convinced that she’s going to a better place. She’s at peace, but the others aren’t."

NewCity Chicago - Recommended

"...Director Matt Hawkins gives a tangy, lifelike quality to the interplay between Roberta and Art Fox’s Joe, as the couple struggles not only with impending loss but also with Joe’s dawning realization that he doesn’t know his wife at all—and that she knows him all too well. The couple’s pointed and passionate dialogue succeeds as both character study and drama of ideas."