Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...West’s ultimate optimism — there is only so much dystopia you can take — actually manifests itself through recollection, the hope that when they come and take away your films and freedoms they still will be obliged to leave your memories alone and let you pass them on to your children. Sure. Hopefully."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Still, the urgency of West's disturbing vision is affecting, especially in director Elly Green's passionate, streamlined production, which features some of the most convincing performances I've seen on a Jackalope stage. If it falters in the finish, it's still a hell of a journey."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...In the Canyon sees the dystopian darkness of the future as the endpoint of a rapidly dimming present. As Hope notes, the world has always been this way-just at a lower volume. The most viscerally disturbing moment in the whole show comes when a pregnant woman (Paloma Nozicka) is forced by two men to stand up against her will, despite her loud and angry protestations. That scene is set in 2017."
Rescripted - Highly Recommended
"...In the Canyon is about the consequences, not only of our actions but also of our inaction, on everything from climate change to reproductive rights. It examines both the impending scarcity of resources and the collapse of due process and constitutional protections. This crisis is upon us. A crisis we could have prevented. But, although there is much to despair here, ultimately this play is grounded in West’s worldview that faith, love and the courage of our convictions are our most powerful weapons against tyranny and the most important legacy we have to pass to future generations."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...In the Canyon is a well-balanced, complex piece of art supported by an amazing cast and precision crew. Calamity West manages to hook you in and get you comfortable only to take you places no one wants to see clearly. At any point in a story like this one, you could lose your audience if too hamfisted, too unrealistic or too melodramatic, but West and the cast manage to keep a steady hand to the wheel, as the heat turns up in this nightmare slowly at first, reaching a real boiling point and managing to leave viewers with a lingering sense of dread, and hopefully, the means to see through the fog that it’s time to take action."
Picture This Post - Highly Recommended
"...A strong ensemble and striking script make In the Canyon, in this writer's opinion, a play to see. West responds to the current moment with warnings and questions, inviting the audience to participate in the dialogue that has already begun. At the very least, the events that ensue are certainly unforgettable."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The brilliance in her script is how West talks about choice and regret. There’s no indulging in the fallacy that all folks who’ve had an abortion regret it. “I don’t regret anything,” is a common mantra throughout. And choice is discussed as the choice to live the life the characters want, to have children or not have children, if and when they are ready, to not allow circumstances to destroy their own futures."
