Laura and the Sea at Rivendell Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...The beautiful metaphor Tarker uses throughout the play is the company’s desire to move toward the future, offering trips to Mars. All Laura wants to do is to offer people the chance to explore their own city, not escape. Give people, and herself, a chance to find who they are where they are instead of constantly running away."

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...While the script could use some focus and trimming of secondary narratives around climate change and space travel, this uniquely staged and conceived workplace dramedy maintains its vitality and intrigue thanks to a superb cast. Mallen nails melancholic Laura with lines like "middle age is just a paper cut to the soul," Mark Ulrich gives off sparks during a silent tantrum as boss man Jack, and Adithi Chandrashekar brings annoying manager Annie to a moving catharsis with the line "we were so close to being close.""

Windy City Times - Recommended

"...Rather than coast on cute actorly tricks, director Devon de Mayo has instructed her cast to focus on the guilt suffered by the survivors in allowing their comrade to slip away unnoticed-remorse inspiring them to heed her barely-registered advice and implement changes in their own lives: Joe decorates his desk with rainbow flag, Stan ceases his petty thievery, Jack discards his on-the-job whiskey ). The interruption inflicted on the order of the universe by Death cannot be mitigated by the promise of interplanetary escape, but by striving to improve our stay on this earth."

Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended

"...de Mayo’s precise guidance was able to highlight the barriers that we put up between one another and how the line between protecting and hiding oneself is very thin. The blog that started as a way to ask why someone would commit suicide unraveled into an investigation without placing blame or coming to a definitive answer. Are you affected by someone’s death because you miss them or are you so affected by someone’s death because, in actuality, you are unaffected and you fear that your own death will be met with the same apathy from those around you?"

NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...Director Devon de Mayo finds brilliance in juggling the comic and tragic potential of such a situation: the mundanity of office life, the dread of losing a colleague, the absolute awkward interactions that anyone in an office setting will recognize all too well. The entire cast keeps things moving at an engaging pace, navigating the often treacherous and turbulent depths that the play dares to plumb."