Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...The darker elements that unfold by play's end don't feel entirely earned in this production, but the high-octane scheming and screaming never quite overpower the clever and carefully constructed architecture of the language and the characters. Zola's severe and waspish Leonie provides a delicious counterpoint to Scambiatterra's operatic self-pity and Hester's foaming-at-the-mouth excesses. Nall moves from absent-minded naif to a wounded man still capable of landing some harsh blows of his own with steady focus."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Mossman's production (on Corinne Bass' supremely elegant set) begins at such a high-pitched, warp-speed level that you wonder where it can possibly go. But as I said, it's like a tornado. And by the time it's all over, all you can do is just stand there, stunned."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Essentially required to throw a three-act temper tantrum, the cast displays a remarkable amount of energy and commitment. Kathy Scambiatterra is hilarious as the self-dramatizing matriarch, while Julian Hester, as her son, has to have set some kind of record for sustained hysteria. "
Gapers Block - Recommended
"...The Artistic Home is staging Les Parents Terribles, a sexy family farce by Jean Cocteau that will warm you up in this long deep-freeze winter. Director John Mossman keeps his five actors moving at a frenetic pace as he tells the story of one family's tangled love lives. The play begins manically and never slows down."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...The sheer breadth of the physical comedy keeps a sharp edge on the unsavory premise, but the real fusion cell at the center of it all is Hester's animated portrayal of Michael. A case of overgrown, purely naive id, Hester's jumpy personification of dopey arrested development satirizes the isolated lives of the bourgeois class Cocteau satirizes. Depending on what approach you want to take, Michael can be both a victim of his blue-blooded heritage and a spoiled brat so insulated he needn't be exposed to anything but a mother's love. Hester manages to earn empathy for both."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Les Parents Terribles is two hours and fifteen minutes of fabulous comic acting that delivers so many laughs that I left the theatre worn out from laughing! Director John Mossman sure got his ensemble to play the work as a farce going for the laughs over the social comments. The humor puts an exclamation point on Cocteau's themes. You'll laugh as you appreciate fearless physical and verbally dexterity comic acting by the entire cast. A funny comedy is just the cure for this never ending winter. A trip to Grand and Noble to The Artistic Home is the cure for the winter blues. Don't miss this show. Local young thespians need to see this show to learn how to really do comic acting."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...I know Cocteau's audience 75 years ago would have been shocked by the sexual tom-foolery which in our Kardashian age hardly raises an eyebrow. Mossman has wisely let the comedy rule over social commentary, and blends some quiet and personal moments into the madness. But when all five of these actors are fully engaged in the comic hijinks, it is farce raised to the highest of art forms - laughter which brings tears."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...LES PARENTS TERRIBLES is an entertaining dark comedy. Mossman skillfully manages this unruly, hot-mess-of-a-family. By the end of the show, we are all out of breath as this zany rollercoaster ride comes to a complete stop."