Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Chay Yew directs this world premiere with a warmth and generosity that matches the humanism and balance of the script. I have only one caveat to what is otherwise sincere admiration for a show with a design by Andrew Boyce that really matches the humanistic compassion of the whole: Killebrew has yet to write, to really write, the one scene that matters most, the one right before the reconciliation you always hope is coming, the one that really explains how everyone gets to this place, maybe by judging a little less and loving a little more."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Directed by Chay Yew and set in Chicago, Killebrew’s moving and sharply witty 90-minute drama goes a long way toward explaining why the recidivism rate is so high amongst ex-cons. The tragedy in “Lettie” is not necessarily that the titular mother was incarcerated. The real tragedy lies in the aftermath of that incarceration: Lettie’s now-teenage children barely recognize her. She’s got virtually no job skills. From dusk until dawn, her schedule is regimented by rules and institutions that seem set up to make her fail. She wants to start over, but the past is like a rusting shackle making movement all but impossible."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...Sometimes a role fits an actor so seamlessly it feels as if it were written specifically for them. That's the case with Caroline Neff and Lettie, now in a gripping world premiere at Victory Gardens. In the title role, playing a woman released from prison after seven years on drug trafficking charges, Neff's signature blend of deadpan wit and raw vulnerability reveals layer after layer of Lettie's damaged-yet-defiant psyche as she attempts to go straight and win back the love of her teenage children."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Yew directs the play with precision, using the light design (by Lee Fiskness) to create a series of squares and rectangles across the stage, evoking the rigid geometry of the cell block. And while the “time’s passing” video projections (designed by Stephan Mazurek) feel a bit lazy, they’re of a piece with the unadorned brick walls that surround a white, rectangular prison yard of a playing space (set by Andrew Boyce)."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"...By play’s end a lot of hopelessness goes a little way. If Lettie is intended as a plea for action as much as a play of pity, Killebrew needs to provide the critique of a context. Accuracy is not sufficient to this occasion. Otherwise all we get is one mother’s uncontrolled tailspin into a very hard landing. It sucks to be Lettie but not quite enough to make an audience really angry."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Highly Recommended
"...Lettie is a compelling story about incarceration and how gender, race, and poverty can affect motherhood when women are dealing with issues of re-entering the workforce. It also provides an in-depth mental perspective that women who have been incarcerated face when seeking to regain their children. This 90-minute play will make you think, laugh and cry and touch your heart."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Victory Gardens Theater has been one of Chicago’s World Class companies for over 40 years, and even with the changes over the last decade, they seem to continue to find the right works to put on their stage. The current production of Boo Killebrew’s “Lettie”, directed by Artistic Director Chay Yew is a World Premiere, and worthy of your attention!"
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Boo Killebrew’s latest work is a collaboration with Victory Gardens Theater that will affect every theatergoer. Audiences will leave with a new appreciation for those members of our society who’ve made mistakes, paid for their errors and are trying to start over again. This is a drama about a woman struggling against insurmountable odds to rebuild her life. “I’ve made mistakes, but I am not my mistakes,” pleads Lettie. Both the play and this premiere production overflow with empathy for all its characters and their various situations; and it will leave theatergoers with the haunting memory that, sadly, even a person’s best intentions may not always be enough."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...“Lettie” is a play that attempts to tell it like it is in authentically portraying society’s lower class and it deserves a wide audience,. Yes, “Lettie” tells a glum story but Killebrew’s language is spot on, delivered without compromise by Caroline Neff triumphantly leading an impeccable ensemble. All in all, an engrossing evening in the company of lives no member of the audience would want to lead."
Third Coast Review - Somewhat Recommended
"...There’s a kernel of something meaningful in Lettie, as anyone with parents can attest. The people we come from—the people who raise us or abandon us or smother us or inspire us—are often also the most complicated relationships of our lives. Lettie starts to explore that through its titular character, both her own parentage and her offspring. Welding has little, if anything, to do with it."
The Hawk Chicago - Recommended
"...Overall, Lettie offers a slew of great performances and a interesting take on a topic ripe for discussion and social change. With some slight tweaks to the material and to the white-driven narrative, Lettie could elevate its status from good to great."
Picture This Post - Highly Recommended
"...Lettie rarely leaves the stage and instead, all of the design elements circle around her, which heightens the theme of "chaos" within her world. The effect is incredible to watch unfold, and is heightened through other actors entering and leaving the space around her as needed. Yew's staging is graceful, and creates a flow for the piece that helps the action move forward at a quick pace."
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...The performances are lovely, and there are some beautiful scenes of dialogue. But even at its best moments, “Lettie” feels unfinished and underdeveloped. The story is choppy, the set design is stark and blank (a trademark of Victory Gardens artistic director Chay Yew), the transitions are painfully lengthy and grind the emotional journey of the story to a complete halt. There’s a lot to be wished for."