Marvin's Room at Redtwist Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...Thanks mostly to two very wise and authentic performances from the droll Jan Ellen Graves (who plays the wise-but-stricken Bessie) and Betty Scott Smith (who plays her elderly Aunt Ruth), this new little version of "Marvin's Room" is an uncommonly sweet and moving show."

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...Redtwist Theatre's cast are more in tune with the script's tear-jerking side, often capturing myriad painful undercurrents in seemingly innocuous familial encounters. Jan Ellen Graves as leukemia-stricken Bessie and Sam Johnston as her troubled adolescent nephew give particularly nuanced performances, and their two extended scenes together are the production's highlights. But director Michael Ryczek's methodical pacing rarely allows comedic rhythms to develop, making the script's already forced screwball elements feel heavy and out of place."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...The cast assembled by director Michael Ryczek for this Redtwist Theatre production conveys with vivid intimacy the challenges represented by McPherson’s three generations of flawed human beings facing their ultimate fate, while never neglecting the text’s considerable humor— Aunt Ruth’s implanted electronic device, for example, or a scene at Disney World where Bessie faints and is rescued by a strolling Goofycostumed actor."

Centerstage - Somewhat Recommended

"...Though the playwright’s tragic back-story and the show’s meteoric rise provide interesting background, even combined with inspired staging and classic themes, these variables do not elevate the play itself. "Marvin’s Room" serves up unpalatable melancholy with a side of off-beat humor, a quirky, attention-grabbing combination surely, but ultimately off-putting and awkward."

ChicagoCritic - Recommended

"...While I have some concerns about the wild shifting tone that went from absurdist to emotionally wrenching and back again, Marvin’s Room ultimately is a most truthful insight into the nature of love, dying and self-acceptance. A quicker pace and faster scene changes would help. Filled with wacky characters placed in strange situations, Marvin’s Room will make you laugh as well as tug at your heart strings. It is definitely worth seeing."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended

"...Director Michael Ryczek creates a warm, realistic family environment with people forced to react and adapt their humdrum routines around everyone else’s troubles. Costume designer Erin Fast seems to have left Bessie’s costuming alone with the wardrobe a little more Jan Graves than Bessie. Lighting is choppy and out of synch creating confusion with the stage blacking out for a long moment and the audience not knowing whether the lights will ever go back on."