Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Structurally, “Mothers” almost feels like two plays — a social comedy and a dystopian horror — spliced together. The first act works well but the momentum lags after that. Playwrights love to drop a pre-intermission bombshell to keep audiences eager for more, and Moench literally gives us one. However, the pacing feels uneven in Act 2, as stakes escalate very quickly within some scenes but the overall progression of time is disorienting. It’s also difficult to maintain an emotional connection with any one character as their shocking actions pile up."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...Kays’s staging and the cast are both sharp and highly watchable. But Moench’s play, to my mind, hasn’t resolved the difference in tone between the first act and the second. Raising the question of just how far maternal love will get you in a real crisis (as opposed to sniping at other moms about their life choices) is great. But though the second act is arresting and mournful, several points raised in the first (including most notably the reversal of racial dynamics, where “beige” people like Ty are seemingly marginalized) are quickly dropped."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...I was immensely impressed at the stark realism of her onstage pumping and expressing– after doing it myself for almost a decade I had physical flashbacks! There’s the stay at home dad ( played with awkward testosterone and toxic shame by Alex Ireys) and the wordless nanny Gladys (played with grounded alertness by Lynette Li). There is banter and light but deadly parrying about breastfeeding or formula, working or staying home, vaccinations or not. There is an undercurrent of scary. And then the bomb goes off."
Around The Town Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...The show makes the audience wonder whether the playwright Anna Ouyang Moench is making the point that people go back to their "true nature" during wartime, when they kill each other and do other immoral things. Does the playwright feel that men are fundamentally different from women and that it is civilization which places a check on brute instincts, such as raping women as being part of the spoils of war?"
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...The play itself seems confused from time to time, and its overriding point seems to be the too-obvious one that awful people under pressure become even more horrible. Maybe there’s also a point in there, somewhere, that bickering moms, as bad as they get, can’t compare to the male of the species and their sadistic behavior in battle. Still, this Lord of the Flies for the 21st Century does make an intermittently powerful impact, there is some wicked satire in the first act, and there are a few moments of anguish and depravity in the second act that won’t be easily forgotten."
Rescripted - Recommended
"...The Mothers posits that we’ve lost the ability to see other people’s children as fully human. Moench underscores our complicity via desensitization, apathy, and the commodification of our attention. How much more of our own humanity do we have to lose when we find ourselves face-to-face with the unconscionable?"
Chicago On Stage - Somewhat Recommended
"...Now playing at Filament Theatre, The Gift’s post-pandemic home, Mothers begins as a very funny comedy set in a daycare. Within its all-red walls (Lauren Nichols’ set is perhaps a foreshadowing of what is coming), four women and one man wait as their toddlers play, watching and commenting on raising children and interpersonal relationships in often hilarious conversation."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Playwright Moench is a masterful worldbuilder. Plot points that others might expound into the crux of the story are only touched upon and left to the imagination. In this universe the systemically perceived hierarchy of race is reversed, with Vick, who is Black, mentioning to Ty, who is white, that she is surprised how few “beiges” she sees in this town, and that she is a staunch “beige ally.” Here, intersectionality equals social power, and it’s fun to wonder what else is different about this world."
