Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Will Arbery’s lively, quirky play, staged by the non-Equity First Floor Theater under Steppenwolf’s LookOut visiting companies initiative, does not put sisterhood under some romantic gauze, nor does it emphasize similarity or togetherness. On the contrary, the three women around whom this play revolves could not be more different."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...As one of three sisters, I feel uniquely qualified to review the chaotic choreography of dialogue that constitutes Plano, First Floor Theater's presentation of the Chicago premiere of Will Arbery's play, directed by Audrey Francis."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The cast is stellar across the board, but Fink is particularly good; her wide-eyed Isabel is perfectly attuned to the internal liturgy of Arbery’s writing. While Plano eschews easy answers—and hard answers, too, for that matter—it leaves you with the kinds of questions that keep you up at night. You might even call them prayers."
Around The Town Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...This play is roughly 90 minutes in length and has no intermission. While the actors were all sparkling in their roles, I was unimpressed with the story, feeling that perhaps there was more to say. What took place in their lives that brings us to this day ? Why is Steve cloned? If Juan/John is Gay ( as Steve #1 says) why does he marry Anne? To get his Green Card? What does the Faceless Ghost represent? How much love can Mary give her girls? And last but not least, why did no one eat the Hummus?"
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...Plano—the real Plano—is a town in Texas. In Will Arbery’s play Plano, though, it is also a state of mind, and sometimes it is a curse in which, as one character notes, “we’re ghosts of ourselves, like we’re dying and coming back, over and over again, and when we come back, we’re a little warped, a little stranger, and there’s no way out, we’re trapped in a disintegrating loop.” With rocket-paced dialogue, lots of humor, and a plot that veers deeply into the surreal, Plano does not merely acknowledge that curse; it immerses us fully within its time-fracturing, inescapable pseudo-reality. Arbery has created a play that is at once a memory, a philosophy, and a nightmare."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Come for the cast. This is an ensemble show where even the men, who are differing levels of mundanely despicable, become empathetic figures (still lukewarm). The three sisters, however, are the strongest component. Watching them perform is a technical wonder—the lies they tell themselves are as convincing as the cracks we see forming in them—and a spectacle of endurance: the energy they maintain through the show is acrobatic."
