Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...The funny 90-minute play relies on a hoary device: a group of relatives gathering for a funeral and then both loving and beating each other up. As all fans of “Succession” well know, reactions to death offer great opportunities for playwrights to craft scenes about people dropping their usual barriers and exposing their inner cores. While I’ve seen this scenario many times before in plays, White still manages to make it feel fresh."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...The problem is 30 pounds of story in a five-pound bag, the family saga of Long Day’s Journey Into Night or August: Osage County compressed into 95 minutes. Perhaps playwright Tuckie White was hampered by the common female fear of demanding too much attention, holding the stage for too long. I’ll look forward to seeing her work when she allows herself enough time and space to tell her fascinating stories in full."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...This play is beautiful and devastating and moving and surprising all in 95 minutes with no intermission. Developed by the ensemble whose purpose is to tell women's stories through a female lens, this is the kind of intimate storefront theater experience that Chicago is known for: coming off of a busy stretch of Ridge, out of the traffic noise, the audience is in for a real treat."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...For those of you who have never had the Rivendell Theatre Ensemble "experience", now is the time! This wonderful company, dedicated to women's stories and groundbreaking theater through a female lens, is presenting the World Premiere of "Motherhouse" written by Tuckie White. "Motherhouse" is a deep story of family and secrets. A young woman is home to prepare for her mother's funeral. Annie ( a solid performance by Jessica Ervin) has enlisted the aid of her aunts to help create an authentic eulogy. Over the 95 minutes of the story, we get to meet them all, hear their personal stories, as well as those that connect, or perhaps disconnect, their lives."
Rescripted - Highly Recommended
"...When I attend a play at Rivendell, I am expecting to see an intimate play that is by and for women. Developed between 2020-2022 through a series of readings and workshops with playwright Tuckie White and Rivendell’s ensemble, Motherhouse delivers. Acted entirely by Rivendell ensemble members (including Artistic Director, Tara Mallen), the production has a palpable sense of comfortability between the actors. This helps ease the pain of the tougher moments throughout the play, which come often as this play gets intense fast."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...Everyone knows that a house's most liminal space, the kitchen, is where all of the important action unfolds. The world premiere of Motherhouse (directed by Azar Kazemi) at Rivendell Theatre is a perfect example of that. It's a chilling family gathering where grief cannot be explored directly without wading through the intergenerational traumas of growing up in a deeply dysfunctional family. Their kitchen is a perfect, misleadingly calm space in sage green with white cabinets. Sitting in front of this set before the show, the kitchen draws you in, putting you right at the oval table with the family."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...It’s not often that I leave a theatre completely shaken, especially by a play that frequently had made me laugh. It’s even less often that a thing like that occurs and I find my mind so frozen that I have no words to explain why I am shaken. That, however, is the emotional reaction I had to Tuckie White’s harrowing new play Motherhouse, now playing at Rivendell Theatre. For all of its humorous moments, this play ends up ripping your heart out through your eyes and ears. I suspect that I am not the only one who will leave the theatre knowing that something transformative has taken place but still thinking what the hell did I just watch?"
