Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Rivera's plays are tricky creatures. They have to be balanced with care. If they're staged with too much emphasis on their lyricism, they can lose their bite. Actually, this production goes too far in the opposite direction — it's a high-energy, visceral staging that starts off at top pitch, and while the ride surely has revelations, it doesn't leave itself enough fresh places to feed in the hungry urban hell that seems, thank heavens, to be in retreat."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Rivera's title character is a young woman trying to hold on in an environment where apples are extinct, the water is full of salt, neo-Nazis go around setting the homeless on fire, and the Moon has just plain disappeared. What's weird is that Rivera, like Kushner, finds a saving, human grace in all this. As roughly, beautifully realized in John Mossman's production for the Artistic Home, Marisol offers a vision of the apocalypse as an absurd, poignant, funny, oddly hopeful event."
Centerstage - Somewhat Recommended
"...The faith aspect of the script is under-explored, which lessens the impact of the play’s final moments, and too many scenes early on are extended shouting matches, numbing us to the raised stakes later on. But there’s a lot to like about the performances; Brandon Thompson (Lenny) and Kristin Collins (June) are particularly adept at switching from comic to tragic in the space of a line."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...The performances in Mossman’s revival, ranging from energetic to histrionic, at times underscore the more contrived aspects of the playwright’s writing. Evans, though, makes an appealing, plucky hero, handling the switch from office drone to unwilling combatant in a cosmic street war with humor and resilience, while Marikis memorably delivers one of the play’s most compelling moments as a man almost completely covered in burn scars and in a wheelchair. The production features some quite strong design work; the soundscape by Adam Smith, in particular, evokes a New York before the East Village became an NYU dorm."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...I can’t remember when I was so moved by a show as I was by the hauntingly visceral production of Marisol. This show begs to be seen. The power of the live theatre experience is well represented with The Artistic Home’s Marisol."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...It’s the kind of play you’re glad to walk away from, as you step onto Clark Street and find a reassuring graveyard on the other side of the street and no fires raging along the route. Artistic Home’s staging is forceful enough for this future--but the idiotic desire of several partisans on opening night to howl in hilarity at other people’s pain indicts the broader aspects of the staging. If played with perfect fidelity, “Marisol,” a drama that is literally on the side of the angels, is a sobering experience where every victim could be us."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Recommended
"...MARISOL is a thought-provoking fantasy. Rivera's story is an imaginative explanation of life tragedies. I like to believe we all get a guardian angel. And that we walk through dicey situations protected by divine intervention. Golf makes sense to me knowing the equipment has a higher purpose. In the last couple of months, I have had two end-of-the-world dreams. They startled me awake! (And my nightmares NEVER even considered surviving without coffee.) Where do you go when it's the end for most and the new beginning for some? When man has the capacity and arrogance to blow up the world, the unthinkable has to be thought. MARISOL provides some insight into the doomsday scenario. It's bittersweet!"
Chicago Theater Beat - Somewhat Recommended
"...Marisol jumpstarts with a great hook, but then the stakes evaporate. Rivera overcompensates with his lyricism and eerie characters. It’s not enough to make this play great, but it makes for an entertaining trip. Aaron Menninga’s innovative set is fascinating, covered with graffiti and aphorisms. Marisol may not be a great tale, but it’s a startling vision."