Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...And in the 90-minute play, “The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington,” now at the Steppenwolf Theatre with Cindy Gold in the title role, he imagines the ailing Washington having a fever dream, not unlike that of Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol,” except that she is visited mostly by the enslaved, all of whom disavow her (and, by implication, white America to this today) of her ongoing notion that she could have cared about any one of them, or that they could have felt affection for her in return."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...“The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington” is a most curious, outlandish, vicious and uproarious affair at the Steppenwolf Theater. In James Ijames’ latest dark comedy missive, he puts the “Mother of America” on trial with impeccable timing — opening just as news of Queen Elizabeth’s death reverberates around the world. If you found yourself overcome with poignant emotion at the demise of Her Majesty, you might find this play … er … challenging."
Daily Herald - Recommended
"...Martha Washington has a lot to answer for, and the Black people she and her husband enslaved do their darnedest to make sure she does in James Ijames provocative "The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington" in its Chicago-area premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...The great strength of Ijames’s script is that it’s not merely a jeremiad about the evils of slavery. It’s about how the foundational ideals we claim as a nation have all been tainted by that original sin. Including the notion of “family.” Victor Musoni’s William visits Martha’s dream early on, reminding her that he is both her nephew and her grandson; his mother, Ann Dandridge (Nikki Crawford) is Martha’s half-sister, and his father was Martha’s stepson. Rape was one of the bedrocks of slavery; denial of family bonds came easy for those who profited by it."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Recommended
"...The Chicago premiere of James Ijames' fantastical play The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington may be considered one of the most bizarre plays you will ever see, formally accusing and charging a severe crime against America. More specifically, the mother of America, the wife of George Washington, the "Father of His Country," Martha Washington, is on trial for enslaving people and not releasing them after the death of her husband."
WTTW - Highly Recommended
"...The show is set as Miz Martha (ideally played by Cindy Gold) is on her death bed in the Mount Vernon, Virginia, mansion and plantation she shared with her second husband, George. She would die in 1802, at the age of 70, just three years after the death of George who, as it happened, left a will that included instructions that her many slaves were to be granted their freedom upon her death."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...This is the Chicago premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, James Ijames’ remarkably gritty and humorous play. It’s a bitter history lesson that unfolds like a surreal painting come to life. As the country’s first First Lady lies dying in her bed at Mount Vernon, a fever dream plays out that’s sometimes funny and ultimately very poignant. Directed with style, humor and tough vitality by Whitney White, an Obie Award-winning theatre artist, this darkly comic drama will haunt audiences for a long time, because of its combination of rightness and whimsy."
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...Not every director or actor could have pulled off this spectacle. And believe me, it was a spectacle. There was nothing small or tentative about this production. It was big, it was bold, it was Black and Beautiful. Director Whitney White used every fiber of all her talented actors to wonderful results. The ensemble consists of Sydney Charles as Priscilla, Celeste M. Cooper as Doll, Donovan Session as Sucky-Boy, Carl Clemons-Hopkins as Davy, Victor Musoni as William, Nikki Crawford as Ann Dandridge, and Cindy Gold as Martha Washington. All the ensemble members, except Cindy Gold, play a host of other characters."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...Director Whitney White masterfully paces this tight and with conviction. The swirling action revolves around Martha’s bed. White’s superb ensemble (Celeste M. Cooper, Sydney Charles, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Nikki Crawford, Victor Musoni, Donovan Session) challenge Miz Martha (played by Cindy Gold) to acknowledge the atrocity of slavery. The versatile cast morph into multiple, colorful characters. Charles and Cooper captivate as household slaves and then morph into Martha’s contemporaries. As Martha’s ‘property’, their comments are sidebar snarks. As Abigail and Betsy, their disdain is deliciously elegant, marring and direct. An outstanding Session plays both Sucky Boy and a sharp-tongued lawyer with distinction. And Hacks’ TV fans will love Clemons-Hopkins’ presence and performance. He is particularly hilarious as George Washington."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...There is plenty of laughter of all kinds in James Ijames’ astonishing play, The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington, now on stage at Steppenwolf Theatre. Whitney White directs the crazy dreamscape (or twisted reality) that faces Martha Washington when she awakes and rises from her sick bed. It’s Christmas Eve, 1800, at Mt. Vernon, the Washington family’s Virginia plantation. The father of our country died last year and now Martha, “the mother of America,” is feverish and tossing about in her bed. (Cindy Gold plays Martha with wit, rage and an inability to recognize her own offenses, let alone her privilege.) She’s tended by her personal maid, Ann Dandridge (Nikki Crawford), with whom she has a complicated history."
Chicago On Stage - Recommended
"...Whitney White’s multilayered direction absolutely sparkles, making full use of Clint Ramos’ set, which contains a round platform on which Martha’s bed can roll forward or back, as well as a rich field of blooming cotton that surrounds it. (I hope I don’t need to explain the symbolism of that.) Late in the play, Amith Chandrashaker’s lush lighting becomes stark, revealing that the “cotton” is as false as the American promise of freedom. For far too many people, the “dream” was—and still is—a nightmare."
MaraTapp.org - Recommended
"...Welcome to Miz Washington's fever dream. Like the best complex dreams, it is a wild ride filled with horror and humor but this dream is also a nightmare about slavery and the complicity of Martha Washington and her famous husband George, in slavery. Would we like to believe that the "father and mother" of our country - at least from 1789 on - declared slavery a moral stain and renounced it? I certainly would but that is not true nor is it the story this play tells. Here we have Miz Washington, delirious on her deathbed, surrounded by her slaves. They all know that that her husband's will freed them at her death, which makes nursing her through this illness beyond impossible."
BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended
"...Director Whitney White's production, though, gamely embraces the various styles that Ijames employs in the text to put forth his key themes. Clint Ramos's sleek set design allows for quick scene changes and some visual surprises; the stage is flanked by cotton plants, a stark reminder of the grueling menial labor that the enslaved went through at the hands of the Washington family. Izumi Inaba's costume designs embody different styles, from the quotidien to the intentionally and necessarily outrageous (and, at certain moments, there's a surprising amount of glitter)."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Director Whitney White keeps the cacophony lively, fast-moving and yet easy to follow, something easier said than done with this text, and in doing so, the production offers catharsis bathed in humor to some audience members while delivering a bitter but necessary lesson in history and humanity laced with sugar to others. The cast, a blend of Chicago stalwarts like the always-outstanding Sydney Charles and Steppenwolf ensemble member Celeste M. Cooper along with the charming Victor Musoni and puckish Donovan Session, with out-of-towners Nikki Crawford and Carl Clemons-Hopkins (a familiar face to fans of HBO's "Hacks," in a marvelous show of his skills here), is a constant source of joy and revelation, as they weave song and dance into their roles."
