Wellesley Girl presented by Compass Theatre at Theater Wit

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...Her performance is the best element in this Compass Theatre staging by James Fleming, which never quite finds the balance between political satire and despair. The production feels static early on, and really only gains a sense of anguish and danger once Reed-Foster is introduced (though Wojcik does an admirable job channeling Angry White Man energy). There are moments of poignancy and sharp-elbowed wit, but overall the tone is too inchoate to sustain the stakes of the story."

Around The Town Chicago - Recommended

"...Try to imagine what life might be 400 plus years from now! It is a difficult job indeed. Possibly because of things like Covid 19 and watching our government and people seem to change from what we are used to. In Brendan Peluses' "Wellesley Girl", a play that was supposed to open back in 2020 ( but Covid got in the way), we are taken on such a ride into the future, sans Delorean. It is a sharp 90 plus minutes of seeing what could happen to our world as we know it. Politics has taken its toll and our country ( "America" is now a handful of New England cities ( 4, if you count Wellesley, although many think it has disappeared) walled off from the rest of the surrounding land."

Chicago Theatre Review - Somewhat Recommended

"...Most of the problem with this play stems from the script itself. It feels sketchy and unfinished. Characters aren't fully written, relationships aren't sufficiently explored and many of the situations are never resolved. The one thing we can take from this play is how unease and concern are still a part of our world today. It's certainly a piece that will inspire conversation and a contemplation of our own future, but never feels finished."

Chicago On Stage - Not Recommended

"...The plot of this play, which stops making sense almost immediately, is that the United States, in the year 2465, has shrunk down to a walled enclave of four towns in Massachusetts. The rest of the country fell victim to a mass poisoning event when an uncontrolled algae bloom infected the water supply. (If you are wondering how a single mutant bloom could poison all of the water in the whole nation, well, you begin to see what I mean.) In this mini-USA, though, the water-for some reason-is pure. (There is some mumbo jumbo about filtration that merely begs more questions, like why this sort of filter was not used everywhere the bloom affected.)"

NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...Things quickly go from bad to worse. The story morphs from political satire to an incredibly bleak and unsettling future vision. Such a stark transition requires near-flawless execution. But the working material here is too clunky to make that possible. There are just too many unrealized love interests, things left unsaid and other humanistic but unconvincing elements weighing down the production. At the same time, however, "Wellesley Girl" offers an incredibly spot-on commentary of our political system's dysfunction. Theatergoers will have a hard time finding a more topical play and that is saying a lot during these times."