Lisa Loomer's new play, Living Out, illuminates what many might view as an old issue. Due to both the weak economy and the increased investment by women in their careers over the past 40 years, more mothers than ever find a way to work full-time in addition to fulfilling some version of their traditional familial role. Loomer takes a look at some of the consequences of those choices without judging those who make them.

Nancy Robin (Cheryl Graeff), a first time mother and entertainment lawyer, finds herself preparing to return to work and in need of a full-time nanny to care for her newborn child. She interviews and hires Ana Hernandez (Sandra Marquez), an illegal alien from El Salvador who's coming off two unsuccessful interviews—unsuccessful primarily because Ana revealed in each case that she has a six-year-old boy in this country, in addition to her 11-year-old son back in El Salvador. However, desperate to get a job, Ana lies to Nancy about her son, leading to the play's primary plot device.

For the most part, Living Out simply shows us overlapping slices of each of these women's lives. As Nancy's little girl grows up and learns to crawl, Ana struggles to make her job work with her need to be a mother to her son. Her husband, Bobby (Joe Minoso), though grudgingly supportive, also has a traditional expectation of a mother's role in the family. By contrast, Nancy copes with the standard issues of leaving her child—the baby responds better to Ana, Nancy misses key moments in her child's growing up, and so forth. Her husband, Richard (Thomas Gebbia), while he doesn't have Bobby's expectations, seems somehow more ineffective. The two families share the same apartment set in the play's primary conceit.

By contrast, Loomer also provides us with two peer groups: one of two other mothers—both without outside careers but still with nannies; and one of the nannies. Nancy and Ana each encounter their respective contemporaries on trips to the park. These more broadly drawn characters give some context, but mostly seem to exist to set and occasionally defy stereotypes of both wealthy white women and working Latino immigrants.

While many of the conflicts found in Living Out will probably not surprise anyone who's thought through the difficulty of simultaneously working and parenting, Loomer's approach manages to be both poignant and cutting. The women get much better writing than the men, who don't fare so well—particularly Richard. Still, the entire cast does excellent work. At the heart of things, Graeff manages to convey her reluctance to leave her child and her need to return to a job she truly likes. Marquez masters the frozen smile as Ana faces down both her need to work and earn the money necessary to bring her older son from El Salvador amidst the unwitting insensitivity of Nancy and Richard. Both women are likeable and understandable—almost universal—in their struggles. Director Cecilie Keenan handles the staging simply and economically, smoothly moving between the two couples.

Living Out offers some fine writing and no easy solutions. While the emotionally heightened ending might seem out of character with the rest of the script, it aptly dramatizes the difficult situation women find themselves in when both career and family call.

Living Out—American Theater Co.

Michael Phillips, Tribune—"Lisa Loomer's play careens from broad, borderline-caricature comedy to crushing pathos. You may find these extremes powerful and effective. Or you may find them a tad manipulative. Yet in this nicely accomplished co-production of Teatro Vista and American Theater Company, at the ATC space just off Lincoln Avenue, Graeff and Marquez steady the waters, never doing too much or too little. They do what actors are supposed to do: they bring out the comic, dramatic and human best in the material. The material may be facile, but it's playable."

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—"To a large extent it is that overlapping territory—the terrible push-pull of too many opposing loyalties, too many responsibilities, too many pressures to succeed financially and too little organized support for working mothers of every economic sphere—that Loomer captures to perfection in her play. At the same time, she never loses sight of the many compelling differences that separate women of differing social classes. And that is what makes Living Out, now in its Chicago debut in an inspired collaborative production by American Theater Company and the Latino-based Teatro Vista, so compelling."

Jennifer Vanasco, Reader—"The tragedy arises not just because of their class and racial differences, and certainly not because of cruel intentions, but because both are trapped in a system where women often need to choose between working and raising their children. The peripheral characters here are hilarious because they're so stereotypical, but the complex central figures are extremely empathetic: Cheryl Graeff as Nancy and Sandra Marquez as Ana offer nuanced portrayals of mothers who are both trying to do the right thing. As their stressed-out, frustrated husbands, Thomas Gebbia and Joe Minoso are playful and fully rounded."

Accidental Death of an Anarchist—Next Theatre

Kevin Nance, Sun-Times—"But with a comic thoroughbred like Joe Foust in the leading role, the show's devil-may-care tone may have been a matter of destiny. [Director Linda] Gillum has picked her poison, and he's hilarious. With his fantastically loose limbs, rubber face and electrified hair, Foust is part of a noble lineage of physical comedy that includes Jim Carrey and Jerry Lewis. He also deploys an arsenal of voices that rivals (and at a few uncomfortable moments feels derived from) that of Mike Myers in the Austin Powers movies. Foust's clowning is inspired, but its showiness distracts from the play's messages at least as much as it delivers them."

Justin Hayford, Reader—"Director Linda Gillum's high-octane revival boasts a thrillingly ugly set by Keith Pitts and a cast of skilled, committed performers. But they misread Fo's blistering farce as noisy comedy, never achieving the crazed, violent edge—and with it the life-and-death stakes—the play needs. The physical comedy is ample and often amusing, becoming increasingly successful as the evening goes on. But without a whirlwind of stupefying illogic, the show too often feels like the rehashing of a murder investigation that was over decades ago."

Jenn Q. Goddu, Free Press—"Foust and this crack ensemble of comic actors, deftly directed by Linda Gillum, don't disappoint. Foust is a carefully controlled crazy person as he turns a police station upside down by impersonating a judge investigating the fatal four-story plunge of a railroad worker and anarchist being held for interrogation in a bombing. His Madman runs through personality traits at a manic pace and whether he's being playful, cajoling, antagonistic, arrogant or mischievous, Foust portrays it all with high-energy and full-on histrionics. It never stops being fun to watch."

God's Country—Boxer Rebellion Theatre

Kerry Reid, Reader—"Dietz dutifully provides the documentary portion through a barrage of exposition and courtroom testimony that makes cartoon clear just how scary the Order and other like-minded organizations are. What he can't provide is drama. There's no steady focus or arc to the action and no attempt to show how these homegrown terrorists came to believe as they did, so a play that should feel remarkably timely instead feels well-intentioned but dull. John McCormick's Berg is a standout in Lila M. Stromer's staging, but the rest of the cast ranges from adequate to floundering."

The Nose—greasy joan & company

Justin Hayford, Reader—"Gogol's literary poker face is unrivaled. But Ehre's five cast members labor over every line, telegraphing the humor, obscuring the narrative, and turning Gogol's laser-accurate caricatures into overblown distortions. Instead of establishing a familiar workaday world laced with sudden absurdities—the source of Gogol's satire—this production creates a bizarre demonic environment so distant from reality that the story's ingeniously crafted oddities seem random quirks. And by tossing in personal asides and fragments of other Gogol stories, Greasy Joan & Company manage to stretch a 24-page tale into two long hours."

Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—"In this brilliant and extraordinary production, we are once again provided with marvelous evidence of why theatre in Chicago is the most unique and unparalleled in the world. We have the opportunity to view an obscure piece of European writing uncovered by a company whose scope of literary choices is driven by a hunger to procure exceptionally exclusive, atypical and challenging hidden treasures. What would inspire a theatre company to produce an adaptation of a 19th century Russian absurdist writer's story about a bureaucrat's missing nose that disguises itself as a government official to elude its owner? I would venture to guess, the desire to create something evocatively innovative. And that is just what this tremendous and bizarre theatrical excursion provides."

Toast of the Town—Factory Theatre

Nina Metz, Tribune—"The first line in Factory Theater's Toast of the Town goes something like this: "David Schwimmer loved 500 Clown Frankenstein so you know it's good," a tongue-in-cheeker sure to prompt a smirk or two from Chicago theatre scenesters. But even occasional playgoers will find much to appreciate in this gloriously, uproariously skewering of all things theatre by co-writers Ernest Deak and Scott Oken. Imagine Noises Off on crack. Imagine Saturday morning cartoons on crack. This is cheap, loud, infantile, laugh-despite-your-better-instincts comedy."

Misha Davenport, Sun-Times—"Beneath the lunacy is a fair amount of sophisticated satire that almost shocks because it seems so unexpected. Not everything is as obvious as the jokes at the expense of the Chicago theatre community and its inflated egos. Roy, for instance, is infatuated with Ron Leibman—not for that actor's Tony Award-winning turn as Roy Cohn in the Broadway production of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, but for the short-lived 1978 TV series Kaz, which Leibman wrote and starred in. You don't know that much about Leibman's career? Before you realize you didn't get the reference, the cast will have moved on. Playwrights Ernest Deak and Scott Oken have done a great job giving everyone in the show plenty to do—no easy task, considering that there are 18 actors, all competing for stage time and laughs."

Jennifer Vanasco, Reader—"Toast of the Town features wacky characters, rubber chickens, funny voices, bad puns, face slapping, cartoonish double takes, and Keystone Kops-style chases. But as directed by Nick Digilio, the actors seem to believe that the louder they talk, the funnier they are, and tedious blackouts slow the pace. With his elastic body, Matt Engle is genuinely funny as a waiter/actor, Heather L. Tyler deliciously underplays a pregnant woman, and a few quick-witted, fast-paced scenes with the domineering director (Laura McKenzie) and her two hangers-on (Oken and Allison Cain) give us a taste of what might have been."

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—"Even within this ambiguous universe, Toast of the Town's collection of rat-a-tat repartee, one-two gags, walk-on gags, walk-through gags, cartoon-chase gags, funny voices, funny dialects, funny noises, slap-stick (literally) flourishes and general mayhem features some genuinely humorous material. We could only guess at most of it on opening night, however, since the actors for this Factory Theatre production have been instructed to deliver their dialogue at a volume threatening severe vocal damage and a speed rendering the unintelligible punch lines identifiable only by their timing."

Quote of the Fortnight:

"Putting on a play seems hard in rehearsals," said Sophie. "When you just see a show from the audience, it seems much easier."—Hedy Weiss quoting Sophie Menendian, 10-year-old daughter of Michael Menendian and JoAnn Montemurro, in an article about Raven Theatre in the Sun-Times.

Correction: In the April 15 issue, I inadvertently attributed a quote from a Mary Shen Barnidge review of Hedwig and the Angry Inch to having appeared in the Reader. The review in question actually appeared in Windy City Times. My apologies.