Myron Meisel – Stage Raw
While institutions and their procedural processes may be the backbone of our social organization, they can also tend to compound the dysfunctions they confront with systemic failings of their own, whether they be the police, schools, courts, or in the case of Rebecca Gilman’s engrossing drama Luna Gale, child protective services. Read more…
Bob Verini – Arts In LA
What makes playwright Rebecca Gilman so great is not that she writes plays on hot-button issues: racial discrimination accusations on campus (Spinning Into Butter), child disappearances (The Joy of Living), sexual stalkers (Boy Gets Girl), or the problems of child custody and bureaucratic maneuvering, as in her newest work, Luna Gale. (The Kirk Douglas is hosting the original Goodman Theater of Chicago production.) It’s that instead of exploiting any of those issues in the manner of a knockoff TV movie, she uses them as a jumping-off point for something much more robust and stinging. Read more…
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly
We’re guided by program notes and advertising materials to believe that Rebecca Gilman’s new play, Luna Gale, is primarily about a social worker in Iowa and the morally challenged world of child services where she’s employed. Read more…
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA
It’s not often that the abrupt extinguishing of stage lights at the end of Act One elicits an audible and nervous gasp from the audience, but that’s what happened when the plot of Luna Gale took an interesting trajectory. What unfolds, and is resolved, in Act Two leads us through tense moments and unexpected turns. Read more…
Now running through December 21.