LA Daily News - Highly Recommended
"...Geer has cast perfectly, and her superb actors flawlessly bring to life Childress' characters: the "real" actors and characters they play."
Broadway World - Highly Recommended
"...TROUBLE IN MIND, the scathingly funny and thought-provoking backstage drama about interracial politics by pioneering African American playwright Alice Childress, is currently enjoying a brilliant revival at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum in Malibu thanks to director Ellen Geer's vision of the groundbreaking 1955 satire in which an integrated theater company in rehearsal for a "progressive" anti-lynching drama marks the first opportunity for gifted African American actress Willetta Mayer (portrayed by multiple NAACP Award-winner Earnestine Phillips who commands the stage) to play a leading lady on Broadway. This could be her dream come true, but what compromises must she make to succeed?"
LA Splash - Highly Recommended
"...TROUBLE IN MIND is a hilarious backstage drama which touches upon some very controversial issues - which remain controversial to this day. A play-within-a-play, "Chaos in Belleville" tells the story of the African-American mother of an innocent lynch victim. Written, produced, and directed by an all-white crew, "Chaos" purports to portray the black experience in America in its gritty entirety. How can black actress Wiletta Mayer (Earnestine Phillips) possibly question the play's realism and gut-wrenching truths? Thereby hangs the tale."
Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended
"...Pioneer African-American playwright Alice Childress takes a surefire theatrical genre (the backstage comedy à la Moss Hart's Light Up The Sky or Ken Ludwig's Moon Over Buffalo) and transforms it into an examination of mid-20th-century race relations in Trouble In Mind, every bit as relevant at Theatricum Botanicum in 2017 as it was in its 1955 off-Broadway debut ... and every bit as hilarious as it is thought-provoking."
Showmag - Highly Recommended
"...Willetta is the heart of the production, and Phillips uses all of her prodigious skills to bring this character to powerful life. Racism is hardly Manners' only failing, and Lewis pulls no punches in realizing each of the man's cruel and condescending faults. Rivers nicely underplays Sheldon's comedy scenes, but is also given the gift of the most affecting moment in the show when he recalls a lynching he witnessed."
Stage Raw - Somewhat Recommended
"...While this production is somewhat uneven, it's bolstered by Childress's strong writing. The play's structure is undeniably old-fashioned, with one set and three distinct scenes that feel like three acts, but the writing is sharp and timeless, and it's a treat to watch a good story."
Theatre Notes - Highly Recommended
"...Theatricum Botanicum's production of Trouble in Mind boasts a terrific cast of superb players who bring the play vividly to life with comedic hilarity and searing heart wrenching drama under the excellent direction of Ellen Geer. In the morning, a group of actors gather to begin rehearsals of a new play written by a white playwright that features a cast of mostly African American actors under the direction of a high strung, mercurial white director, Manners (Mark Lewis). Manners is self-righteous, believing himself to be one of the good guys by giving his actors jobs and a story that purportedly is anti-racist, when in fact it is a work of condescension."
Its Not About Me - Recommended
"...The journey is delightfully entertaining. But I have to admit that the writing falls apart somewhat in the second act due to the author having tried to make the commentary have a bit more social relevance. I hate ever telling you anything about a story, but I must discuss it here for a second, so that you'll understand about what I speak. The only thing wrong with the entire scenario is that the older female star of the play they're rehearsing winds-up having a major problem with the script, and blows-up at the director over it."
The Fume of Sighs - Recommended
"...Childress knew what she was writing about. Her own experiences in the theater circle were what informed her TROUBLE IN MIND. It was underlined irony that she was asked to change it if she wanted to see it open on Broadway. And because she didn't, the honor of being the first African-American female playwright on Broadway went to Lorraine Hansberry, for A Raisin in the Sun, four years later."