Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Kay Martinovich's staging for City Lit Theater evokes an appropriately rustic simplicity with the aid of evocative costumes and tapestries, and the ten-person ensemble execute the dense, heavily accented, image-rich dialogue with an effective mix of lyrical eloquence and unaffected plainness."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...Richly felt and perfectly accented performances abound on this second-floor stage—most notably the velvet-voiced Morgan McCabe as helpless Lavarcham, cunning and finally keening. Tim Kidwell is cluelessly patriarchal as lecherous Conchubor, Mark Pracht purposelessly proud as his defender Fergus, and Andrew Marikis sinister and relentless as spying Owen."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...Mar sin fein, beyond that confusion the rest of the staging was absolutely grand. The set, designed by Yeaji Kim, harkened back to an ancient time, with simple iron stoves, wooden stools, and gorgeous tapestry; all of which would have been common in first-century Ireland. The music prefacing each act and the sparse sound effects by Curtis Powell did a great job setting the scene and displaying Deirdre's mental disturbance after her loss. The costume designs of Rachel Sypniewski, especially, were fantastic. Celtic motifs and shawls go leir leir graced the actors as they played out one of Ireland's most famous tragedies. All in all, if you've the hankering for a classic story, and don't mind acclimating to hearing a brogueish English, Deirdre of the Sorrows is well worth your while."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...This play presents a forgotten work of another language-oriented playwright with respect, imagination and distinction. The character of Deirdre and her world probably isn’t familiar to most theatergoers, but this dynamic production will excite the more cerebral, classically-inspired audience member by offering a fabled, medieval feminist to admire."
Irish American News - Highly Recommended
"...Deirdre of the Sorrows is beautifully presented by City Lit Theatre. The acting is flawless, realistic and done with great energy. The stage props and fight scenes are totally convincing."
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...Deirdre of the Sorrows by John Millington Synge is based on the Irish legend of Deirdre, set in ancient times in the Irish kingdom of Ulster. City Lit Theater is staging this tragically romantic story about the Irish proclivity for going away and coming back, as the Van Morrison quote in the playbill notes. Kay Martinovich directs a cast of 10, speaking in the antique and poetic language of Synge."
Picture This Post - Highly Recommended
"...The tale of Deirdre is the classic "doomed before birth" story of a beautiful woman destined for Fate's Will. The emotion-driven dialogue, the simple plot and bare-essentials stage lend a type of old world realism to the play. Absent are the anachronistic trappings of Medieval royalty - the silk, gold, and bejeweled ruler, the heavy-handedness of the King as God-among-us. King Conchubor is a lonely and frightened little boy in an old man's body; Deirdre is the brave, headstrong (even as she walks headlong to her preordained fate) object of king and nobleman's desires. Naisi, her true love, cannot but lead her to that future that has been decreed."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...One wishes the director had done more to interpret this story about sword-wielding warriors and translate it to an audience of smartphone-armed urbanites. Lacking a clearly discernible point of view, the production at times takes on a slightly musty museum piece aroma and the characters are more compelling than plausible or three-dimensional. But the production works a certain magic at the soul level, its heightened language and archaic conflicts evoking an existential sadness about life and mortality that the more glib and superficial drama of our own time seldom touches upon. City Lit has given us a solid production of a rarely performed play that, while not quite a masterpiece, is a powerful and enriching work of art. For serious theatergoers, it's an opportunity not to be wasted."
