Les Liaisons Dangereuses presented by AstonRep Theatre Company at Raven Theatre

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...Nothing in McGrath's staging suggests the disconnect between the amoral aristocrats' frivolous obsessions and the social upheaval about to destroy their privileged world. But Hampton's script is compelling, and the ensemble is solid, with especially affecting performances coming from Ann Marie White and Tim Larson as two of Valmont and Merteuil's victims."

Windy City Times - Somewhat Recommended

"...This conceptual leap would be difficult enough to bring off by itself, but McGrath's approach also mandates actors adopting a curiously flattened delivery that lend their declarations of passion, lust and suicidal melancholy the unhurried detachment of air-control dispatchers. Sara Pavlik McGuire's Merteuil projects an adolescent petulance and Robert Tobin's Valmont conducts his seductions in a slurring Midwestern croon more soporific than stimulating. ( Courtesans and servants, by contrast, sport playful Russian accents. ) Material luxury is also conspicuously absent-costumes appear to have been pulled from storage following a country-bumpkin comedy by Chekhov or Ostrovsky, and the scenic design, which relies heavily on cumbersome rolling furniture and manually-operated curtains, likewise so."

Gapers Block - Somewhat Recommended

"...The script is notable for the scintillating dialogue and cruel sexual tricks devised by its two leading characters, the Marquise de Merteuil (Sara Pavlak McGuire) and Vicomte de Valmont (Robert Tobin), who conspire to seduce and humiliate three people for their own amusement. McGuire is a devious and beautiful trickster, able to switch from kind and helpful to evil and demonic, as the situation requires. Tobin is almost her match as Valmont, but I really wanted his character to exhibit more menace. He is almost too, dare I say, nice."

ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended

"...Other than the worthy performances from Sara Pavalak McGuire and Robert Tobin, most of the players struggled to nail their parts as many of the women here either mumbled or raced through their lines making their performances seem mechanical and insincere. The play is much too long with the first act clocking in at over 90 minutes as it drones on toward a 2 hour, 30 minute timeline. But, my biggest problem with Les Liaisons Dangereuses lies in me not caring about any of the characters. Valmont and Merteuil were not nasty enough for me to hate them and the other players were so inept that I couldn't care what happened to them. This work needs more of an edge with a generous cut of at least 3o minutes. More raw sexuality couldn't hurt. Boredom set in as this work droned on."

Chicago Theatre Review - Somewhat Recommended

"...There are several fine performances to be found in this uneven production of Christopher Hampton’s period piece. Proving that revenge is a dish best served cold, director Charlie Marie McGrath has restaged her production of seduction, malice and vindication in Russia, two-hundred years after the story was originally set. The result is mixed, as are the styles of acting found throughout, but Sara Pavlak McGuire’s performance alone, which is perfection, is the reason for seeing this production."