Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Graney, of course, is under no obligation to be true to Marlowe. He is free to deconstruct his work. And so he does here, all guns blazing, with the help of a very accomplished, gutsy and dedicated cast of actors. This is a show that reveals, even revels in, the passionate brutality of Marlowe’s world and the agonizing turns of life’s screws. But I don’t think you’ll see much of yourself in any of these people. Pity. You should."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...The cast’s ability to credibly populate this phantasmagoria is extraordinary. Carlson’s Edward is an infuriating, heartbreaking mixture of blind privilege, callous self-indulgence, and childlike vulnerability. Scott Cummins’s Mortimer is an overzealous frat boy, pathetically trapped within in the strict social limits of the “good soldier.” As Edward’s Queen Isabella, Karen Aldridge is at once a wounded, forsaken wife and a bloodthirsty schemer wrapped in courtly propriety."
Chicago Free Press - Highly Recommended
"...For director Sean Graney, this historical play, with its clash between two intractable opponents, is a very public, modern-dress, 85-minute spectacle. Literally so: This “promenade production” allows audience members to mill about on stage, while others watch, equally helpless to affect the outcome, from the balcony. Imposing instant traffic control, the actors seize and release bits of stage “territory.” Philip Rosenberg’s emotional lighting effects and Michael Grigg’s equally dramatic sound effects shape the show in a hundred different ways."
EpochTimes - Recommended
"...I also want to mention the clever use of the theater by set designer Toff Rosenthal, Alison Siple's magnificent costuming, Philip Rosenberg's special lighting effects and the music composed by Kevin O'Donnell. All of these make the entire picture complete. The fight choreography was done by Matt Hawkins, and with the audience being right there, this became a much more difficult task but Mr. Hawkins was up to the challenge."
Copley News Service - Highly Recommended
"...The CST production, under Sean Graney’s endlessly inventive directing, compresses the Marlowe play into those white-hot 80 minutes of action. Edward II is a headstrong and petulant young man with an insatiable passion for an upstart Frenchman named Gaveston. The king lavishes all kinds of honors on Gaveston, earning the resentment of the English nobles and the hostility of Isabella, Edward’s queen."
Centerstage - Highly Recommended
"...the experience of "watching" Edward II is not primarily one of theatrical spectacle. It is more fragmentary, gathered through glimpses, seen from odd angles, overheard rather than witnessed. It is this experience, of being both swept up in the action and at an unbridgeable remove from it, that makes this production simultaneously jarring and exhilarating."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Todd Rosenthal’s smartly gritty set allows a geographical fluidity that ensures the audience is part of the action rather than simply wandering observers, making Edward II feel deliciously dangerous. That’s just an illusion—the actors demonstrate absolute control of both the text and the traffic. Led by Chicago stalwart Karen Aldridge, at the top of her game as jilted Queen Isabella, and Jeffrey Carlson, a dynamic fop of fierce precision as the king, the entire exhilarating ensemble turns in masterful work. Graney’s Marlowe is a new high-water mark."