The Woman in White at Lifeline Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"... In the book, allegedly plain Marian becomes an object of fascination for the married count, though she fades into the background once Walter is on the case. In one of the strongest departures from the original, Kauzlaric lets Marian do the honors in the final confrontation with the increasingly desperate Fosco. But by the time this scene arrives, we've become a bit exhausted with the unwinding of narrative threads that lack real dramatic heft."

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...The second act of this 150-minute show drowns in the exposition required to tie up every thread of Collins's insane plot. By then, despite the intricately engineered script and Elise Kauzlaric's polished production, I'd stopped caring."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...Thus, while Nicholas Bailey and Maggie Scrantom make a suitably attractive pair of sweethearts, the heavy-lifting duties rest on the spun-steel shoulders of Lucy Carapetyan as the forthright Marian, whose defiance of Christopher M. Walsh's oily Fosco generates a David-against-Goliath frisson to induce shivers of excitement. Author Kauzlaric, stepping into the role of the ruthless Sir Percival Glyde at the last minute, delivers another of his reliable reptilian turns, while Anita Deely, Loretta Rezos, Don Bender and Greg Wenz portray an array of sharply-defined auxiliary personnel. Alan Donahue's scenic design suggests locales ranging from shadowy urban alleys to lonely country estates, as does Victoria DeIorio's plucked-strings score of incidental music, providing an evocative environment for labyrinthine secrets leading to desperate deeds that Elise Kauzlaric's direction keeps briskly forthcoming."

Time Out Chicago - Recommended

"...Elise Kauzlaric’s staging employs clear, creative use of Alan Donahue’s scenic design to delineate multiple settings, and her cast is terrific. Lifeline newcomers Bailey and Scrantom make an appealing pair (or is that trio?) of ingenues, and Carapetyan helps turn a thankless role into an independent-woman prototype. Still, the script remains a bit static, modeled as it is on the letters’ past-tense narration. The second act, following Collins in wrapping up first-act plot points one by one, feels overlong until a rousing climax."

Chicago On the Aisle - Somewhat Recommended

"... I’m not sure what director Elise Kauzlaric might have done to relieve the fraught, jumbled aspect of this dubious venture. Alan Donahue’s multi-Zip Code set becomes little more than a race track on which Kevin D. Gawley’s lighting would direct the wandering, wondering eye. Experience it for yourself if you will; just don’t go with great expectations."

Stage and Cinema - Not Recommended

"... the adaptation remains cursed: Too much action, especially in the last hour, happens in the past tense, well after we stopped caring how things happened."

ChicagoCritic - Recommended

"... The Woman in White, which has inspired theater, film, TV and everything from an Andrew Lloyd Weber musical to a comic strip, now takes a worthy place on the Chicago Theater Scene."