10 Virgins Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...Russ Tutterow's production features a demonstrably committed cast and a willingness to rush headlong into the play's vision. But relationships seem uncertain, and the play's symbols overwhelm its humanity. One wishes Jacqmin would rescue her virgins."

Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended

"...10 Virgins clearly is an elaborate metaphor for female awakening and sexual terror in a large family of women that, for some mysterious reason, was abandoned by its patriarch and/or matriarch years earlier. Or did the mother simply turn herself into a controlling sister to her own children? Difficult to know, and even more difficut to care."

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...By the end, the characters haven't taken shape behind the script's oppressively poetic language, and the story hasn't gotten out from under Jacqmin's allegory, which is as dense as the swamp, allowing little light into this strange world."

Windy City Times - Somewhat Recommended

"...Directed by Russ Tutterow, 10 Virgins is a bastion of affectation. Moreover, many a scene is little more than tangential filler. Take, for example, the story-stoppers that arrive in the form of the quirky games the sisters play to avoid their chores. One involves the adventures of a frolicking squirrel. One is a cross between charades and a Precious Moments comic strip. Both are so much dead space in what plot exists within Jacqmin's artificially mannered flight of fancy."

Gay Chicago Magazine - Somewhat Recommended

"...Playwright Laura Jacqim accidentally stumbles upon theater of the absurd in Chicago Dramatists world premiere production of “10 Virgins.” The press sheet states, “Fantasy, folklore and reality blend together as the oldest of 10 girls, who live alone in Wabansia swamp, ventures out of the mist-shrouded bog to confront a mysterious witch and the truth about her family’s past.” That sounds good. But despite the fact that this show has maudlin interpretive dance, melodramatic shunning and incestuous lesbianism (sing,”‘these are a few of my favorite things”), it can’t get past the unintentional absurdity of the laughable script."

Centerstage - Recommended

"...Playwright Laura Jacqmin has clearly read her fairy tales, and quite a bit of analysis of them, too. "10 Virgins," her new play currently at Chicago Dramatists, is a dark, feminist fairy tale which constantly undercuts assumptions about women. The play sometimes states its ideas too obviously, but despite its faults, it remains an intellectually stimulating, highly theatrical and consistently absorbing production."

Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...The production achieves moments of lovely imagery and lustrous language (featuring Allison Daniel’s puppets, exquisitely designed yet of questionable value), but ultimately it all represents very little. Jacqmin has created a darkly fanciful fable that teeters on the edge of intriguing—a world with no way out and, unfortunately for us, no clear pathway in."