Rites and Sacrifices presented by Idle Muse Theatre Company at Flat Iron Arts Building

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...Sure, we still recoil in horror at beheadings and other desecrations of corpses in our own age of war. But the play lacks geographic and cultural specificity, which means we don't get a lot more out of it than the original offers, despite onstage cell phones and video screens with "breaking news" text. The quartet of mourning Argive women deliver some heart-rending lamentations. But their neither-here-nor-there loosely layered garments (Grecian? Balkan? It's not clear), in contrast to hard-charging Aithra's blue jeans, encapsulates the frustratingly vague context in which Mickelson attempts to refashion Euripides' tale."

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...Jennifer L. Mickelson's 65-minute adaptation uses contemporary language-there's talk of DNA, digital cameras, and cell phones-while retaining the prayers to Zeus and Demeter. The effect is supposed to be both timely and timeless, but this modern-dress staging from Idle Muse Theatre Company loses clarity and purpose whenever focus shifts from the suppliants. The final outpouring of grief and rage, though, is hard to shake."

Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended

"...I trust that as the show’s run continues the ensemble will find their footing and their comfort with this at once naturalist and heightened text, that their performances will burn with a rolling fire throughout rather than flashing like lighting in the middle of a invocation or lament. I hope too that Mickelsons script will have a long and varied legacy, recognized and applauded for reviving a calcified form of theater and addressing old questions to new circumstances. If you like the Greeks come see the play. If you like modern political dramas, come see this play. And if you wish to know, without experiencing, how tragedy national and personal can forge a soul to iron or overthrow a noble mind, please do come see this play, for its look at the price of war is accurate and wrenching in any time."

Chicago Theater Beat - Recommended

"...Rites and Sacrifices may not be 100% perfect, but it's still a powerful insight into the aftermath of war and asks the audiences serious questions on the state of war: What would we do if our loved ones died in battle? How could we possibly recover? What can we do to stop the grief from such a situation? Despite the occasional bump in the road and the short running time, this is still a powerfully emotional piece, and in an adaptation of a Greek drama, that's a success in my book."