The Haunting of Hill House at City Lit Theater

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...Audiences looking for conventional shocks and horror won't find them in Jackson's book, or in director-playwright Paul Edwards's faithful new adaptation for City Lit Theater. But Edwards and his fine cast and design team capture the brooding menace and dark humor of Jackson's classic book; Julia Kessler is excellent as Eleanor, for whom the visit to Hill House is an alluring and threatening emotional homecoming. Edwards has also created the show's wonderfully spooky sound design, which goes a long way toward drawing the viewer into Eleanor's eerie inner world. "

Centerstage - Recommended

"...Since its publication in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s gothic horror novel “The Haunting of Hill House” has come to be seen as a modern classic. City Lit Theatre Company’s new adaptation, adapted and directed by Paul Edwards, may not rise to the level of instant classic, but it is a very good and faithful rendition of the original work. And like a good book, it is easy to be absorbed into the lives of the characters as the play’s two hours and ten minutes pass by."

ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended

"...Director Edwards sprinkles enough comedy into the show that it  plays more as a satirical funny show than a scary ghost story.The line between what terror is only in the mind of the beholder and what terror is emoted from the poltergeists is not clear enough for credulity. This production garners more laughs than terror. Better it gets billed as a satire of the ghost genre since that is how it plays on stage. So if you’re going to City Lit, don’t expect to be terrified, but there may be enough laughs to please?"