The Woman Who Amuses Herself presented by Idle Muse Theatre Company at The Edge Theatre

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...Lodato presents a wide range of responses to the enigmatic image from characters ranging from Walter Pater to Marcel Duchamp to an elderly Italian peasant who reveres the Mona Lisa as a madonna figure. The play is at its best when focusing on the psychologically erratic Peruggia, compelling played by Nathan Thompson. Idle Muse Theatre Company's fine production, directed by Nathan Pease, also features imaginative visual projections by Laura Wiley."

Windy City Times - Somewhat Recommended

"...Some of these time shifts are funny, particularly Cat Hermes as the school teacher Miss Mattel who puts too much personal emotional significance on the painting as part of a class assignment. Joel Thompson also is sly as the mischievous dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp who shares his playful desecration of the painting."

The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended

"...There's a lot to enjoy about this wonderful art lesson. THE WOMAN WHO AMUSES HERSELF is only amusing Chicago for four more shows. I highly recommend seeing the play about the painting that has held the world spellbound for centuries."

NewCity Chicago - Recommended

"...Played by Nathan Thompson with a thick mustache and an even thicker accent, Vincenzo tells the audience his story as a fractured confessional that's inspired, witty, self-critical and quite sad. The best moments come in flashback scenes of his "home life" with the Mona Lisa. Like an infatuated new husband, he reveals everything about himself to her and receives, of course, nothing in return but a seemingly critical silence. He fears he doesn't live up to her ideals. In Lodato's most inspired moment, Peruggia laments that he's more a prisoner of her than she is of him."