Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...This isn’t the easiest work to translate to the stage. But Loewith and Palmer track us clearly and satisfyingly quickly through events as the trained and exceedingly fertile newts figure out that their skills and potential numbers outrank those of their oppressors, and that they’d rather call the shots than take them from dry-land above."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Although the storytelling grows long-winded, Loewith's direction of this multifaceted production is compelling, with designer Collette Pollard creating yet another dynamic set in the wake of her triumphant one for Writers' Theatre's "A Streetcar Named Desire." The rest of the team, including Michael Montenegro (puppets), Misha Fiksel (music and sound), Keith Parham (lighting), Kristine Engle (costumes) and Mike Tutaj (projections), add even more texture to Capek's eerie tale."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...Initially exploited for their skill as pearl fishers and underwater engineers, the smart salamanders spread all over the world, taking over the coastlines and then the interior, with catastrophic political, economic, and environmental results. In light of the BP oil-spill disaster, Capek's anti-Nazi allegory resonates now as an ecological cautionary tale. Directed by Loewith, the show is well acted and inventively designed--but the script is occasionally confusing, at times suggesting that the whole story is the fantasy of a deranged butler."
Centerstage - Not Recommended
"...War with the Newts, adapted by Justin D. M. Palmer and James Loewith from Czech author Karl Capek's 1936 novel, has such potential. After all, it's about a race of amphibious creatures which are discovered and enslaved by humans, until they rise up and menace the world, and the production features water, puppets and projections. Even if it didn't work, one would hope that the sheer variety and bizarreness on display would make it interesting. So it's particularly disappointing to report that, despite the ambition of the project and the obvious intelligence and skill of the creators, the show is deadly dull."
Chicago Stage Review - Recommended
"...Next Theatre’s World Premiere of War with the Newts is a wildly ambitious, extremely fascinating and ultimately entertaining theatrical adaptation. Although it misses the truly terrifying and emotionally evocative potential of the original material, it is a remarkably crafted interpretation of a uniquely thought provoking story that is well worth your time."
Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...
In Loewith and Palmer’s long-gestating stage adaptation of the 1936 story by Czech sci-fi progenitor Capek, a race of intelligent salamanders is employed, enslaved and ultimately underestimated by the human world. Not surprisingly, the outcome isn’t great for humans. But one would hope the story would at least be more compelling."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...War With The Newts features find emotionally truthful performances by Steve Pickering and, Joseph Wycoff – who navigates self destructive behavior deftly. I’d advise trimming the work down to a 90 minute tight paced drama to garner a more explosive impact. As it plays now, War With The Newts is a puzzling work that draws us in and keeps us engaged. It is well worth seeing."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...So are these newts analogous to the robots that Capek invented a decade before in “R.U.R.”? Or are they analogous a Tarantino-like revenge of the Jews whose sufferings under the Nazis are echoed by the salamanders’ sorrows? It matters less than it seems because, as depicted here more through the reactions by the endangered humans than by Michael Montenegro’s menacing puppets, the newts deliver a powerful portrait of the wages of hubris. They provide a proper punishment for the enslavement and exploitation we’ve perpetrated on a seemingly harmless world. The newts stepped up and did the job and there’s something almost admirable about the elegance of their victory, even if or perhaps because for once we’re the victims."
