Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? presented by Pulse Theatre Chicago at City Lit Theater

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...The pacing does feel a bit tentative from time to time, though the moments of dramatic punctuation - a smashed bottle, a physical assault - pack a jolt in this intimate staging. I also suspect that the performances will take on richer emotional shadings during the run. But even with some shaky sections, Pulse's "Virginia Woolf" leaves us disquieted, pondering whether the existential horrors anatomized by Albee hit all of us equally in a still-unequal society."

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...Lewis R. Jones is terrific as husband George, a middle-aged associate professor of history bitter that he hasn't risen further at the university, over which his father-in-law presides as president. Nicholia Q. Aguirre, playing his sharp-tongued, daddy-doting wife, Martha, gives a raw performance pulled from places as deep down as an actor can go. Caught up in George and Martha's brutal mind games, couple number two, doe-eyed Honey (played by Kate Robison, an amazing talent), and her husband, Nick (Adam Zaininger, brilliant), an ambitious junior biology professor, eventually wield weapons of their own."

The Hawk Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...Pulse Theatre stages one of the most well-known works of all time, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Directed by Chris Jackson, the production seeks to put a new spin on Albee's oft-told tale with its diverse casting, but it ultimately does little else to justify yet another revival of this spectacular but perhaps overly produced play."

NewCity Chicago - Recommended

"...The young company's production is too long by a good half hour and there are glitches in timing and blocking. But these issues do not distract from the show's power. As the couple's hi-fi plays "Li'l Darlin' (who "only loves me") and we contemplate the disaster that has just unfolded, a whiff of something like hope emerges from the wreckage. At the end, George and Martha have no more scotch to down, no more games to play, no more blame to shift, no more guests to draw into their shared madness. They have only their unbearable but very real need for each other. After all these years, the three-hour voyage through George and Martha's private hell still leaves us at a place that feels like truth."