Women Beware Women Reviews
Chicago Reader- Somewhat Recommended
"...Welcome to Thomas Middleton's sexually relativistic Jacobean world, where love is for saps, libidos run wild, passion is exchanged for advancement, and everyone ends up dead. Kathryn Walsh's good-natured production for Two Pence Theatre, dubiously dubbed the Chicago premiere of this 400-year-old-play, unspools amid an audience seated in an oversize Victorian parlor. The staging ups the intimacy and complicates the sight lines, but mostly reduces life-and-death maneuverings to a diverting parlor game."
Chicago Stage and Screen- Recommended
"...Katheryn Walsh and her cast have assembled an engaging romp through Middleton’s Jacobean tragedy, finding the right balance of gravity and humor, self-aware while still allowing the language of the play to really carry the audience through. With Middleton’s long absence in Chicago, who knows when you might get the next chance to see his work? Two Pence’s production of Women Beware Women is worthy place to start."
Around The Town Chicago- Highly Recommended
"...For the first time ever, Thomas Middleton's Jacobean tragedy "Women Beware of Women" is appearing on the Chicago stage. No doubt, the main reason for the plays neglect is Middleton's contemporary William Shakespeare's work is always the first choice when a theatre company decides to do an early modern play. However, a cursory glance at the story may have deterred directors and companies as well: the plot is complex and graphic, and its values, particularly in regard to gender, are largely those of the Jacobeans, but its focus on gender issues has given one or two brave directors, like Kathryn Walsh, the courage to try."
The Fourth Walsh- Recommended
"...Costume Designer Carolyn Rose Sullivan brings the play into the early 20s with exquisite looks. She mingles lace on the men and metal on the women. She tops Rezos’ silky lounge attire with a man’s hat. She drapes Scantom in velvet ropes. The wardrobe matches Middleton’s intent of playing against and to the stereotypes of women. Despite my seat vantage point and some stilted performances, I really enjoyed WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN. It was unexpectedly liberating for its time period and still thought-provoking for these contemporary times."