Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...This play took guts to write and, as ably directed by Terry Kinney, it certainly is a return to what I’d describe as genuine on-brand risk for Steppenwolf, which I mean as a compliment. It’s at its best in Act 1, when it best probes the above issues, not least because those issues function as universals, applicable to most relationships with competing careers."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Kate Arrington’s debut as a playwright is by turns maddening, opaque, laugh-out-loud funny and drenched in pathos. “Another Marriage,” running through July 23 at Steppenwolf, is also disjointed and at times tough to follow. While there’s a feast of emotion on stage, the messy romance at the heart of Arrington’s script lacks focus even when all those emotions ring inarguably true."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...The first act is probably the most accessible, with the familiar conflicts about whose career gets to dominate a marriage and the changes parenthood brings to romance being foregrounded. But I found myself more drawn in by the second act, where we see Jo's attempts to contextualize her parents and their own inherited trauma (particularly her mother's). It's occasionally confounding, but Arrington's Another Marriage settles neither for easy resolution nor comforting recrimination."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Our story is told by Jo ( deftly handled by Nicole Scimeca) who is in many ways our narrator until late in the second act when she joins her "parents" on the set. For those of you unfamiliar with the Ensemble Theater at Steppenwolf, it is an in-the-round stage with stadium seating. Terry Kinney's direction of this World Premiere takes us in many directions as we watch the couple fall in love, have a child, live with the problems of child-rearing and then watch Nick fall in love with Macassidy ( another shining performance by Caroline Neff). Yes, he moves out to be with her, yet still comes back to Sunny as his love did not go away, just took a leave of absence for a while."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...There is much to like about this production, though. On a few occasions, we get to see Judy Greer employ her gift for withering sarcasm, and there are many moments of high humor and poignancy. It's a fairly satisfying evening that makes one look forward to this play's next, and presumably dramatically heightened, iteration."
Buzznews.net - Recommended
"...'Another Marriage' still might need a little re-tooling in subsequent productions, but as is, it's a pretty solid play. The tidy scenes and experimental structure keep the play unique. Arrington has a great voice, and her play is an enjoyable two hours. The cast, assembled by director Terry Kinney, is a playwright's dream. They really bring a lot of heart to this play. You can feel the love radiating off the stage."
The Fourth Walsh - Recommended
"...ANOTHER MARRIAGE is Ensemble Member Kate Arrington’s playwriting debut. The show starts with the projected words ‘The End.’ Arrington introduces Sunny (played by Judy Greer) and Nick (played by Ian Barford) reading on a bench. Through their conversation, their intimacy is obvious. The conversation has a familiar banter vibe. Although they do discuss their daughter, Nick offers to walk Sunny to ‘her place.’ In this first scene, it’s quietly revealed the couple is no longer living together."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...You may recognize aspects of your own marriage or that of a friend or relative in Another Marriage, Steppenwolf Theatre's world premiere play. The script by actor Kate Arrington succeeds on many levels. The most emotionally fulfilling (and perhaps draining) is that her play is a realistic, unsentimental journey through the years of a relationship-its trials, tribulations, separations, reunions, anxieties and rebirths."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...Steppenwolf's Kate Arrington is one who has taken that plunge, and her first play, Another Marriage, proves that she does indeed have the ability to create three-dimensional characters as well as to surprise with her choices. Even the start of this domestic comedy suggests to the audience that they need to hold on to their figurative hats, that this play may cover well-worn territory, but it will not do so in any safe, familiar way. Before a word is spoken, a young red-haired woman (played by Nicole Scimeca) seemingly wanders onto the stage, looking around, even reacting to the pre-show announcement, a voice from the heavens. She sits down and types on the tablet she carries. She will do this throughout the play, and usually, as she types, her words appear on an overhead screen to set up-sometimes humorously-the scene to come."
Chicago Culture Authority - Recommended
"...Are there accomplished men as emotionally clueless and unaware of the toxic impact of their privilege as Nick, the self-centered New York novelist at the center of Another Marriage at Steppenwolf Theatre? Unfortunately, yes. Are there professional young women as dumb and bumpkinish as Macassidy, the woman who lures Nick away from his talented and insightful wife, Sunny, and their infant daughter, Jo? Yep. But the play, written by Kate Arrington and directed by Terry Kinney-two of our most talented theater makers-would be more effective if it was not determined to hold those characters up to ridicule in every way possible."
Picture This Post - Highly Recommended
"...We watch Nick and Sunny grow alongside each other, and learn to navigate the trials and tribulations of romance. Early in their relationship, Sunny finds out Nick is part of a family of literary legends. Wanting to be a writer herself as well, his advantage in the world of literature and lack of awareness of it becomes a growing issue, launching an interesting reflection on competition, jealousy, and success within a relationship."
