Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...I still found this "Fen" fascinating; any fan of Churchill's plays will likely feel this is an evening well spent. But I think younger progressive artists working on socialist plays from this era often struggle to wrap their heads around their unstinting criticisms of working-class characters, all in the name of supporting social change. These days, the theater worries about stuff like that and fears to go where Churchill has been going for years."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...But despite being an obvious challenge due to its social specificity and overt socialism, "Fen" proves genuinely worthy of unearthing. Thanks to a stellar production from Vanessa Stalling, directing a crazy-good cast, this 40-year-old play comes across as strikingly contemporary in its aesthetics and surprisingly relatable in its milieu."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...With more than 20 characters played by six actors in succinct episodes, Fen does not yield its stories easily-you have to scrabble after them and be content to let some of the details get lost in the sameness of the landscape. This production's intervention to make them more legible by using uppercase supertitles naming the characters feels a tad heavy-handed, particularly when the ensemble is so strong. And if they blend, that mingling of persons reflects Churchill's research process with the Joint Stock Theatre Company of compositing voices from the Fens in eastern England."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Somewhat Recommended
"...As for the impressive Court Theatre production, and it is, everyone involved does really good work to get the most out of it they can, and they do. But watching it, as the play progresses that bit of distance and removal never went away and only grew. Because the story is so specific to 1980's eastern England, with so many different characters and community locations, for the first time sitting in a theatre watching a play I thought to myself, "I wish this was a movie instead"."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Somewhat Recommended
"...Fen's dirt podium is a daunting reminder of these women's grievous livelihood of inescapable manual labor, which can overwhelm its audience. Still, this production doesn't have its original play's magnanimous and moving influence."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Court Theatre, which won the 2022 Regional Theatre Tony Award, has always been on the forefront with their plays. This season they are presenting " FEN" by Caryl Churchill, a British playwright known for dramatizing the abuse of power using feminist themes, and like this play, the complex relationships with each other, their hopes and their private lives. The play can at times be difficult, in the beginning, because there are 22 characters being played by just 6 actors."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...All of the characters end the play become like ghosts, silently haunting the dust and dirt of the Fens. In this respect, they're somewhat like Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel's ancient specter. She's a peasant woman from Medieval times who now stalks the desecrated land, howling and raving at its landowners for all eternity. There are no winners in this play, but we meet so many intriguing individuals, whose stories are told in fascinating bits and bobs, that it's almost all right. All of these dramatic fragments add up to a most powerful, compelling and hard-to-forget evening of theatre, as told by one of England's most inventive and finest avant garde playwrights, the brilliant Caryl Churchill."
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...Depending on your taste in theater, 'Fen' may seem bewildering, but it is entertaining nonetheless. While Churchill frames big ideas in the play, she is also a master at dialog, and the characters are colorful personalities engaged in intriguing repartee."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The stellar six-person cast takes on twenty-one separate roles, creating some confusion but less than you'd think, given the quality of the performances. A standout is Genevieve VenJohnson, who manages to be a slippery business woman (with comically giant eighties shoulder pads); a wise older villager; an impressionable member of a Baptist women's group; and a six-year-old girl."
