Chicago Tribune
- Highly Recommended
"...regular fans of Gift will already be aware of the quality of the acting typically on offer at this exceptional Chicago company and they will not be disappointed here, also a credit to Martinovich. These are complex, Chicago-style performances in a beautifully wrought drama all too aware of the challenges of the lived human, marital experience."
Chicago Sun Times
- Highly Recommended
"...The overarching theme of the production: Marriage kind of sucks. We meet two upper middle-class urban couples who are all clearly unhappy with the monotonous nature of their lives. But they have a cavalier acceptance of their mundane existence that brings an offbeat feel to the show while also making the stakes (marriage, infidelity, death) feel unusually low."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...Carr's play is excoriating and poetic but also often funny as hell. The cast nails the shifts in tone with subtle revelations of the yearnings underneath these seemingly placid lives. It's a master class in acting."
Stage and Cinema
- Recommended
"...Marina Carr's Marble, now in its Chicago premiere at the Copernicus Center as part of The Gift Theatre's 25th Anniversary "Homecoming" season, opens with a delicious premise. Two old friends, Ben (John Gawlik) and Art (Paul D'Addario), are drinking and smoking cigars when Art blurts out that he's had a dream about Ben's wife. And not just any dream, but a graphic erotic dream where they both made mad, passionate love in a marble room. He doesn't understand it, nor does he want to. Art is happily married to Anne (Cyd Blakewell) and doesn't see the harm in indulging himself. As he points out, he's only met Ben's wife for a few minutes over the years, and it's not like it's real. It's just a dream. When a slightly miffed Ben returns home and tells his wife Catherine (Brittany Burch) about the incident, Anne shocks him by revealing that she too had an erotic dream the previous night. In that dream, she was making love to Art. And it was in a marble room."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Recommended
"...Marble is not a comfortable play but it's got a kind of heroic beauty: the heroism of showing up and loading the dishwasher. The dubious heroism of being a wrecking ball to get out of banality."
Around The Town Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"..."Marble" is a marvel. A powerful story based on a witty and well-written script by Irish playwright Marina Carr, the Chicago premiere of this charming dramady is quite the treat! Delightfully directed by Kay Martinovich for The Gift Theatre, the play is both funny and devastating, as we watch how relationships between two married couples deteriorate over time, revealing a lack of communication about romantic disappointments and individual shortcomings. As personality conflicts give way to obvious differences in each character's values, wants, and desires, the plot revolves about mismatched and dashed marital expectations. Excellent dialogue voiced by indubitably fine actors plus a polished crew makes this production a MUST SEE."
Third Coast Review
- Highly Recommended
"...The Gift Theatre company is celebrating 25 years of gripping and original drama this year. The company, founded in 2001 in Jefferson Park, still performs in that neighborhood. The Chicago premiere of Marina Carr's Marble, directed by Kay Martinovich, has ensemble members Brittany Burch, Cyd Blakewell, Paul D'Addario, and John Gawlick sharing the stage. The drama takes on the so-called nuclear family and who gets to form identity within a marriage."
BroadwayWorld
- Recommended
"...The Gift Theatre continues its 25th Anniversary "Homecoming Season" with the Chicago premiere of Marble. First performed at Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 2009, the play was inspired by a conversation between Irish playwright Marina Carr and actor Fiona Shaw, and Giorgio de Chirico's painting "Mystery and Melancholy of a Street." In The Gift Theatre's production, Marble will likely resonate most with mature audiences and admirers of the playwrights Samuel Beckett, Henrik Ibsen, and Harold Pinter who influenced Carr's work."
Ben Kaye Words
- Highly Recommended
"...Carr has said that Marble was partly inspired by Giorgio De Chirico's painting 'Melancholy and Mystery of a Street,' noting that within the artwork she sees "the near absence of people, the dream shadows, yet full of vibrant colour and intrigue." This staging of Marble effortlessly captures these feelings, and even more so, delightfully proves the malleability and persistence of this storied theater company. Truly, what a gift."
NewCity Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...While the script may lack balance, the performances, under Martinovich's full-throttle direction, are uniformly strong. Brittany Burch gives a manic intensity to her depiction of the laser-focused Catherine, while John Gawlik's Ben is a moving portrayal of wounded incomprehension. Paul D'Addario nicely captures his character's hail-fellow-well-met exterior, which covers inner confusion and uncertainty, while Cyd Blakewell is convincing as the defeated, fearful Anne, whose extreme aversion to change and growth undermine her own situation."
