The Chalk Garden at Northlight Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...Thanks to a classy production of great complexity from the capable director William Brown, I left Skokie on Wednesday night newly convinced that the late Bagnold (who also penned the better-known "National Velvet") is one of the most underestimated of the post-war British playwrights, probably because she was a woman writing mainly about, and for, other women."

Chicago Sun Times - Recommended

"...Matthew York's handsome interior is worthy of a magazine spread, with Rachel Anne Healy's costumes period perfect. Josh Schmidt's original music does the trick, but his sound design still needed serious tweaking at the final preview I saw. It is not quite an antique, but "The Chalk Garden" has a certain alluring patina that comes from being rooted in a society in flux."

Pioneer Press - Recommended

"...In a new production at the Northlight Theatre directed by William Brown, "The Chalk Garden" holds the audience's attention with several fine performances."

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...the actors can't entirely compensate for the script's stiffness, and most of the minidramas taking place in this upper-crust living room (well realized by Matthew York) feel too melodramatic. Josh Schmidt's jarring sound design only increases the audience's disconnect from this 50-year-old play."

Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"... there’s little wrong with Brown’s careful production, and if it’s a tidy evening of theater you seek, you’ll certainly find it here....But Bagnold’s work is a uniquely British hybrid of prim comedy, morbid mystery and unforgiving morality play. That chemical compound should have created a certain whimsical fizz that’s missing here.."

ChicagoCritic - Recommended

"...Enid Bagnold’s splendidly crafted well made play (and this term is used with no pejorative intent) is delightful to the ear. Gems of lines emerge on balance from almost every character at regular intervals, and each scene has its own, delightful, curtain line. This is a thinking man and woman’s drawing room comedy with explorations of mother daughter relations, class distinctions, and marvelous reflections on the law."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Not Recommended

"...Author Enid Bagnold, who also wrote "National Velvet," has come up with a strange and complex hybrid of a play that's never witty enough to be taken as a comedy, nor meaningful enough to demand attention as a serious drama. It's also given fairly heavy handed treatment by Director Brown, who has allowed a bit of overacting to compensate for the dramatic lapses."