Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...Remy Bumppo has always been a craftful theater company, and this elegant period production is no exception. Director David Darlow has deftly cast the proceedings: Rebecca Spence is a deliciously manipulative Mme de Merteuil, a woman whose little games set out to ruin lives, and Spence also captures the trickier, needier side of her mischievous charge."
Chicago Sun Times
- Recommended
"...The play, which runs close to three hours (with bits of female-only nudity), is too long for its own good. And while director David Darlow keeps things lively (with even the servants engaging in intrigue), it can sometimes feel like a surfeit of a good thing. Of course that might just be the point."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...For this lively, juicy Remy Bumppo production, director David Darlow seats the audience on three sides of the stage and reduces furniture to a minimum so that the ancien regime, for all its surface beauty (expressed in outstanding costumes by Emily Waecker), comes to resemble a bloody arena where innocents are routinely fed to lions as sport. Nick Sandys is dyspeptically dashing as Valmont, but the evening belongs to Rebecca Spence, supremely, deliciously self-composed as Merteuil, the "virtuosa of deceit." "
Windy City Times
- Recommended
"...the assets overpower the detractions. Annabel Armour radiates the wisdom and beauty of a woman d'une age certain as Valmont's aunt. Margaret Katch and Greg Matthew Anderson are deliciously attractive as baby bunny-like ingénues who believe the wolfishly predatory Valmont and Merteuil are their bosom friends."
Copley News Service
- Highly Recommended
"...The acting is solid among the supporting players, notably Linda Gillum as the fatally gullible Madame de Tourvel and Drew Shirley as Valmont’s droll valet and partner in crime. Margaret Katch is good as the 15-year old, ripe for her introduction to the wonderful world of sex by a master. Janice O’Neill is good as Cecile’s mother, a woman who allows Merteiul to guide her and loses her daughter as a result. The remainder of the capable cast consists of Paul Hurley, Annabel Armour, and Sienna Harris."
Centerstage
- Recommended
"...Embracing the story's excesses, director David Darlow keeps the action fast and fluid (the play feels far shorter than its 2:45 running time), and is helped by superb designs, with Emily Waecker's sumptuous costumes particularly standing out. With one unfortunate exception (Gillum, oddly flat), the performances capture the play's arch, barbed tone perfectly, with Sandys, languid and deadly as a coiled snake, Spence, steely behind her sweet facade, and Katch, far more than the silly girl she appears, particularly standing out."
Chicago Stage Review
- Highly Recommended
"...Still, Remy Bumppo’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses is better than solid, rather it proves to be a well crafted and lavishly lovely piece of complicated theater and delivers an impish good time. The cast is obviously having fun with the decadence and debauchery and that joy spills into the audience providing a delightful evening of aristocratic indecency."
Time Out Chicago
- Recommended
"...As Tourvel, Valmont’s virtuous, fragile, 22-year-old seduction victim, Gillum seems an odd casting choice. She captures Tourvel’s prudishness, but her chemistry with Sandys never competes with the sparks that fly when he’s opposite the radiant Spence or the hilariously clueless Cecile (Margaret Katch). So when this stiff relationship—and this shouldn’t be a spoiler—doesn’t work out, it’s simply not as affecting as it should be. That said, the conclusion between Spence, Annabel Armour and Janice O’Neill oozes with tension, and slick design choices wrap things up with a satisfying bang."
ChicagoCritic
- Recommended
"...In spite of the problems I have with the pacing and accent work, I would definitely recommend seeing this production for its witty dialogue, period visuals, and fiery performances. There is some nudity in the show and the subject matter is more adult, so be careful about bringing your mother. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy this roller-coaster of love."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Recommended
"...Perhaps the best reason to re-ignite these once forbidden "Liaisons" is Nick Sandys, as confident a classical star of the local theatre scene as any you will find. Sandys is quite simply a master at making bad boy Valmont as much of an artist in the game of love as a cad. Unlike the hideously miscast John Malkovich, who was far too American blue collar in Hollywod's first celluloid effort, Sandys has the air of a true blue blood aristocrat. Rebecca Spence is certainly one of the most beautiful and charming Merteuils I have come across, even if she isn't quite the battle scarred veteran of her own game of cruelty and self-preservation she would have us believe."
Chicago Theater Beat
- Highly Recommended
"...The award winning playwright Christopher Hampton penned a clever adaption of the up and downside of immorality. Actualizing his script, Remy Bumppo delivers multiple orgasmic moments in this production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses."
