Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...This kind of Grand Guignol-come-vaudeville style is easy to overplay, but McDermott avoids that trap, not the least by contrasting all of the murderous antics of his killer doc with the rather tender relationship he develops with Ethel. As played with deceptively wide-eyed innocence by Baseman, Ethel's motives remain deliciously ambivalent throughout. The style owes something to the work of Maurine Dallas Watkins, the Tribune reporter who first created “Chicago,” and this superbly visualized little show is the heir to the distinguished Chicago tradition of the sardonic tale of the lovable murderer."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Of the trio works on display, it is “The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen,” the Strange Tree Group’s immensely clever, darkly funny, playfully musical, visually sophisticated English music hall-style crime-of-passion parody that gets top prize here. Written by Emily Schwartz (whose sometimes overly-precious work is now ideally tight, sharp and bristling), it has been directed with great ingenuity and wit by Jimmy McDermott. And his ideally cast ensemble of 11 actors has nailed every stylized movement, attitude and characterization to perfection, without ever sacrificing a genuine emotional undertow."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...The magic of the piece is that it handles not only the divided persona but a hundred other little tropes and bits of side business with a paradoxical mix of good-humored ease and utter seriousness. Jimmy McDermott's cast is able to play the joke and the drama, simply and elegantly."
Examiner - Somewhat Recommended
"...But the ensemble’s idiosyncratic talent is sadly muffled in The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen. The primary problem? Despite the promise of the title, the three embodiments of the good doctor are indistinguishable and wholly interchangeable. In The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen, the three faces of Dr. Crippen are rather uniformly bland and unremarkable."
Centerstage - Somewhat Recommended
"...Kate Nawrocki shines as Cora, the doomed, gold-digging wife whose constant nagging torments the doctor and delights the audience. Playwright Emily Schwartz ultimately concludes that the doctor did it all for love of his mistress, Ethel Le Neve (Delia Baseman), but their scenes together are unconvincing, and the play is at its most enjoyable when it revels in its humorous asides and scene-stealing leads."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...
The three actors have a winning interplay among themselves and with the rest of the ensemble, which includes Kate Nawrocki as Crippen’s harpyish, fame-hungry wife and Delia Baseman as his secretary, who may be more devious than she first appears. Schwartz would probably be better off avoiding her intermittent lapses into verse, which come across as forcedly sing-song, and the actors sing to prerecorded tracks that make me miss the live music of past Strange Tree shows. Still, Schwartz’s pleasantly off-kilter aesthetic remains as strong as ever, and McDermott handily choreographs the action."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen features the whimsical, macabre style that has become the Strange Tree Theatre trade mark. You’ll laugh and groin and you’ll wonder what will happen next in this expertly produced and well-acted comic tale of love, murder and mutilation. The ensemble delivers the tale with aplomb. Strange Tree Theatre is an intoxicating different troupe with a zany theatrical outlook on storytelling."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...Ritter, Cupper and Holzfeind make a terrific trio as they offer rapid-fire confirmations and complications for Crippen’s mixed motivations. Delia Baseman is wickedly sardonic as malevolently mannered Ethel. Most hilarious is Kate Nawrocki’s cruel and clumsy Cora. Foolishly ambitious, she becomes almost a collaborator in her own demise. Some people work overtime to deserve to die. The six supporting players deliver toxic caricatures with split-second timing. If crime could become its own cartoon, it would be this wickedly charming homicidal romp."
Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended
"...Strange Tree Productions states that they are committed to producing pieces that celebrate the strange and the magical…and the surprisingly usual nature of unusual behavior. They have succeeded with The Three Faces of Dr. Crippen. From this day forth, I will always question a handlebar moustache and check the labels on my homeopathic medicines!"