Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...This highly arresting and courageous production stars Katy Sullivan, a Broadway actress, Paralympic sprinter and double amputee, and its main thrust is that Richard's rampage follows a game plan familiar in modern American politics, treating governance as a zero-sum game and taking ruthless advantage of oppositional decorum and adherence to rules, which are seen weaknesses. One does not need to spell out the leading modern practitioner's name. The tactic insists that the true and the just is just someone else's narrative, folks, and the end result is political confusion. Exploitable political confusion."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Sullivan - a hugely likable performer getting a deserved spotlight playing the best disabled character ever written - delivers a performance that's both compelling and sometimes, especially in the first act, monotone. Sullivan doesn't yet have the vocal dexterity to fully express variations in intensity. But her physicality is extraordinary, adding deep layers here, and she becomes fascinating to watch when Richard starts questioning himself in the second act. Her bouts with conscience draw us in completely."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...Despite the emphasis on bold style that glosses over what could be quieter moments of revelation, Hall's production (the first he's directed since taking over as artistic director for Chicago Shakespeare) offers sheer exhilarating theatricality and a highly watchable lead performance from Sullivan. You may not understand Richard any better, but I don't think you'll be bored."
Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended
"...And the cast here deserves the transcendent. Katy Sullivan's appeal as Richard himself is irresistible. She has his wit and bullet-proof arrogance nailed down, and her physicality is put to great use here, as Hall calls on her to build the character literally from the ground up."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...As reimagined by director and new CST chief Edward Hall with double amputee Katy Sullivan as Richard, Duke of Gloucester ascended to King Richard III in the second act, the play is deeply tragic, unfailingly dark, funny, compelling and intensely watchable for the entire 2 hours and 35 minutes. This Richard III is a horror movie full of blood, guts and complete with The Chainsaw specialty cocktail in the lobby. You won’t want to miss it."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...In all, Edward Hall’s sanguine and savage vision, peppered with buckets of blood, a deluge of dark humor and some dynamic direction, is truly a must-see production. Katy Sullivan’s unique and majestic interpretation of the title role, coupled with so much magnificent artistic support, both on and offstage, make this is an extraordinary production that audiences will not soon forget."
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...Though this is Shakespeare’s second longest play, the performance speeds by, and I was surprised to find it at the hour when I got back to my car. Highly recommended,"
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...Hall's production is dark and stark, bloody and bawdy, aptly evoking an asylum with a Pink Floyd vibe, where orderly-like supers with white cotton full-face masks sing Latin in unison to cover well-choreographed scene changes (music by Jon Trenchard). Opaque plastic vertical blinds blunt the light and mask the blood splatter of murderous mayhem, including a small chainsaw massacre. Supertitle screens above the stage sides help viewers follow the political machinations of this Trumpian forebear. In real life, everything Trump touches dies. Richard garners the same result here."
Chicago On Stage - Somewhat Recommended
"...The show largely collapses under the weight of this showy, stylized concept. The quality that separates a good Shakespeare production from a bad one is clarity of storytelling, and that clarity depends on the ability of the performers to activate the language. By and large, that fails to happen here. There's a great deal of yelling and stamping, signifying very little, such that virtually none of the language has any impact either emotionally or poetically. Again, this is a problem that mostly redounds to poor direction, and it means the story is often sluggish and tedious."
Life and Times - Highly Recommended
"...Now playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater under the direction of Edward Hall, “Richard III” stars Tony-nominated actress and Paralympic athlete Katy Sullivan in the title role. Hall keeps with the theme of gender fluidity throughout the casting of the production."
Chicago Culture Authority - Highly Recommended
"...Director Edward Hall and scenic and costume designer Michael Pavelka conspire with Sullivan to create a period piece dripping with modern horror-film vibes via such anachronisms as chainsaws, curtains made from thick strips of plastic like one finds in slaughterhouse doorways, and undead apparitions in cloth masks roaming the pre-show aisles and climbing the metal scaffolding at the back of the stage throughout the proceedings. As Gloucester and his minions dispatch one rival after another in increasingly horrific ways, a sense of dread permeates the theater, leavened only by Sullivan’s leering, sneering winks and snarls to us Groundlings taking in as much wickedness as we can stand."
BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended
"...Altogether, Edward Hall's first production as Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Artistic Director represents a triumph of a bold creative vision brought beautifully to life (and death) by actors and designers committed to exploring the Bard's continued relevance for the 21st century. If Hall's RICHARD III is any indication of what Chicago audiences can come to expect during his tenure, they would do well to cheer, "Long live the king.""
