Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Fry, though, inhabits Dickinson quite beautifully, with fidelity of accent, mind and heart and, when needed, a wink both welcoming and deliciously anarchic. And for all its stolidness, Luce's script still bursts with Dickinson's poetry and her aphorisms ("Mines in the same ground Meet by tunneling"), especially when it comes to dealing with ectasy-killing loss."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...But the woman we meet in Luce's play, which has been artfully directed by Sean Graney, is no textbook recluse or garden variety neurotic. Rather, she is a force to reckon with, an artist convinced of her own special gift, possessed of a fiercely independent mind (no orthodox religion for her, but a fervent spirituality that found a higher power in nature, which she could describe to exquisite effect) and an erotic nature that fixated on quite a few men during the course of her life, even if her desire remained unconsummated."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...The rest of the two hours is designed to keep us engaged by exposing the suffering beneath her bonhomie. Accordingly, Kate Fry's Emily is charming at the start, lacerating at the end. But neither she nor director Sean Graney can move us reliably through the long middle. The poet's duality is most dynamically expressed, it turns out, by Arnel Sancianco's set: a pristine bedroom surrounded by a ruined house."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...Luce’s theatrical portrait of the luminous New England poet – brought to radiant life by Kate Fry in a triumphant feat at Court Theatre – opens with a scene that surely would have made Dickinson chortle at the comedy. Amherst’s most notorious recluse is walking into the room from which she barely ever leaves. And then she catches – out of the corner of her eye – the supreme irony of an audience. Hundreds of people. Instead of a bedroom wall."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The Belle of Amherst is an intriguing and spellbinding production with a performance by Kate Fry that is memorable, and the black cake handed out as you leave is delicious. The Court Theatre continues to bring relevant and worthwhile works to the community and this one should not be missed!"
Chicago Theater and Arts - Highly Recommended
"...If what you remember of Emily Dickinson from high school literature is that she was a spinster recluse who wrote free verse poetry about death you will be happy to know that at the Court Theatre you will be spending time with a much different Dickinson. This one imagined herself to be "The Belle of Amherst.""
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...If you go to the theater to be comforted by familiar narratives and simple stories then “The Belle of Amherst” should be right up your street. But if you’re looking for the”Glance Into The Complex Life Of Poet Emily Dickinson” that Court Theatre’s marketing department promises, it might behoove you to look elsewhere."