“The plot itself — Kate’s transformation from workaholic to not-so-quiet quitter — barely rattles a teacup. But ‘Partnership’ charms regardless, offering a gentle reminder about not letting work overtake your life. Some notions should never fall out of fashion.”
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“The cast, under the brisk direction of Jackson Grace Gay, brings lively coloring to all the characters, with the bracingly cynical, or perhaps just realistic, Maisie bringing a crisply funny snap to the play’s nicely turned denouement.”
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“ ‘Partnership’ is still the story of a successful woman running her business into the ground because a man is giving her attention. She only ceases this behavior when that very man gives her permission to stop. This is a tale that even the most anti-capitalist women in the audience will have a hard time accepting as a comedy with a happy ending.”
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“Jackson Grace Gay's production is filled with performances that are witty and perfectly attuned to period style. [Sara] Haider is a real find; I'm already making a list of classical roles that would suit her perfectly. (What a Vivie Warren she would make!) …If not as arresting as Baker's Chains, produced at the Mint last year, Partnership is an engaging piece by a writer whose trenchant feminist point of view was allowed to be forgotten for far too long. It's good to have Elizabeth Baker back in the mix.”
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“As a romantic comedy, this ‘Partnership’ is regrettably a one-sided affair...The fashions and antiquated references may point to a different time and place, but the issues are pertinent to modern audiences.”
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“Directed by Jackson Grace Gay, this ‘Partnership’ simply doesn’t meet the Mint’s usual high standards. It boils down to a glaring lack of chemistry between Haider and Echebiri.”
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“Mint’s latest, ’Partnership’ by Elizabeth Baker, is quite a revelation, both in the quality of the writing and the eye-opening perceptions it reveals about working women more than a century ago...The sad truth is that in order to succeed, they needed to be more like men. The sadder truth is that after 106 years, we still have to ask that question.”
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The three plays in the “Meet Miss Baker” Project, "The Price of Thomas Scott" in 2019, "Chains" in 2022 and now "Partnership" in 2023 are quite different. While "Partnership" is the only one you could call a conventional comedy, and a romantic one at that, it offers the least social commentary of the three. At first seeming to be a study of the Shavian “New Woman,” it ultimately makes little or no statement about women’s roles or right sat the time. Women theatergoers may appreciate a period play which puts the female roles front and center, but this play is too bland and inoffensive to make much impact.
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