"There is a certain repetitiveness to 'Chains,' and the evening does not fly by, but I came to rather enjoy that sense of effortful progress. Charley is trying to keep from drowning, horrified at the way he might hurt his loved ones but fighting for breath all the same. It seems appropriate that we should feel a little stifled along with him: Vicarious adventure is all very well, but vicarious suffering teaches lessons too."
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"Remarkably, the entire 11-member cast originally assembled for the production has finally taken the stage, and the result is a gleaming gem, both engrossing and supremely well-acted. What’s more, this 1909 drama about restlessness affecting middle-class men—and women—in Edwardian England proves to have a timely edge."
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"Once again, the Mint does justice to an obscure play with top-notch production values: John McDermott's set presents not one, but two fully realized turn-of-the-century English homes. Rather than performing the scenic transition during intermission, Thompson and McDermott wait until the top of Act 2 to execute it in under a minute, which becomes the most spectacular moment of the play (showoffs)."
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We go to the Mint to discover fascinating lost works that elegantly illuminate dark corners of theatre history. Chains, in Jenn Thompson's superbly staged production, has all of that, but it also addresses, clearly and directly, the present moment, when so many are questioning the quality of their work lives, or whether they want to work at all. Baker, a sharp social critic with a penetrating insight into the details of British middle-class life, speaks in a voice that is carefully modulated yet quietly devastating; it comes for you when you least expect it.
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"Older plays like this are rarely given a fresh look the way that the Mint Theater Company has made it its mission to do, and this one, despite its period setting, speaks directly to our time and the changing relationship between profit-driven businesses and their low-paid workers."
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"The new production, directed by Jenn Thompson, is as robustly entertaining as you’d expect, given Mint’s history of breathing fresh life into long-neglected plays. And while you won’t leave the theater convinced that Baker’s name should be as familiar as Shaw’s—or Ibsen’s, to cite an even more seminal figure in making social consciousness theatrically compelling—you’ll likely want to dig deeper into her repertoire."
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"The chains in Baker’s play are figurative, and they’re holding nearly everyone in their respective place—everyone except for Mr. Tennant (Peterson Townsend), who turns everything topsy-turvy when he announces that he’s going to 'hook it.' As in, give notice at his very stable job and leave England to try his luck in Australia."
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All of the characters in the play’s first half (the script’s Act I and II) do nothing but either complain about the grind of their daily six-days-a-week jobs (half-holiday on Saturday) or laugh at those who would give up a steady employment. You would think that back in 1909 when the play was written there wasn’t anything else to talk about. Jenn Thompson’s direction is conventional and sedate where something more animated might have been more to the point.
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