"“Conventional theatrical wisdom holds that David Mamet cannot write for women. And the bard of the faded and desperate Midwestern white-collar putz also is widely assumed to be pathologically incapable of writing without the aid of profanity. In the popular consciousness, Mamet means whacked-out saps struggling and copulating in one part or another of a contemporary urban hell.

But in his play "Boston Marriage," Mamet writes about the high jinks of two quarrelsome but cheery and primly refined lesbians who spend a couple of hours delivering witty, Wildean bon mots in a 19th- Century parlor. Instead of the profane, Mamet offers the arcane. It is, to say the least, quite the departure in style. And therein lies the fundamental problem with this bauble, produced off-Broadway in 2002 and being given its first Chicago outing courtesy of Roadworks Productions.

Mamet is a writer of considerable and oft-underestimated formative brilliance -- a scribe with a ferocious intellect who could no doubt write lucidly in the style of a Shakespearean sonnet if he chose. But that doesn't mean such a style would provide the sense of angry authorial compulsion that drives such fine works as "Oleanna" or "Speed-the-Plow."

In the amusing but self-consciously arch "Boston Marriage," you get the sense that Mamet was proving a point. He can write for women, albeit in a somewhat artificial construct. And he can write one of those Hollywood scheme-plots he likes so much (in this case, the lesbians are planning a seduction and various manipulations of men) with vintage theatrical surroundings. One hopes he now will get back to something that ignites his feral passions, rather than his stylistic defenses.

Kirsten Kelly's simply staged but carefully wrought Roadworks production is likable enough for most of the night, although it needs to ramp up its dramatic intensity and runs out of juice before the end. Stephanie Childers and Laura Scott Wade, who play the two lead characters, have spent most of their Chicago careers playing rough-hewn urbanites -- but some initial nervousness aside, they make the transition to bourgeois satire smoothly enough.

Childers, a capable performer, is especially droll as the evening toddles along. But the best role of the night is the Scottish maid, the object of much articulate verbal abuse but played with guileless aplomb here by Mattie Hawkinson. She keeps this thing honest and alive. So one laughs from time to time at the games and the clever, deftly anachronistic language and the narrative twists. And that's about the limit of this show's appeal.” Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune 11/13/2003



“David Mamet's foray into the world of drawing-room comedy with a lesbian twist yields some knowing laughs but few revelations. Under the adept direction of Kirsten Kelly, Roadworks' midwest premiere of Boston Marriage--a euphemism for an intimate domestic arrangement between unmarried women--mostly hits the high points in Mamet's 1999 script. The problem is, those high points are molehills.

In the brittle game of badinage and domination played by Anna (Stephanie Childers) and Clair (Laura Scott Wade), there's never any room between bons mots for a real sense of danger. Unlike the sparring duo in Oleanna, for example, these partners have tiresomely similar voices. Wade acquits herself somewhat better than Childers when it comes to conveying her character's vulnerability--Clair has fallen in love with a much younger woman, precipitating the play's action, such as it is. And Mattie Hawkinson as their put-upon maid is charming almost to a fault.

There are some wickedly funny one-liners; at one point the maid says, "While I was admiring your muff, your parts came." Geoffrey M. Curley's set is beautifully appointed, and Elea Crowther's late-19th-century costumes are lovely. But the overall effect is rather like eating a lot of mediocre toffee for nearly two hours". Kerry Reid, Chicago Reader 11/14/2003



"Audiences usually associate David Mamet with plays about men. In particular, plays about misogynist, self-absorbed vulgar men who are trying to get ahead in one way or another and use the word fuck with delirious abandon. He's a known quantity. It's always good, therefore, to see an established artist who's trying to stretch his creative wings a bit. Renowned for his inability to write for women, Mamet now offers us a play consisting only of women in Boston Marriage, now appearing at the Chopin in a production from Roadworks. Boston Marriage presents the audience with a long time couple, Anna and Claire. These women have been lovers for an indeterminate length of time, but clearly have grown farther apart. Now Anna has secured an income for them by becoming the mistress to a wealthy man. Claire, however, has fallen in love with a much younger woman, and comes to Anna for help in an assignation. We always hurt the ones we love, and Anna and Claire spend the next two hours wittily fulfilling that axiom". Kevin Heckman, PerformInk 12/5/2003



''Neither Childers as the agreeably assertive, enthusiastically arrogant Anna whose pool of knowledge is wide but shallow, nor Wade as the lustful Claire hoping to recapture her youth with one last tryst, look old enough to pass for middle-aged, but both shine in their respective roles. These agile actresses possess a wonderful capacity for language and their banter delights. Mamet's marriage of elegant, flowery, Victorian-era speech to his trademark, vernacular rhythms is generally successful. But the play sometimes feels self-conscious, with quirkiness substituting for wit, as in an Aaron Sorkin script”. Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald 11/14/2003



''The play itself feels like a prolonged writing exercise. Mamet has strayed into this realm before with Oleanna, but while that play is anchored by its cagey, shifty examination of sexual politics, Boston Marriage just sort of hangs there, untethered to anything but, in this case at least, some very strong performances". Nina Metz, New City

''Playwright David Mamet is known for his blunt explorations of masculinity and manhood'so the fact that he would write a play about a pair of Victorian lesbians is a welcome surprise. Not that there aren't troubling aspects. Mamet portrays these two women as scheming, manipulative, man-hating and predatory. And yet they are so true to their own natures and such full, vibrant characters (and indeed so vibrantly portrayed in Roadwork's production) that the result is a deliciously entertaining play". Jennifer Vanasco, Free Press


“I was particularly curious to hear that he had written a comedy consisting of three women in a Victorian drawing room. I was more than a bit skeptical. And I was remarkably surprised to find that Boston Marriage is the most cleverly entertaining script he has ever written. In this hysterically wicked play, Mamet proves that he can write for middle- or upper-class Victorian lesbians, which is what the phrase Boston Marriage refers to, as well as if not better than American male hoods and hustlers. So much of the humor in this play knocks you down like a slap to the side of the head”. Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago