Babes With Blades

Babes With Blades was the first theatre company I saw perform when I moved to Chicago. They always put on top notch shows with spectacular talent.

i have seen a goodly number of renditions of this «play that shall not be named», so i can’t say i was expecting too much innovation from this production.
luckily, i was wrong! the curse of macb was not present in this Babes with Blades production. this was an exciting, innovative experience, with all parts being played by women well versed in swordplay and stage combat. their prowess did not end with their blade work, however; their connection to character was powerful and well developed, and some creative choices and aspects of line delivery that i had never witnessed before were used to interesting effect. for those of you that may be put off by the thought of women playing men’s roles, just remember that willie originally cast only men to play all the roles. this is just role reversal par excellence!
disclaimer: i do have a close relation playing one of the parts, but this review isn’t about her, it’s about the troupe as a whole.

An amazing theater company, with an all-​female ensemble, whose productions always feature theatrical sword combat. We have seen two BWB productions, An Affair of Honor and most recently, MacBeth. Their productions by necessity replace male roles with females, with sometimes powerful and surprising effect. MacBeth, for example, is a play very much about the male psyche. Played by a female actor I felt the performance was emotionally supercharged by the sexual role inversion.
Babes with Blades sometimes also does pieces with scenes of partial nudity, as they did with Affair of Honor.
An unusual troupe with a powerful feminist message, BWB is a must see for men and women alike, IMHO. Their website features the location of their latest production and email contact info.