Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" is, surely, the greatest Chicago play. Oh, there are other contenders - "The Front Page," this town's namesake musical, even "Clybourne Park," a Pulitzer Prize-winning drama that riffs on Hansberry's 1959 masterpiece. But viewed on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s declaration of "I Have a Dream" in an immersive, intimate, visceral, local, emotional, superbly acted production from Ron OJ Parson at the TimeLine Theatre, there really is no contest."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Watching "A Raisin in the Sun" now, particularly the volcanic production that opened Wednesday at TimeLine Theatre under the stellar direction of OJ Parson, you can only weep for all the additional work that "might have been." Yet at the same time you might very well find yourself marveling at just how how many potent questions and emotions Hansberry was able to pack into this single play, how prescient she was on every subject she addressed, how gifted she was at devising many deep, complex, exquisitely formed characters, and how, as all great playwrights can do, she was able to flip the tone of her play on a dime - moving from tragedy to comedy to satire with the greatest of ease."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...The result is a provocative, enduring portrait of a family on the edge, whose economic and emotional condition is as fragile as the plant Lena nurtures - one that will thrive given a chance and the right soil."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...In his vivid and admirably unsentimental staging, director Ron OJ Parson stays true to the script's kitchen-sink realism without layering on so many period details that the play seems a relic of the past. There's a 50s jazz soundtrack and at one point the smell of frying bacon, but touches like these never distract from the intensity and veracity of the performances-allowing us to appreciate, in case we had forgotten, the full power of Hansberry's still-moving, still-contemporary masterpiece. "
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...This year has seen a number of classroom classics re-imagined to breath new life and significance into familiar 20th-century masterworks. You may have seen Hansberry's groundbreaking crossover hit before-indeed, it's rare not to have-but this is the one you will remember."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Parson's entire cast is ideally fit. Jerod Haynes's Walter thrums with ache and need for the world to take him and his ideas seriously; it's a powerful, intensely felt performance. Both Langford's Beneatha and Toni Martin, as Walter's practical wife Ruth, run a gauntlet of often-opposing sensations, but watch their faces as they register the true reason Mr. Lindner (Chris Rickett, oily but on-point) has paid a visit to their home. The space between their tandem reactions looks like fertile soil for a revolution."
ShowBizChicago - Highly Recommended
"...Under the direction of Ron OJ Parson, with a talented cast and flawless set design this classic is once again brought back to a Chicago stage and performed with all the passion and perfection it deserves. The audience enters the Timeline stage through what becomes the Younger’s front door, and while having more stage space than many of Chicago’s small storefronts, you may never find yourself feeling closer to a production."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...The brilliance of Hansberry’s play, and of this production, lies in the working-through of the turmoil Lena’s unilateral action creates. Walter (brought to passionate, seething life by Jerod Haynes) is outraged and utterly distraught as he sees his one real hope to become an entrepreneur, indeed The Man, dashed in an instant."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...A Raisin in the Sun is a testimony to the strength of family, the role of faith and courage as personal integrity triumphs as we see a man emerge with a moral compass to do right by himself and his family. The characters created by Hansberry are memorable and quite real.The passionate direction by Ron OJ Parson with the terrific dedicated performances by all the characters, particularly by Greta Oglesby (Mama) and Jerod Haynes as Walter speak to the humanity and spirit of the struggling African-American families in the1950′s. It is a classic work marvelously performed on Brian Sidney Bembridge’s realistic set in the intimate Timeline Theatre. I could smell the bacon cooking… and I could feel the Younger’s pain and their joy. This play is one of the best of 2013 – don’t miss it!"
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...When things get at their darkest and it looks as if they may take the easy way out, we are able to see the family take the high road and show the world the strength that comes from the love within it. This is a strong cast and the ensemble players that have been assembled prove that in a story it is the quality of the players that make it take on the meaning that the playwright had. This, by the way, was the first Broadway play written by an African American playwright and while it caused a stir, it was right on and in fact, still is!"
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...This thought-provoking, thoroughly riveting play by a talented young Chicagoan (who died at the young age of 34) has finally been mounted in a production that would make Ms. Hansberry proud. Tragically Chicago hasn't experienced a professional production of this classic for 13 years and, while still very pertinent, this might be the best time and setting for this much- welcome production of a great play."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...The TimeLine gets a gold star for reviving the play with such scintillating performers, none from the talent pool of local black actors commonly seen at the Court and Goodman theaters. The ensemble, under Parson’s insightful guidance, has done this classic proud, and the extreme intimacy of the staging even adds a dimension to the playgoing experience. Truly great stuff!"
Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...TimeLine has given us a production worthy of the classic that "Raisin in the Sun" is. If you think you already know the story and that you've already seen it-think again. Like many TimeLine productions of classics, this production defines WHY it is a classic in all senses of the word."