Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Rooster is making his first appearance in Chicago this week — as played by Darrell W. Cox, the actor at the center of director Joe Jahraus' Chicago premiere of a superb play that, I thought, would make its first landfall at a much larger theater. I suspect that killer Rylance performance scared off a lot of actors and directors — it probably felt like opening a little hardware store next to a Home Depot."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Among the many impressive achievements of the Profiles Theatre production of "Jerusalem" - Jezz Butterworth's raging yet often lushly poetic saga of a ferociously self-mythologizing free spirit who must face the consequences of having long outlived, if not outgrown his wild youth - is how immediately comprehensible and universal it turns out to be."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Under Profiles Theatre artistic director Joe Jahraus's direction, the midwest premiere of Jez Butterworth's play brings England to Chicago in a way that's rural, raving, and raw. Set on Saint George's Day in the woods outside Wiltshire (home of Salisbury Plain and Stonehenge), the story centers around Johnny "Rooster" Byron, a hedonistic vigilante on the verge of eviction from his mobile home."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...The beauty of Cox's performance, in a production paced with cosmic patience by director Joe Jahraus, is the fragile ambiguity with which he projects Rooster's state of mind. Is he happy? Perhaps his unfettered existence defines Rooster's contentment. Or is he deluding himself? Is this self-possessed front he presents to his disciples no more than that - a façade he himself has willed into authenticity to mask so profound a loss of identity and purpose that he cannot bear it?"
ChicagoCritic - Not Recommended
"...Jerusalem is an ambitious endeavor for Profiles Theatre. Too bad the use of thickly mumbled accents made it so difficult to understand what was being said that I quickly tuned out the show. That made the almost three hours a tedious pursuit. Why make the accents so thick (and real) that audiences find it too hard to understand? Why? Better to just hint at the brogue in the interest of being understood than leave us dumb-founded as to what was said."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...The cast is uniformly excellent, but who are we kidding? This is Byron’s play through and through, and the character is given an overwhelming performance from Darrell W. Cox. One of Chicago’s most revered actors, the four-time Jeff winner sinks his teeth in the role with unique relish, and spits out a character that is both loquacious and perfunctory, braggadocios and vulnerable, admirable and revolting, irritating and sympathetic. It’s a ferocious piece of acting, and one I may very well experience again before the play ends its run."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Recommended
"...“Jerusalem” may be the most ambitious production in the history of this theater, and also the most difficult to assess. The play is too long but I’m not sure what I would cut. A British audience obviously would react with more familiarity to the battle between Rooster and the local government and it would be a blast to see the play in an English theater before a knowing English audience. A Brit would also be able to better deal with the smorgasbord of accents. But even a Chicagoland audience who could only absorb a fraction of the verbal fury on stage would be impressed by the vitality of the entire staging. Bottom line, “Jerusalem” is a one-of-a-kind dramatic experience and should not be missed by anyone willing to take a risk."
BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended
"...With its detailed and poetic language, Jerusalem creatively tells the story of rural residents who are resisting the changes of the modern world. When the safety and comfort of their lives is threatened, the "should I stay or go" conflict rises in many of them. Their protector and ring leader, Rooster (played by Darrell W. Cox), is the touchstone of the world they know. But as his life seems forced to change very soon, so too may all of theirs."
