Fires in the Mirror presented by 16th Street Theater at Berwyn Cultural Center

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...Ann Filmer's staging for 16th Street Theater uses a quartet of actresses, with mixed results. Caroline Rau is a spot-on Al Sharpton, and Cheri Lynne shines in a number of roles. But too often the interest comes from witnessing the performers' attempts to take on the Other, rather than from the material itself. It doesn't help that Smith's piece starts with self-congratulatory musings on identity from poet Ntozake Shange, rather than throwing us into the heart of the great muddle of race, ethnicity, and class."

Chicago Stage Review - Highly Recommended

"...Director Ann Filmer creates a striking examination of this tragic topic with her visionary rendering of Playwright Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror. If theater is storytelling then this is theater in the grandest order. Filmer and her remarkable cast take this powerful script, originally produced as a one-woman show, and flawlessly create a riveting ensemble piece."

ChicagoCritic - Recommended

"...This fast paced series of dramatized interviews (most performed as monologues) not only deftly covered the seeds of racial conflict but played out as vivid character studies of the main participants. This balance account covered the motivations and underlying causes that contributed to lighting the torch that festered in the Black community in 1991."