Slaughter City presented by Jackalope Theatre at Raven Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...Kaiser Ahmed's staging creates a nightmarish twilight world for Wallace's piece. The visual design is apt throughout, particularly the animal carcasses constructed out of rags (designed by Melanie Berner) that clearly establish the connection between the Triangle tragedy and the current travails of American blue-collar life, where workers suffer death by a thousand cuts."

Chicago Reader - Not Recommended

"...Naomi Wallace's poetic, intentionally disjointed, sometimes dream-like 1996 play raises important issues about labor unions and contemporary working conditions in the meatpacking industry. It also offers a vivid account of the tragic 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. What it doesn't do is assemble its interesting characters and potentially dramatic moments into a coherent play, with either a compelling story or a political message that runs deeper than the assertion that bosses make workers work too hard."

Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...The production is handsomely staged by Ahmed, with clever design work in William Anderson’s set and Melanie Berner’s meat-carcass puppets drawing a direct line between this future-dystopian slaughterhouse and the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, whose tragic place in labor history is invoked late in the play. But Wallace’s tall, unwieldy pile of themes and poetics proves a burden too heavy for Jackalope’s uneven cast."

Chicago Theater Beat - Recommended

"...Discursive and fragmentary, Slaughter City hardly invites its audience to any feast of reason. Like Brecht, Wallace means to keep us at a distance. It’s not clear why: The choice between Cod and the Sausage Man is too obvious for this kind of detachment. Notwithstanding the play’s confusing concepts, Jackalope’s commanding dedication to a difficult story and subject deserves accolades, particularly during hard times where yesterday’s advocacy damnably doesn’t seem to work."