Salt of the Earth presented by Ka-Tet Theatre Company at City Lit Theater

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...The material is familiar, but the bittersweet script feels true and lived-in. It's complemented by painfully honest performances from a fine eight-person ensemble under Thomas Murray's direction."

Centerstage - Recommended

"... Politics and history are never far from the play as it moves the industrial town from postwar prosperity to Thatcherite decline, but Godber’s smart and sympathetic writing never loses the fact that political drama is meaningless unless it’s fundamentally about people."

Stage and Cinema - Recommended

"... Playwright John Godber grew up in a Yorkshire mining town before going off to college to become a writer. It gives Salt of the Earth, which follows 40 years in the life of family in a mining town, an autobiographical quality, strengthened by the fact that the sections featuring a real surrogate for the playwright are far more vibrant than the rest of the show."

ChicagoCritic - Not Recommended

"... I believe that Salt of the Earth could be a heartwarming saga but as now played, the garbled, too-fast speech patterns and the severe tone shifts keep it from being enjoyable. Kevin Lambert and Kathryn Bartholomew were particularly excellent. If they would drop the heavy accents and slow down their speech to articulate and enunciate the dialogue, then Salt of the Earth could be a worthy production. Ka-Tet Theatre Company usually does better work so we can forgive them for this show."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended

"...In the final scene when Paul comes home for his dad’s 60th birthday, bringing with him his new wife Cherry (Stevie Chaddock Lambert), the family is finally together—but only physically. But then it’s hard to gauge how much Paul has lost. Godber never establishes how much love this family shared to begin with. Murray’s superb cast work overtime to connect these fragmentary vignettes and to make us care. But the play’s whole is never greater than its parts. Best to savor it for the acting (if you can get past the accents)."