Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...The director, Gabrielle Randle-Bent, has set the show pretty explicitly within Black culture, of an indistinct time and place. At the start, we hear a recording of the director’s own relatives discussing a woman refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Texas in the 1940s, which is a very intriguing prologue, and the show experiments with verse and language in very interesting ways, ranging forwards and backwards in time. The blind seer Tiresias here is played by Cheryl Lynn Bruce, an actor with a very distinct kind of moral authority and the fine, two-person chorus of Danielle Davis and Cage Sebastian Pierre speak into microphones, playing with sound, even as Parker feels like a Black everyman under the oppression of the white law."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Director Gabrielle Randle-Bent makes Greek tragedy look easy, which it most certainly isn’t. She finds a style here — which the entire, exceptional ensemble aligns to — that expresses an ideal balance between the realistic and the presentational, the character as individual and as point-of-view, the narrative as specific and symbolic. Ringing with contemporary social-justice relevance, the piece sings, sometimes literally, with the African beats of a multi-talented two-person chorus."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...Antigone (a blistering and magnetic Aeriel Williams) never leaves us in doubt of her intentions to violate the edict of her tyrannical uncle, King Creon of Thebes, by burying her brother Polyneices, who waged war against their brother Eteocles for the kingdom. Both brothers are now dead by each other's hands. Creon declares that Eteocles will be buried with full honors and religious rites, and Polyneices left rotting in the sun for the dogs and birds to feast upon."
Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended
"...None of this is possible without the performances Randle-Bent demands and the cast provides. Aeriel Williams has command of every facet of Antigone, from the sister who cannot fathom any course of action other than her own to the lover who burns with and basks in passion even as she faces down death. In total darkness, with her slow, deliberate steps barely visible, she holds the audience rapt."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Recommended
"...One of the greatest tragedies written, Sophocles's trilogy isn't for the newbie to theater. It reaches back to a time when a male-dominant legacy was supreme, women were treated like property, and a female child born first was considered a disgrace. Women were considered inferior and subjected to a fundamentally sexist belief system that often made them victims of discrimination and prejudice. Women had very limited political rights and were subjected to the control of men throughout their lives. Their role was to bear children, with a preference for male offspring, and manage their households. So when Antigone defied Creon's orders not to bury Polyneices, she insulted his throne to the kingdom, and in his mind, she needed to be an example to those who sought to disobey his command."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"..."Antigone" is a remarkably bold commentary about a hero's resistance to prevailing authority: something which can happen anywhere in almost any era. Court Theatre's production represents a fresh new approach to this classic tragedy originally written by Sophocles in the 5th century B.C. Directed by Gabrielle Randle-Bent using text translated from the Ancient Greek by Nicholas Rudall, this play in the modern vernacular lays claim to the theme that there will always be conflict between the primacy of God's law versus man's desire to make himself out to be an authority figure to rival God."
Rescripted - Highly Recommended
"...This Greek polymathic, multilayered approach to storytelling is picked up by director Gabrielle Randle-Bent in the present day, as visual art, fashion, poetry, vocal arrangements and body percussion work together to give us the emotional experience of Antigone. There is so much to eat in this production. Antigone is a whole meal, and I commend Randle for serving it up."
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...Court Theatre culminates its "Oedipus Trilogy" with a captivating production of "Antigone," marking an exhilarating conclusion. For those who witnessed the illuminating "Oedipus Rex" and the soulfully performed "Gospel at Colonus," the profound experience of "Antigone" brings a bittersweet moment of reflection. A fitting finale to the house of Oedipus."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...Like all classic tragedies, Antigone is surprisingly malleable. Sophocles' thoughts, once directed to an outdoor audience of Athenians celebrating the local grape harvest, has made many stops along the way to us, maybe most notably in Jean Anouilh's 1944 production in Nazi-occupied Paris, where the age-old question of obedience to civil authorities vs. faithfulness to a higher law held particularly intense repercussions."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...As in the myth of Prometheus, Court Theatre brings the fire to Chicago audiences with "Antigone," a spectacular finale to their Sophocles trilogy."
