Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...But how come he and the girl interact like 12-year-olds with full-grown bodies? And wouldn't it be better to know more about Dontrell's complicated family history near the start, so we can worry along with his mother rather than wonder why she goes ballistic? As directed by Chika Ike, this First Floor Theater staging is better at expressive choreography—there's a lovely underwater sequence—than nuts-and-bolts clarity."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...The suspense generated during the final confrontation with the ghosts of the Middle Passage is thus eroded by the nagging possibility of our story ending in hackneyed teen-suicide hand-wringing. Until then, however, the ensemble delivers scene after scene of breathtaking pageantry. Chika Ike's direction weaves a tapestry of synchronized movement, a cappella chants, orchestrated poetry, acoustical instrumentals and visual effects drawing on global sources to create a subterranean panorama of sensory illusion as fluid and mysterious as the briny ocean deep itself."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Buckley and Beck both give standout supporting performances, especially when given the chance to be funny. And the scene in which Dontrell and Erika fall for each other, while playing with flashlights in her beach home, is full-to-bursting with genuine romance. That kind of chemistry is rare—when two actors can just set a room on fire with nothing but the sparks between them."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Recommended
"...The richness and complexity of this play are brought out visually and aurally by Director Chika Ike with her inventive use of space, and her eagerness for experimentation. The play is staged vividly, with startlingly effective physicality."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Documenting his own words and feelings, Dontrell carries a small tape recorder around with him to create an oral history for future generations that he calls his “captain’s log.” With brazen determination Dontrell leaves everything behind as his quest for truth and justice leads him to explore the ocean’s depths. The course that his journey traverses makes for some magical realism in Nathan Alan Davis’ poetic and ambitious work."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea is, at heart, a poignant, poetic and powerful statement about the fundamental nature of what it means to be a young black man in America. Surrounded by his ancestors, supported and made wise by his family, and emboldened by his “warrior” women, Dontrell realizes the profound insight of Nathan Alan Davis’s fundamental American statement: even when we do everything right, even when we do everything we can to make it, even when we do everything we can for the people we love, we can never escape our history."
NewCity Chicago - Recommended
"...The ocean is part of black history in America, an enormously consequential moment that for some would be their last. With history pulling at the spirit of this play like a gently ebbing tide, “Dontrell, Who Kissed The Sea” quietly suggests that the Middle Passage never truly concluded."
