Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...American Blues has a lot of heavy-hitting actors throbbing under all of Kirkland's mud — this is the first major production for the company created by an ensemble of actors that split from American Theater Company, their former home. In particular, Carmen Roman and Dennis Cockrum throw their raft of skills and deep emotional souls into the honest depiction of Ma and Pa Lester, a deeply flawed couple whose economic circumstances conspire against their desire to hold their family together and control their own destiny. Cockrum shrewdly plays against type where he can, avoiding the outer edges of violence and deepening his character with a palpable sense of longing."
Chicago Sun Times
- Somewhat Recommended
"...No one would ever confuse this often comically broad melodrama so awash in primal urges with the magisterial power of "The Grapes of Wrath," or the heartwrenching photographs by Dorothea Lange that defined the ravaged human landscape of this country at a pivotal moment in its history. At its best it is a sort of Bible Belt soap opera with all the rustic energy of a Thomas Hart Benton mural. At its worst it is an illustrated comics version of rural America at its lowest ebb."
Examiner
- Recommended
"...Buried within the blighted Lester family - beneath the grime wrought of dirt floors, broken windows and no plumbing, beneath the shameless, groping greediness wrought of starvation - there’s an steely sense of pride. With their utter lack of manners and crude, leering sexuality, the Lesters don’t have a lot of outward dignity, that’s for durn sure. But they’ve got a stubborn, nobility all the same, unyielding as pig-iron and indelible as the black crescents of black dust embedded under their fingernails."
Windy City Times
- Highly Recommended
"...However cumbersome Kirkland's early-20th-century naturalism may weigh on modern ( and presumably more enlightened ) sensibilities, there is no disputing the welcome return of a pioneering Chicago troupe still capable of great things."
Chicago Stage Review
- Highly Recommended
"...American Blues Theater establishes that it is a force to be reckoned with and fiercely respected with their spellbinding production of Tobacco Road. They take characters that you are hard pressed to care for in a story that is almost too excruciating to watch and create something that is so compelling, you cannot resist. DO NOT MISS this remarkable production."
Time Out Chicago
- Recommended
"...
The opening moments, as young Dude Lester (Matthew Brumlow) bounces a crude ball against James Leaming’s convincingly dilapidated set and patriarch Jeeter (Cockrum) attempts to inflate a busted tube, have a thrilling vital note in the face of utter futility. And other points also prove gripping: Ellie May’s animalistic seduction of brother-in-law Lov; the silent, desperate consumption of a stolen sack of food. But too much of this Tobacco Road seems just an opportunity to play grotesques grotesquely. Oddly enough, a less respectful approach, exploring the play’s darkly comic potential, might have made it seem less voyeuristic."
ChicagoCritic
- Highly Recommended
"..American Blues Theater’s expert cast is led by the steady work by Dennis Cockrum as Jeeter. Carmen Roman (Ada) and Matthew Brumlow (Dude) offer wrenching performances. The ensemble work here was terrific, the pace was effective and the direction was tight. Tobacco Road will remind you that ignorance is still rampant in rural America. Tobacco Road is powerful, earthy theatre."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Highly Recommended
"...American Blues Theater is known for its gritty, uncompromising style and selects plays that are revisions of classics that give theater audiences a new look aimed at the heart of the people or characters portrayed. Their latest production, "Tobacco Road" by Jack Kirkland, based on the novel by Erskine Caldwell does just that."
Chicago Theater Beat
- Recommended
"...Tobacco Road brings us poverty as it is in the United States. Under this unwavering direction, we never get to look away from it’s crush of human life and spirit. I have spent time in Georgia, and this misery is still in play, every bit as striking as it is presented in this piece. This is theatre that does not seek to entertain, but to motivate. The director is Georgia born, and with her insight we leave the theatre informed about unspeakable living conditions that we never talk about, rarely see, and have made little attempt to repair as a nation."
