Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Toxicity in the workplace takes both literal and figurative form in "Rasheeda Speaking," a dark comedy by late Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson, now playing at Shattered Globe Theatre. AmBer D. Montgomery directs a compelling cast in a revival of the 2014 play, which features witty dialogue, a suspenseful plot and a frank discussion of race, privilege and power in professional settings."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Deanna Reed-Foster as Jaclyn lights up the stage brighter than the beaming fluorescent lights of the clinic. Her trapeze of dialogue keeps the audience oscillating between uproarious laughter, sighs, and silence. AmBer D. Montgomery's direction here is spot-on, giving the ensemble the tools to work with Reed-Foster's incredible voracity. While the performances of Daria Harper, Barbara Roeder Harris, and Drew Schad are similarly strong, Reed-Foster is undoubtedly the star of this show."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Exceptional and poignant, “Rasheeda Speaking” is a four-person tragicomedy, based on the late Joel Drake Johnson’s well-crafted script. The dialogue—sad, funny, and very real at the same time—is so well performed that you feel as if you could enter the stage yourself and interact with each of the characters in a real doctor’s office. "
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...Identity politics have become a big part of our everyday life. There is always a tussle over who can be called a real American. If you act a certain way, you get the privilege of a peek into the construct of power in America, which is not the same as a seat at the table. Shattered Globe Theatre's Rasheeda Speaking presents a look at the underbelly of racism in the woke age, where people are gaslighted into believing that what they are seeing is not what they see. They are being fed alternative facts and different takes on truth. Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson peels back the layers of mendacity that gives people a sense of power-or the opposite-being the underclass no matter how much you may strive. AmBer D. Montgomery directs Rasheeda Speaking."
Chicago On Stage - Recommended
"...It's not ever easy to make art about racism, especially at a time when it's outrageously easy to turn on the TV and see real-life examples. (Director Montgomery notes that the Kentanji Brown Jackson hearings were going on as they worked on this play, and the cartoon villains/Republican senators were not very believable there either.) In an era when Saturday Night Live sketches seem ripped from reality and Fox "News" keeps saying its shows are not meant to be taken literally by the millions who take them literally, it keeps getting harder to keep commentary separate from life. With that in mind, Rasheeda Speaking is both perfect for this moment and awkward for it. It works powerfully when it works and gets abrupt when it doesn't. It shows us clear racism while it shows us racists who honestly don't know what they are. Basically, it feels a lot like life in the 2020s."
PicksInSix - Highly Recommended
"...Shattered Globe Theatre manifested a guiding value of their mission statement, leading with stories of historically marginalized communities, with their striking production of the late Joel Drake Johnson's "Rasheeda Speaking" at the Theater Wit stage. It's devastating how, after almost 10 years since its Chicago premiere in 2014, this play feels like it was pulled from a HR casefile of today. Is it the toner from the Konica Minolta causing Jaclyn's stomach to turn, or could it be the noxious contagion of systemic racism?"
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"..."Rasheeda Speaking," the 2014 play written by the late Joel Drake Johnson and revived by Shattered Globe, is a minefield of a drama, focusing on how the macro issues of race, class and gender affect the micro world of workplace relationships. Well-cast and energetically acted, edgily relevant and possessing moments of raw power, this is a play I'd very much like to like. But in the end, its thematic complexity boils down to moral confusion, and the takeaway is a sour and nihilistic one, a sense that America's racial quandary is a hopeless zero-sum game which we're all doomed to lose."
