Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Tyla Abercrumbie's "Relentless" is the finest new play to emerge in Chicago since the days before the COVID-19 crisis that delayed this world premiere for so many months. Smart, challenging and deeply moving toward its close, "Relentless" is fully the equal of many of the serious dramas that populated Broadway this past fall. The piece, written by a Chicago-based artist hitherto best known as an actress, deserves broad international exposure."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Director Ron OJ Parson keeps the pace steady, though, and terrific performances will keep you engaged. The sisterly bond between Ladymore's Janet and Bakari's Annelle is particularly affecting. And from scenic designer Jack Magaw's well-appointed drawing room to Christine Pascual's formalwear to Megan E. Pirtle's period wigs, the production is a visual treat."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...The show is a little slow to take off in the first act, with the badinage between the two sisters feeling slightly self-conscious. But as the story unfolds, Abercrumbie shows us more and more of how their familial roles (Janet the steadfast politically engaged one, Annelle the seeming party girl/socialite) are also just inadequate reflections of who they really are, and what their history might be pointing them toward. Both Ladymore and Bakari find deep resonant notes as they come to grips with what that future might hold. Delgado and King also peel back the polished white-tie outlines of their characters to show that becoming successful Black men in their communities has also come by way of facing anguish and loss at the hands of whiteness."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...Watching "Relentless," set in 1919, one might think immediately of August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean," set in 1904 and playing across town at Goodman Theatre. Both resonate with the all-too-fresh legacy of slavery, though the earthy charcters in "Gem of the Ocean" are quite a different lot from the well-educated sisters and their intellectual companions in Abercrumbie's play."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...Complex, powerful and overly long, particularly in the second act, Relentless is an ambitious season debut that knocks it out of the park, even when it takes too long to get there. Wonderfully acted, cozy set design (Jack Magaw’s homey living room scenic design impressed) and solid costuming (Christine Pascual worked every penny of her costume budget) added to a compelling night out at the theater. Relentless proved itself unrelenting and required viewing."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...RELENTLESS is that once-in-a-lifetime play that anyone should see. This play centers the audience on the hatred and racism blacks experienced over 100 years ago, which correlates to the hate and racism we still experience today. It sent a more profound message as to why that hateful and racist past destroyed the rich culture of Black Americans. It tarnished the beauty, grace, and honor we once enjoyed in the Black Victorian era, where we owned businesses, land, and property; when the dollar would circulate within communities like the Greenwood District at least 36 times before it left the neighborhood."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...This is a sterling production with an amazingly powerful cast bringing these characters to life. The set ( Jack Magaw) is flawless and makes the venue seem so much larger. Christine Pascual’s costumes are just right and Heather Gilbert’s lighting perfect. Christopher Kriz as always does original music that is perfect for the story in addition to handling the sound, and the props are handled by Jennifer Wernau."
WTTW - Highly Recommended
"...While I don’t want to overwhelm Tyla Abercrumbie, whose riveting drama “Relentless” is receiving its world premiere production by Timeline Theatre, it is all but impossible to refrain from this conclusion: This is a playwright and poet (with a long list of credits as an actress in both the theater and television) who might very well become the female counterpart to August Wilson."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Except for the need to trim a bit of repetition from the first act, particularly the long initial scene between the sisters, this play is quite wonderful. It stirs our souls and reminds us that we’re all different, and yet basically the same under our skin. It’s a production that lives and breathes and, just like an organism, it develops and grows. The play certainly has moments of lightness and whimsy to contrast with the drama and seriousness of the primary story. But the main plot mourns the cruelties of our shameful past, while it illuminates and condemns a contemporary society that hasn’t changed over centuries of senseless hatred and cruelty. It’s a reminder that, in spite of society’s constant evolution, some things just unfortunately remain the same, no matter how much we try to amend."
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...Abercrombie has given us some wonderful and interesting characters. She wrote her play in five chapters with each chapter having a title from a work of Black literature. As the scene begins it is projected on top of the setting (like the title page of a book). The dialogue is fast, witty and engaging. Ron OJ Parsons, a director of renown, knows exactly what he's doing. He choose an excellent ensemble. He found the right tempo for the time and place and let the words do the work."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...Relentless is directed with precision and perfect pacing by Ron OJ Parson. This story and the characters are never overwrought, nor do they slip into what I call the “Black Rage” era of theater where every character is so dignified that it is an unrealistic portrayal of Black people. The writing is tight and beautifully done. Abercrumbie has done intensive research on the Black elite in America. There were elite and wealthy parts of cities where Blacks lived well and patronized their community businesses. Black people pulled themselves up by their bootstraps only to be knocked down by horrors like the Tulsa Massacre and race riots across America."
PicksInSix - Highly Recommended
"...Framed in pain and grief, the dark, troubling times of oppression is a clear-eyed reflection of the racial divide of our times. Bakari’s heart-wrenching performance and the overwhelming resolve that churns within Dee’s powerful portrayal of the young Annabelle in the face of the pressure brought on by Hurd’s southern aristocracy breathe life into Abercrumbie’s rich, profoundly poetic text. In the hands of Parson—truly one of our great interpreters of new works—the humor, pathos and inhumanity of this piece strike often with stunning force and immediacy."
TotalTheater - Highly Recommended
"...The Relentless story spans the pivotal half-century leading to the sisters Covington, Janet and Annelle, discovering their late mother's diaries following her death in 1919. After much hesitancy, their curiosity brings them to learn of the mysterious events responsible for their education, employment, propertied and comfortable lives in Northern cities. The past is revealed to us in flashbacks spurred by their parent's accounts of her youth in Maryland, where pre-Emancipation racial and gender relations are more complex than anticipated."
Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...Beautifully directed by Ron OJ Parson, Relentless takes a look at these deadly societal sins from inside the eye of the storm, in other words, the perspective of an African American family. In this case it is a family comfortably ensconced in a world of cultural elegance then known (and little known today) as the Black Victorian era. It is 1919 Philadelphia, like now, a time of pandemic and racial turbulence, and back then, a time when slavery was still close enough to touch."
BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended
"...The stellar performances also bring RELENTLESS to vivid life. Bakari and Ladymore have such a realistic rapport as Annelle and Janet; they convey a real unconditional sisterly love. Likewise, both character arcs rely on these actors to display the full range of human emotion on the stage, and they easily meet that challenge convincingly and beautifully."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Abercrumbie is an accomplished Chicago actor—full disclosure, she plays a small role in a film Jan and I produced, “Dreaming Grand Avenue”—and a talented and prolific playwright as well. With “Relentless,” she has crafted fascinating, real characters and endowed them with witty, shattering dialogue, which the superb cast, under the steady hand of director Ron OJ Parson, brings to life with such charm that the three-hour running time flies by. The story reveals layers of anger with nuance rather than big dramatic acts.'