Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...Ron OJ Parson’s production of “Sizwe Banzi” is the third Fugard drama to show up on a Chicago stage this year. Although the other scripts have been the better known, this is by far the best of that triptych of productions at different theaters because Court’s show deftly captures the free-wheeling nature of a play born in improvisation, while also making clear that the piece is engaged with matters of the highest stakes. That’s a tough line to walk and Parsons, who moves the show in and out of the audience, walks it with equal measures of sadness, humanity, optimism and pizzazz."
Chicago Sun Times
- Highly Recommended
"...In "Sizwe Banzi is Dead," a pivotal and periodically banned drama first developed in the early 1970s by Athol Fugard, the politically engaged white playwright, and his two vital collaborators -- black actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona -- the key to assuring one's manhood comes down to a tremendously wrenching decision that involves a total change of identity. For without such a radical transformation, the title character in this play, now receiving a vivid, searingly evoked revival at Court Theatre, will be unable to get a job and earn the money he needs to support his wife and children."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...That's the sort of moral dilemma that makes for great drama—and for the lion's share of Court Theatre's 90-minute production, greatness is unmistakably in evidence. With the simplest of means—two chairs, a table, a patch of dirt defining the playing area—director Ron OJ Parson creates a stage world that's truthful yet not at all literal, allowing the audience's imagination to fill in the blanks. Parson builds the action with exquisite precision to a harrowing conclusion, at once triumphant and despairing."
Copley News Service
- Highly Recommended
"...The cast of Chike Johnson and Allen Gilmore crawl into the skins of the four characters in the play to create indelible performances. The two are physically contrasting, Johnson solidly built like a football running back and the slender Gilmore wearing a woebegone expression as the injustices of apartheid erode his sense of self."
Time Out Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...
Johnson invests Styles with a protean verve, but this production really comes to life with the entrance of Gilmore’s reticent, almost Beckettian Sizwe. Together, the duo seizes the Court space, glad-handing the audience during a drunken spree and vehemently debating the charged issues raised by Sizwe’s situation. The only false note is struck by Jack Magaw’s heavy-handed set, which, unlike the play itself, seems like a ’70s throwback."
ChicagoCritic
- Highly Recommended
"...Sizwe Banzi is Dead was a bold play to mount in the 1970’s in South Africa. Today, it gives us a lesson in bravery. Chike Johnson and Allen Gilmore together gave two of the strongest, most truthful performances you’ll see on stage anywhere. The do Kani and Ntshona justice. This is powerful theatre!"
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Highly Recommended
"...This is an interesting story and is a set-up for what is yet to come. Chike Johnson works this narrative to perfection, making us laugh and smile as we learn of the ups and downs of his life. As he gets more into what he does, a man named Robert comes in who needs just one photo of himself. This man appears to be a lost soul, but as this scene ends, we are taken back in time and get to learn just who this man is or was prior to entering Styles' studio."
Chicago Theater Beat
- Recommended
"...The two actors carry the burden of this production on their shoulders, as well as the audience. They do it in grand fashion. The only glaring issue with the production stems from the play itself, which can lull rather than incite. Considering you are now forewarned, you can prepare yourself to see a moving theatrical dissection of the politics of racism, which brings to mind events taking place over in Arizona. Does our identity boil down to what’s on our birth certificate? Or does our humanity burn somewhere deeper in our conscious?"
