Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...There are people in the world who just never reveal the full extent of their personal problems. Faye is so rich a picture of such a woman, an older worker clinging to her pride in the face of attacks from within and without, that she hasn’t left my head. There will be no copy shop for Faye, we intuit, just the end of what she has done for her adult life."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Morisseau's characters, particularly in the hands of this superb cast and under the direction of Ron OJ Parson at Northlight Theatre, are utterly believable, and the language, a rich and real urban African-American vernacular, possesses just the right grounded lyricism. It's worth noting that this version of the play runs nearly a half-hour longer than the New York production. Parson lets silences in, relaxes the playing, letting scenes unfold at a very realistic-style pace. Still, the evening feels taut, never languorous or dull. The relationships among the characters emerge carefully at first, and then with occasional surprises, especially as the rumors about the plant's closing turn out to be true, forcing Reggie to make hard decisions about how to cull down the already skeleton crew to those who will stay to the end."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Young and impatient Dez (Bernard Gilbert), pregnant overachiever Shanita (AnJi White), and burdened foreman Reggie (Kelvin Roston Jr.) are all similarly multi-dimensional characters who serve to drive home the tragedy of the lives ruined by the failure of industry in America. Set designer Scott Davis uses kinetic girders and cranes that literally loom over the break-room setting to lend gravity and grandeur to a very personal, human story."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...If this was old-school agitdrama, peopled with archetypes proclaiming us-against-them polemics, we wouldn't care—after all, these aren't our problems ( yet )—but Morisseau endows her characters with backstories immediately analogous to experiences crossing racial and class boundaries. Ron OJ Parson's direction of an all-star ensemble ensures our unwavering attention and empathy, while Scott Davis bridges scene shifts with kinetic murals conveying the mighty grandeur of machinery on the brink of being abandoned to rust."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...A Pulitzer Prize finalist and one of Time Magazine's top ten plays of 2017, Skeleton Crew works as a swan song for America's threatened unions. It's equally a salute to the resilience and solidarity of four unhyped, bedrock-decent stayers and fighters. By depicting a very different world from its audiences' experiences, Northlight Theatre respects their worth as much as it honors the tough love of Morisseau's makeshift family."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Highly Recommended
"...All of the actors where outstanding and did an excellent job keeping the audience engaged, however; Jacqueline Williams stole the show with her remarkable performance of Faye. She is witty and thoroughly entertaining. She made you laugh and cry while keeping you engulfed in the story. This play will make you think about the struggles of life and remind you that some of us are genuinely only a paycheck away from being homeless."
Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...The single setting never gets boring, because the 4 characters light it up with their shared relationships, hopes and problems. Long before the end of the play, the audience has come to know, respect and care about all of them. Finely written, carefully directed and believably well acted, this is a play about the signal importance of love and work in a tough town during hard times; it can find a place to resonate in everybody."
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Veteran director Ron OJ Parson melds his four gifted performers into a tight ensemble whose interactions crackle with as much energy as the monotonous, heavy-handed script allows. Williams' opening sigh of melancholic exhaustion as she sits down to enjoy an illicit nicotine break is beautifully choreographed, saying all we need to know about her character's mood and circumstances. Her moment of stolen pleasure is framed by Scott Davis' remarkable mechanized set, featuring an overhead gantry with a traveling crane whose slow, rumbling movements suggest the playing out of an ominous and immutable fate."
