Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...But "the ripple, the wave, that carried me home," the eloquent new Christina Anderson play at the Goodman Theatre, makes a richly worded argument that segregated swimming had an especially pernicious history, born of the remarkably pervasive and long-lived panic over Americans of different races sharing the calming shifts of water. (In Chicago, we are especially familiar, given the notorious fights over who got to swim at which Lake Michigan beach.)"
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...On the surface, Christina Anderson’s engrossing drama “the wave, the ripple that carried me home” is about the fight to integrate public swimming pools in the fictional suburban town of Beacon, Kansas. But like water itself, there are depths here that defy cut-and-dried boundaries."
Daily Herald - Recommended
"...In her lyrical new play "the ripple, the wave that carried me home," Christina Anderson examines a civil rights struggle that is perhaps less familiar to many than the battles Black people fought over voting rights, housing and education."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...Directed by Jackson Gay, Anderson’s play lets us see the characters and their causes with complexity (intraracial class differences, as well as gendered abuse, come into focus), along with sorrow and horror at the repeating cycles of white abuse. A recurring line, “Is this your first time in America? Let me show you around,” hits with both humor and heartache at the unwillingness of white Americans to confront racism. Yet by the end, there is also a hard-won pride and hope washing over the women in the story."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...The play starts with a phone ringing and ends with the rings of justice. And the performances given by these four actors get a ringing endorsement from Let's Play Theatrical Review. It's this year's "Must See Play.""
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...I am not a swimmer! I would love to feel the thrill that I see others enjoy when in a pool or a lake or even an ocean. While I am not one for the pool, growing up I always had the right to swim in the pool- any public pool, indoors or outdoors. In Christina Anderson's "The Ripple, The wave that Carried Me Home", we meet a family that doesn't have that right. In fact, a race that cannot use the pool, and as hard as it might be to imagine, it wasn't that long ago. This 1 hour and 45 minute play smoothly directed by Jackson Gay on a set designed by Todd Rosenthal that includes a portion of a swimming pool ( with running water) and sliding walls with floors that also slide, in the smaller of the two venues at The Goodman, The Owen."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Christiana Anderson has seasoned her memory play with humorous, heartfelt moments, honest, multilayered characters and unforgettable phrases and wording. The final scene, set within Todd Rosenthal’s beautifully versatile setting, is a radiant celebration of love and forgiveness. It ebbs and flows and sprinkles and splashes with joy and abandon, light and water. The audience rejoices with these characters, as we watch two generations of African-American women jubilant in the water of the newly-named swimming pool—a public facility that honors Janice’s father and his hard-fought battle for equality and inclusion in the Heartland."
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...“ripple..” is a memory play and according to Janice, some of those memories are best left at the bottom of a deep pool. Janice narrates her time growing up starting in the early 60’s as the daughter of Edwin (Ronald Connor) and Helen (Aneisa Hicks). We learn Janice’s father is from the necessity class and her mother, the thinking class. These distinctions meant very little to the white majority, but these distinctions helped the audience understand how her parents approached life."
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...In the ripple, the wave, the swimming pools in the fictional 1950s town of Beacon, Kansas, are segregated. Black residents have nowhere to swim; Black kids have nowhere to learn to swim. Janice’s father, Edwin (Ronald L Conner), a leader in the fight for a pool, tells his daughter a story about his boyhood. Edwin and three friends found a way to sneak into a white pool. Reggie, the best swimmer, dives in and takes a brief swim before they are all chased away. Edwin tells how the pool was closed for three days so it could be drained, sanitized and refilled. Because a Black kid swam there for 30 seconds."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...The ending result, in this writer’s view, is that the script and acting combine to create a deeply personal, intimate story with a flow not unlike water. We ride the waves of highs and lows, and what it means to travel home and confront everything one leaves behind."
BroadwayWorld - Recommended
"...Directed by Jackson Gay, the cast give deeply-honed emotional life to their characters. Christiana Clark is a compelling choice for the role of Janice. Clark is likable and has a soft, commanding energy to her performance. Her line deliveries are conversational, and she strikes a fitting tone as she relays stories from Janice's life. Clark's performance is central to the show without overdoing it. In the dual roles of Aunt Gayle and Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman, Brianna Buckley has superb comedic timing, and she demonstrates her versatility by adopting entirely distinct mannerisms across her two roles. Ronald L. Conner is affable as Edwin, demonstrating why he could become a powerful head of the movement to desegregate pools. But the role on paper isn't the most fleshed out. Perhaps that's because this play is really meant to center on the women. Aneisa Hicks is lovely as Helen, and she gives the character a fitting air of quiet determination."
NewCity Chicago - Recommended
"...Every member of the cast adeptly develops their characters with a smoothness that makes it seem like they are really family. Brianna Buckley delivers a standout performance as both Aunt Gayle and Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman—yes, that’s the character’s name—and defines them both so solidly that it is hard to believe that they were played by the same person."
