The Tragedy of King Christophe presented by The House Theatre of Chicago at Chopin Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"..."King Christophe" is a heady and complicated work, to say the least, and yet for anyone interested in the fervent history of Haiti, a fascinating piece. The play is structured somewhere between a history play and a tragedy. As played here by William Anthony Sebastian Rose II, the title character variously puts you in mind of Shakespeare's Henry V, Sophocles' Oedipus and Eugene O'Neill's Emperor Jones, trying to reconcile populist obligations with a desire for personal power. What makes Cesaire so unlike those other writers, though, is his explicit exploration of how colonialist practices made Christophe's original aims impossible, thus condemning him and his people to the very journey the play explores."

Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended

"...There's a fascinating play to be written about Henri Christophe, who became Haiti's first president in 1807 after helping lead a slave rebellion that overthrew the island's French colonizers. Chicago has an ensemble more than capable of telling his remarkable story: they're on stage in the House Theatre of Chicago's production of Aime Cesaire's 1963 drama, "The Tragedy of King Christophe.""

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...The House Theatre’s motto used to be “Story Save Us!” The Tragedy of King Christophe lacks precisely that sort of propulsive story, and no amount of directorial creativity or actorly skill can make up for its absence."

Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended

"...Lanise Antoine Shelley is both the director of this fine production and the new artistic director of the House Theatre. She is of Haitian descent and brings a deep and loving authenticity to The Tragedy of King Christophe. Her direction is seamless and gives each of the actors an integral part in each scene as they play several parts. That would be a tall order with a cast of 20 and she does it handily with a cast of eight."

TotalTheater - Highly Recommended

"...Despite the employment of multiple dramaturgs, linguistic consultants and dialect instructors, the exposed brick walls make for acoustical distortion further blurring the creole-accented patois spoken for most of the performance, but the regal bearing of William Anthony Sebastian Rose II, as the villain whose bloody road to his passion-on-the-cross death is paved with good intentions, cannot help but remind us of other misguided men whose ruin lay in their acquisition of too much power."