“This classic-meets-modern, Greek-meets-Black production traverses a lot of ground in its two-and-a-half-hour running time, making the journey feel tiresome by the end. Still, ‘black odyssey’ offers a set of heroes — and villains — and a grand spectacle of Blackness to make the trip worthwhile.”
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“The play is at times captivating and clever, but it is more interested in reveling in its own cleverness than in seeing its choices through. The unevenness makes Gardley’s script feel a little corny in its reliance on on-the-nose pronouncements.”
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“...’black odyssey’ has an impulse toward overexpansiveness. Gardley wants to fit nearly everything into his big mythological universe”
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“In a theatre scene that can sometimes be risk-averse, Gardley's consistent originality and breadth of vision marks him as one of our most interesting playwrights... ‘Black Odyssey’ is an epic journey that pays commensurate with its challenges.”
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“...if I were still a high school English teacher, I would recommend black odyssey as required viewing. It is a show that is simultaneously enjoyable and edifying.”
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“The cast is uniformly excellent with superb comedic pacing and the heft for the more profound segments of Lincoln’s journey...Following the conception of his play from beginning to end reveals Gardley’s ability to effect exposition into action...This is one to see.”
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" 'black odyssesy' is theater you can really sink your teeth into — dramatic, imaginative and detailed. It takes a little patience, but once we hit our stride the storm tossed seas, and vivid nightmares are smooth sailing."
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“Whether and how much Gardley’s mash-up of foundational Western literature and Black history will resonate with a viewer is uncertain...But this visually lively ‘Odyssey’ certainly has rewards for audiences willing to take the journey.”
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