Renée Lockett Archives - Chicago Reader

Four Black women dance in a kitchen. The woman on the left is in gray pants and sweater with a light blouse. The young woman to her right is in a bathrobe and slippers, her hair wrapped in a cloth. An older woman in a long housecoat with a cane stands behind the table. The only one not dancing is seated with a book at the kitchen table on the right, looking skeptically at the others.

Lead in the water

by Kerry Reid June 23, 2022June 23, 2022

I hardly ever start reviews this way, but trust me: stop reading this and hop online to get tickets for Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s cullud wattah, now in its local premiere at Victory Gardens under Lili-Anne Brown’s direction. It’s a profound, poetic, scabrous (and beautifully acted) piece of theater that hits at so many levels that I […]

Jane Byrne behind a podium with her staff behind her and Cabrini-Green residents seated in folding chairs in front of her. A sign reading "Welcome Mayor" is behind her

Theater Review

The resurrection of Her Honor Jane Byrne

by Kerry Reid November 16, 2021November 20, 2021

Right before the stay-at-home order hit Chicago in March of 2020, Lookingglass Theatre opened Her Honor Jane Byrne, written and directed by ensemble member J. Nicole Brooks. I called that production “a rich, riotous, and soul-searching world premiere,” and mourned its truncated run. Well, you can’t keep a good show down. After winning the prestigious […]