Honky Reviews
Los Angeles Times- Recommended
"...Where a lesser play might predictably settle for black-and-white arguments, "Honky" opts for richer psychological territory: The play's five principal characters grapple with internal conflicts about their own racial identity. Thomas' declared solidarity with "his people" turns out to be rooted in an affluent upbringing that's left him desperate to reclaim his blackness. Conversely, his sister (Inger Tudor), a therapist, denies any racial differences in viewing her (exclusively white) clients as just "people with problems.""
LA Weekly- Recommended
"...Kalleres' script is spot on in its probe of the anxieties about race that beset even the most adult and bias-free among us, and takes an interesting ironic twist when it turns out that the frivolously candid Andie is actually the most color-blind among them all. Unfortunately, both Tom and Peter are too thinly etched in performance, and the production's knockout punch is markedly less forceful than it might have been otherwise."
Broadway World- Recommended
"...HONKY performances run 95 minutes without an intermission, smoothly presented using rotating scenic elements designed by Stephanie Kerley Schwartz on which Nicholas E. Santiago's video and projection design creates well-recognized city and office environments. Producers John Perrin Flynn and Amanda Mauer certainly carry on Rogue Machine's ever-evolving style in which multimedia elements often become characters themselves."
LA Splash- Highly Recommended
"...Stephanie Kerley Schwartz's scenic design brilliantly incorporates the multiple scenes by using sliding walls and well-placed bits of "floating" furniture. It is a true piece de resistance. Everyone on this production team has worked together to create a viable, creative, and interesting place for the action to occur."
Stage Scene LA- Highly Recommended
"...If laughter is indeed the best medicine for what ails us, then anyone afflicted with racism would do well to check out the latest from Rogue Machine, Greg Kalleres's foul-mouthed and fabulous satirical comedy Honky. (And if you think the R-word doesn't apply to you, then you clearly haven't heard Avenue Q's "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist.")"
Stage Raw- Recommended
"...Under extraordinarily savvy direction by Gregg T. Daniel (showing versatile chops after Wedding Band at Antaeus, Fences at ICT), no actor sets a foot wrong, confrontations crackle, and the rather ambitious scope of the play's examination of its subject remains clear and precise. In his attempt at thoroughness, Kalleres does lapse a little into repetition (if always in pursuit of amplifying a point) and sometimes paints himself into a situational corner that Daniel's resourceful transitions mask well. Despite the play's essential malice, its intentions are constructive, and it helps to approach it with a thick skin and a spirit of good will."