Broadway World - Recommended
"...Director Marya Mazor has breathed life in Carlyle Brown's script, often using actors in freezes at the side of the main stage, allowing her to show off the attitude and reaction of each character as they listen to those onstage. Most notably is the pose with Miss Mattie being shaded by a fancy parasol held aloft by Caroline standing just behind her, or Cato with his horse whip in hand over his head as if pushing Pure Confidence on to win yet another race while the Colonel and George DeWitt (Eamon Hunt, characteristically throwing the "n" word around every chance he gets) negotiate the purse for his next race."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...A modern audience is furlongs ahead of the characters in this race. The playwright has said that Foghorn Leghorn was the inspiration for a central role. This suggests a playful presentation might work better than Marya Mazor's prosaic staging, which stands and sits its cast in a series of straight lines, and runs Nicholas Santiago's projections instead of creating scenes. Even Buderwitz's captivating cyclorama is designed to showcase predictable video: running horses; period lithographs; a 20th-century blackface performance of, yes, "Camptown Races." Heavy is the hand, and heavier the feet, of this show's simplistic thesis."
LA Splash - Highly Recommended
"...PURE CONFIDENCE is a beautifully written, well-acted, carefully directed tale reflecting the many levels of humanity and personal connection which will always be present when more than two people interact – and most especially when they interact in troubled times. This is an engaging play that digs into the depths of the soul with a deceptively light but at the same time perceptive hand. Kudos to all involved, including playwright Carlyle Brown, director Marya Mazor, and the talented actors who peel away social layers slowly and deliberately to reach the heart of the matter."
Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended
"...Pure confidence is just one of the qualities distinguishing Simon Kato from his fellow Kentucky slaves in the year 1860. Another is the champion jockey's talent for winning any race he sets his mind to, and these days what Simon wants to win (or more precisely to buy) is his freedom."
Will Call - Somewhat Recommended
"...The talented Director, Marya Mazor, gets to work with a splendid cast, expertly costumed by Mylette Nora and voice coached by Adam Michael Rose, to assure that everyone's Southern drawl is as authentic as a frosty Mint Julep. Dorsey, who seems a little too hefty to be one of those diminutive jockey we are used to seeing, makes up for that shortcoming by playing the cocky "colored boy" to the hilt. His love object, the demure Graham, shines in her one dramatic scene. The Colonel, Salyers, as a gentleman of the Old South possesses the proper dignity and gravitas for the part and his sympathetic wife, the tall, slender Puette, lends warmth and elegance to Miss Mattie. Hunt and Seaton, in dual roles, display their versatility portraying men of different appearance and accents convincingly. This West Coast premiere leaves us with the good feeling that, while we are not yet perfect, conditions have come a long way since the Civil War era. Now let's work on our current civil war problems."
The Los Angeles Post - Recommended
"...The cast is superb, with all hands commanding and theatrical, yet so utterly committed to the moments at hand that there's not a false note in the evening. Of special mention: in the second act, Mr. Salyers and Ms Puette manage the trick of making themselves seem older and more infirm so subtly, yet so convincingly, that one finds it hard to think of them any other way, even though we've seen them "younger" just minutes before."
Theatre Spoken Here - Highly Recommended
"...Under Marya Mazor's masterly direction, Armond Edward Dorsey is brilliant as Simon, whose outer humor masks a resolute inner dignity."
Stage Raw - Somewhat Recommended
"...But in a play as much concerned with what makes a man as anything else - Simon poses that question to the Colonel early on - Dorsey is off the mark. His Simon is far too petulant for a hero, even a flawed and arrogant one - he needs more dignity, even if it's born of hubris. Plus, the performance is doggedly one-note. It's a problem with the direction as much as a misinterpretation by the performer."
Theatre Notes - Recommended
"...Carlyle Brown's Pure Confidence, a West Coast premiere produced by Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble at Sacred Fools Theatre in Hollywood, tells a story of horse racing and slavery before and after the Civil War. Before the war, most jockeys in America were slaves, and in this story a peerless jockey named Simon Cato (an exuberant Armond Edward Dorsey) races a champion thoroughbred called Pure Confidence for Colonel Wiley Johnson (amiable William Salyers). The Colonel doesn't own Simon, but rather hires him for each race he runs. Simon is technically owned by two young girls who inherited him when their parents died. A lawyer takes care of the details."
