Tom Reviews
Los Angeles Times- Somewhat Recommended
"..."Tom" isn't the kind of bold re-envisioning we saw in "Lear," the 2014 gender-switched take on "King Lear" by Ellen Geer, artistic director of the venue named after her father. The principal innovation of "Tom" is its incorporation of Stowe (Melora Marshall) as a character. Elderly but still impassioned, Marshall's feisty Stowe narrates and presides over a mostly by-the-book presentation of her anti-slavery classic."
LA Splash- Highly Recommended
"...Playwright Ellen Geer adapted the tale and added music - but set the play 35 years later. The play begins in 1886, which coincided with the death of Harriet Beecher Stowe's husband and her gradual decline to what might have been Alzheimer's symptoms. Thus the famous book has become a tribute to Stowe's memories and reflections."
Peoples World- Recommended
"...Tom makes good use of Gospel music and Negro Spirituals - some are performed live, while others are recordings, including some Paul Robeson numbers. As usual, the actors, playing in the hilly wilds of deepest darkest Topanga, make good use of the rustic space in an amphitheater environment. Actors sometimes bolt up and down the aisles, and when Eliza and Harry flee, they are glimpsed above the set per se on the hillside making their way through the forest - the clever theatrical equivalent of a long shot."