Los Angeles Times - Highly Recommended
"...The production, directed by Robert O'Hara (who has been so instrumental in the play's success), uses the Taper's thrust stage to connect more viscerally to the audience. The comedy plays more broadly than it did in New York, but the proximity of Clint Ramos' reconfigured Broadway set draws us deeper inside the action."
Broadway World - Recommended
"...Again, this is not for the faint of heart, nor is it intended to be. "You should not work to make the audience comfortable with what they are witnessing at all," Harris writes in his script notes, and O'Hara is every bit on the same page as the playwright. Plaudits certainly to the production's intimacy and fight director, Teniece Divya Johnson, whose work must have made a difficult assignment for this company that much easier to navigate."
Edge - Somewhat Recommended
"...That said, this is a rich play full of insight, humor, and important discussion. It almost begs to be seen again or read carefully to fully take in what Harris is trying to say. The biggest takeaway for this critic was in the final moments, when Kaneisha - after having been allowed to fulfill her sexual slave fantasy by her husband - says, "Thank you for listening to me." We should all do the same."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"...The first 30 minutes entertained, excited, amused and aroused me big time. But the seminar went on and on and on, as if the playwright spewed every thought and point-of-view on racism you could think of. Amidst the now mind-numbing conversations of inclusion and diversity, it even feels dated already. Harris is profoundly skilled at dialogue; his jargon-speak fantastic. But critical thinkers who feed on dramatic structure, be forewarned. Regardless how thought-provoking, fascinating, and clever his thoughts, both character development and cause-and-effect take second fiddle to the implausible rants. I think the media attention the play has garnered is about what the play is about versus the play itself. It's kind of the emperors new clothes; what is Slave Play about except for provoking ideas? Specifically, that Whites do not understand, listen or empathize with the Black experience in America. Yes, it's a challenging work to watch but it is one that has caused divisive arguments more than criticism. For all of its theatrical innovation, I left feeling theatrically unsatisfied."
LA Splash - Highly Recommended
"...SLAVE PLAY is definitely a thought-provoking piece skillfully helmed by Robert O'Hara. This is a play which reveals multiple deep-seated problems and long-term stresses in American society - for which there are no simple answers or quick fixes. The entire cast does an excellent job of making sense of the conundrums inherent in the racial theme - while keeping the audience on their toes and the fur flying. SLAVE PLAY is meant to be uncomfortable, just as racial conflict is uncomfortable. This is a play which asks more questions than it answers - perhaps appropriate at this point in time. It can be entertaining and funny - but, at its base, this is serious stuff."
Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended
"...A trio of interracial couples let it all hang out in group therapy as Center Theatre Group presents the Broadway production of Jeremy O. Harris's daringly provocative, deliberately discomforting, and frequently damn funny Slave Play."
Entertainment Weekly - Highly Recommended
"...What follows is an unflinching, unapologetic examination of generational trauma, the lingering effects of slavery, interracial power dynamics, and white supremacy. All this is underpinned by remarkable performances from the entire ensemble, the majority of whom have traveled with the show from Broadway. Robert O'Hara's astute direction leads to a crisp economy of movement and a pointed blocking that underlines who feels empowered to take up space and who must stake their claim more forcefully."
Stage Raw - Somewhat Recommended
"...Jeremy O. Harris's burlesque-drama, wistfully staged by Robert O'Hara with a charismatic ensemble, streaks across the theatrical firmament like a comet. Yet the tail is more luminous than the substance of the object itself - an object that rattles and prattles along its trajectory, unsure of whether it wishes to be regarded as an object of insight, of provocation, of titillation or of mystification."
Indulge Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...Harris's satirical brilliance is immediately apparent because while the vignettes indisputably disturb - diving deep into themes of race, oppression, dominance, and masochism - he manages to make, at least most of us, laugh. But this is only preparation for what ensues - an intense, harrowing examination of the root causes that have led these couples to seek out such an extreme form of therapy."
