Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Director Smith leans into the drama’s creepier and most subversive aspects, with the help of Linda Buchanan’s stacked-up set, an environment at once realistic, symbolic and skeletal. There’s always humor in Wilson plays. But when A.C. Smith’s Loomis come crashing down, you feel the tremors."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...For me, this play, first produced in 1986 and feeling timeless, represents the ultimate expression of Wilson’s indelible artistry. It beautifully blends realism, lyricism and mysticism in a manner both unique and reminiscent of classical dramatists like Sophocles and Shakespeare. The ensemble storyline captures not just a time and place, but a core theme he’d continue to express throughout his cycle. We’re all searching for something in life, and probably looking in the wrong direction: outward rather than inward, or only forward with no sense of the past."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...Wilson's play is a powerful exploration of the African American experience and the challenges faced by people of color in the early 20th century. Thanks to theatres worldwide, August Wilson's plays are still circulating, providing a window into a rich and complex cultural history and offering hope and resilience in the face of adversity."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Anyone who is aware of August Wilson, knows that he has a wonderful series of ten plays that take us through different decades in Pittsburgh. The Goodman is now doing the second of the series, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” on their Albert stage. Directed to perfection by Chuck Smith ( a true veteran of translating Wilson’s poetic-like stories to the stage) on a set designed by Linda Buchanan that will knock your sox off."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"... The production is directed by the incomparable Chuck Smith, an artist who actually knew August Wilson personally, and has now helmed four of his plays at this theatre. The presentation is a feast for theatergoers who have been starved for a play with plenty of meat on its bones. It overflows with creativity, while still honoring Wilson’s story, its themes and its characters. Smith’s passion and great respect for Wilson’s work is clear and concrete."
Rescripted - Somewhat Recommended
"...Revelation is the engine of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, the second play in August Wilson’s Century Cycle. Yet, it is noticeably absent from this production."
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...Director Chuck Smith returns to Goodman with another major August Wilson revival–“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”. This is the second play in Wilson’s 10-play “American Century Cycle”. Goodman produced the first play in the series, “Gem of the Ocean” in 2022 as well as “Two Trains Running” in 2015. Both directed by Chuck Smith. Returning also is A.C. Smith, a staple of any August Wilson production in Chicago."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...The entire flow of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is set in the kitchen of Seth and Bertha Holly’s boardinghouse—the heart of the home is an appropriate setting for a play that explores the struggles that African Americans are still going through in this play, set almost 50 years after Emancipation."
PicksInSix - Highly Recommended
"...The story is so thick and full of imagery that it’s a real challenge to distill its essence in this forum. It ostensibly takes place in and around the steel mills of 1911 Pittsburgh, focusing on the boarding house of Seth Holly (an easy, yet riveting portrayal by Dexter Zollicoffer), who charges guests a weekly rate “up front” and works at turning scrap metal into dustpans; and his wife Bertha (an elegant and comforting TayLar), whose natural ease belies her character’s real moral center in the house. And there’s a cast of wide-ranging tenants and visitors, whose performers all deserve kudos."
MaraTapp.org - Highly Recommended
"...Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is the second play in Wilson’s series, set in the 1910s. As always, his humor travels easily from everyday wisdom and chatter to laugh-out-loud commentary to profound poetry. His ear for the poetics of the mundanities of everyday life is dazzling whether he is capturing true love in the banter of a long-time couple all too aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses or the advances of a rake who hits on anything in a skirt or a man with estimable spiritual powers or a heartbroken woman."
Chicago Culture Authority - Highly Recommended
"...It’s spring in Chicago, but there’s a distinct feeling of August in the air with two fine productions of August Wilson plays now onstage: How I Learned What I Learned featuring a masterful Harry Lennix performance at Broadway Playhouse, and now Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, delivering a slow build with a tremendous emotional payoff at the Goodman."
BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended
"...Now, under the meticulous direction of Chuck Smith, the Goodman’s newest revival of JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE emphasizes the play’s continued relevance through masterful performances that find cause for celebration and laughter even in the face of oppression. The production has already been extended through May 19 due to popular demand."
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Even worthy Homer sometimes nods, an old Roman once said. Something to keep in mind when considering August Wilson's 1984 play "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," sequentially the second in Wilson's ten-play American Century Cycle, his ambitious effort to chronicle African American history over the twentieth century, one decade at a time. Wilson is without doubt one of the great playwrights of modern times, but this is a lesser effort, hinting at a depth of insight that it never quite delivers."