The Violet Hour

” In Steppenwolf’s glossy 2003 staging of Richard Greenberg’s play, an impressive set and careful performances designed to show off the characters’ cleverness made the script feel like nothing more than a precious plume of postmodern spun sugar. In Mikhael Tara Garver’s rougher, considerably more intimate Uma Productions staging–Brian Sidney Bembridge’s design brings us right into the set–Greenberg’s wry, witty tale of literary types in 1919 is much more urgent and persuasive. Even the comic moments seem darker and richer, less a means of avoiding uncomfortable feelings than of conveying them. Lily Mojekwu is especially fine as an African-American singer in love with a spoiled but talented young publisher” – Jack Helbig, Chicago Reader 4/20/06

“In 1919 Manhattan, trust-funded John (Grimes) has to pick his start-up publishing firm’s first book: either the massive novel of his college buddy Denis (Chamberlain), or the no-bullshit memoir of his lover, Jessie (Mojekwu), a famous black singer. Denis’s manuscript, which comes in crates, is described as sprawling and undisciplined, yet ambitious and strangely charming. That description neatly applies to Greenberg’s play, which, like Denis’s tome, intrigues us despite (and, in part, because of) its shortcomings. With a level of acting that’s exceedingly rare for the non-Equity stage (or the Equity stage), Garver keeps her gripping cast crazy-glued to each moment, while Brian Sidney Bembridge’s office set places us inches away from the bracingly honest acting. As Denis, Chamberlain beams with youthful, postwar promise; Francis, as Denis’ society girlfriend, is simply riveting, her constantly evolving face subtly registering every passing thought and emotion. Yet the cast doesn’t quite have the wings for the second act’s flight of fancy; nor does the play itself. When a mysterious machine arrives and spews out reams of paper through the doors and vents, it turns out the random pages tell the future of the entire 20th century. Greenberg opens too many thematic doors here while stepping through too few; in the end, he goes with a facile, hands-in-the-air whatever will be, will be notion. Still, Garver’s intensely focused, high-concentrate production solidifies Uma’s place as a company that, like Violet Hour’s characters, clearly has thrilling things written in its future” – Novid Parsi, TimeOut Chicago 4/20/06