Star Tribune - Recommended
"...In his query of the past, playwright Jacobs-Jenkins seems to locate some of the roots of our present distemper. His "Octoroon" is clever and messy but important work."
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Twin Cities Pioneer Press - Recommended
"...Jacobs-Jenkins' provocative and improbably entertaining play goes to great lengths to make us feel the hurt of that inhumanity. Director Nataki Garrett doesn't burn down Mixed Blood Theatre but there is a sense that maybe the only way to fix this world is to burn it down and start all over again. In that vein, it's interesting to note that the theater where "An Octoroon" is being performed -- and where there is all this talk of arson -- is a former firehouse. Something tells me Branden Jacobs-Jenkins would love that."
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How Was The Show - Recommended
"...it provides Jacobs-Jenkins with the chance to very freely adapt The Octoroon, using extensive narration, actors in whiteface, in blackface, using often confusing multiple casting, totally confusing puppetry (the rabbit?), long static expositional scenes. An Octoroon works best when it hews to the story material provided by Boucicault, but too often it lurches and wobbles, with characters who create too many unanswered questions. For example: why do the women speak so anachronistically? Why are they so lackadaisical about being sold? Won't Dido ever put down that blankety-blank broom?"`
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Aisle Say Twin Cities - Recommended
"...Mixed Blood Theatre's opening show, An Octoroon, is a fitting show for the talents of Mixed Blood. Known for their plays on, about and for diversity, An Octoroon, fits right in. By way of a brief synopsis, An Octoroon is a play within a play (somewhat). It's about a playwright who adapts an older play called The Octoroon. You get to meet both playwrights (of the current and former play) and you get to see the actual play, which is a melodrama about slavery and a woman who is 1/8 black. As I am trying to briefly write up this synopsis I am realizing that without a long, complicated explanation the play is not going to make much sense. So, I'll leave the synopsis with this-the plot makes sense and moves you right through the action, with a few little fun surprises and twists along the way."
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