Dutchman & The Slave
“Dutchman and The Slave’ is a brilliant pairing of Amiri Baraka works on N.J. stage.
Excellence is afoot in Trenton..The show is vivid, engrossing, and stunning in its immediacy and courage."
- NJ.com
“All that happens is courageously and unstintingly depicted by Jones and his cast. No one can leave Passage’s production without dozens of thoughts and questions swirling through their heads...
Deidre Rose skillfully combines since-day-one sexiness with cunningly dark intention as the temptress supremacist in “Dutchman.” She really shines in “The Slave,” in which she parodies a well-heeled socialite, Bryn Mawr accent and all, while showing her Grace is the most rational, untainted character of any we’ll see in Passage’s double bill.
Rose is canny in how she manages the Grace who is the doyenne of a cultured Manhattan home and the Grace who understands Walker and can reason with him sans the cant Brad cannot help spouting.”
- Community News
“A white femme fatale, Lula (Deidre Rose), slithers to Clay’s seat and sits beside him. Early in the play another literary allegory becomes obvious. The forward Lula offers the reserved Clay an apple, in an allusion to Adam and Eve. Rose’s body language —sticking her tongue out and lasciviously moving it from one side of her mouth to the other, like a snake — suggests that Lula is an amalgam of Eve and the Serpent...
Brown and Rose play off of each other well, underlining the contrast and dynamics between the characters. Lula’s behavior unquestionably is repulsive; but almost against our will we are entertained, at times amused, by the outrageousness of the scene…
If Dutchman is an allegory to Adam and Eve, then The Slave arguably can be seen as a nod to Revelation…
Dutchman and The Slave is compelling. Both segments are intense, contain much for audiences to process, and resolutely challenge our comfort zone. The plays are exploring concepts as much as characters (in a post-show talkback it is explained that Baraka was less interested in theater per se, and more in letting it be a live forum for his ideas), but the actors’ strong performances bring the characters — and Baraka’s rich, impassioned, and poetic dialogue — to life. Passage is to be commended for helping to keep these plays in the public consciousness, through a production that tangibly develops the plays’ wealth of themes.”
- Town Topics, Princton’s Weekly Community Newspaper since 1946
Photos by Habiyb Shu Aib
“..But I do know that these expressions of Baraka’s mind and thought are dense, powerful plays. They are not here to provide entertainment; they are not here to be loved or even necessarily liked. They are here to begin an exploration of race in America, one that in too many cases is long overdue, one that is hard. If these are the types of plays that you seek, then I suggest you make your way to Trenton’s Passage Theatre Company to see Dutchman and The Slave.”
- Out in Jersey
“Directed by Ozzie Jones, this unique staging brings Baraka's radical spirit and poetic language to life, challenging audiences to confront uncomfortable truths about race and identity. With standout performances by Phillip Brown and Deidre Rose, this production [offers] a thought-provoking and relevant theatrical experience.”
- Newark News Today
Photo by SarahJayn Kemp
Brilliant Lies
"All the performances were believable and engaging, but the trio of siblings at the center of the story were outstanding. Understudy Deidre Rose played the lead role of party girl Susy. Rose portrayed Susy as cross between Jessie Spano [Saved by the Bell] and Catherine Tramell [Basic Instinct], and it didn’t hurt that she looked the part. She delivered a strong performance in a compromising role, one that required her to be ethically ambiguous. She did so flawlessly and created a case for audience sympathy and suspicion."
- The Bay Bridged
Photo by Peter Williams
Romeo & Juliet
“And this is frankly one of the finest OFS productions I’ve seen. Its velocity, tumbling comedy and bawdy, tragedy through lightning brawls…
“Deidre Rose’s first role as Serving Man is chocked with fleer and taunt…
“Incidentally, this is where Rose’s Paris scores beautifully. An unsympathetic character recently, blind to his advances so blatantly unwanted by Juliet (those are abridged here but apparent) this Paris explodes in genuine grief along with the Capulets. Rose’s Romeo-challenging Paris is simply uncomprehending but again Church’s [stage combat director] fight-direction provides a knife-fight-scene remarkable for its desperation.”
- Fringe Review
Photo by Peter Williams
Henry V
“Deidre Rose, who impressed as last week’s Paris, manages to scramble dignity as the French Ambassador and some pathos as Mistress Quickly in the pre-embarkation scene with the post-Falstaffian trio, reporting too the old knight’s death.”
- Fringe Review