“Four years after seeing this work performed, I still find the force of this play startling — not just in what it says about Shakespeare and race, but about the uneven recognition that access to these powerful works is itself uneven. This is a vitally important work, one we need to think about as we try to understand what Shakespeare is becoming in the next century. In 2015, the Folger Shakespeare added a working playscript of American Moor to its permanent collection, where it joins an extraordinary record of the sources, adaptations, and significant interpretations of Shakespeare’s works. The play blazes into life with insight into the cultural conflicts of early 21st century America, a fact that commends it both to history and to the resonant location of Southwark.”

“American Moor, at the Cherry Lane Theatre, is a witty, passionate, furious, and movingly intimate record of an African-American actor’s often unrequited love for Shakespeare…”

““American Moor, which Cobb also wrote, is a probing interrogation of prevailing attitudes about race and art, wrapped in a single, tension-fraught confrontation; no one is likely to leave without feeling profoundly affected.””

“If you go to see American Moor — and you should — leave any white fragility you may have at home.”

“Keith Hamilton Cobb’s American Moor is a tour de force performance which puts Shakespeare, race and America in a different perspective that is unforgettable once you have seen the play.”

“Cobb’s earnest, reasoned script slashes so precisely that you may not see Shakespeare — and a lot of roles played by black performers — quite the same way for a while.”

“Watching this consummate actor, carefully directed in his autographical piece by Kim Weild...the evening is an awe-inspiring marvel inspiring thoughts that linger well after the lights come down.”

“In addition to a compelling account of black performers’ ambivalence toward Othello, the burden that the play and its title role can be for them, American Moor also offers a promising avenue into the future of Shakespeare performance…”

“A spellbinding journey through Shakespeare and race...blisteringly eloquent and penetrating on ever-urgent matter of race in America.”

“Cobb’s energy is unflagging, and his pace unrelenting; he fills the room with movement, energy, and sheer vital presence. This is a rare example of a play about which you can say, without hyperbole, that it’s riveting: You hang on every well-chosen, robustly presented word. “American Moor” is both urgent art and an important political statement.”

“American Moor is a terrific meditation on Othello and race....it is rare to find a play that offers up revelations about a text that may startle even a veteran Shakespeare watcher.”

“Cobb knocks down the fourth wall – nay, make that sledgehammers down that fourth wall – and commands the audience in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a solo performance.”

“Cobb takes us on a journey that enlarges to reflect the issues of race in America and the continued experiences of other men of color. ”