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- UNWELL: A MIDWESTERN GOTHIC MYSTERY--Lily, the protagonist played by Shariba Rivers, is fractious and irritable, having been forced to come down to the town she hates to help her mother, but believably so, completing tasks that she feels compelled to in order to protect her mother’s health....Rivers and Harman enact a contentious, sometimes emotionally abusive, sometimes awkwardly loving, relationship with a long history, parallel to the house that is falling apart around them. --Elena Fernández Collins
- UNWELL: A MIDWESTERN GOTHIC MYSTERY--Played by Shariba Rivers, Lily, Unwell‘s protagonist, is prickly in a way that feels justifiable, or at least relatable. There’s a sense of both duty and frustration in her performance that helps Lily feel grounded–something that accentuates the strangeness that seeps into every part of Mt. Absalom. --Wil Williams, Wil Williams Reviews
- SMALL JOKES ABOUT MONSTERS--Mom describes her current romantic relationship by saying that “life is just a series of days, nothing more, nothing less.” Her matter-of-fact nihilism gets big laughs from the audience, as well as some cringes....Rivers’s Mom is a tough person to compete with for attention. She’s more comfortable...explicitly playing the victim while seeming less vulnerable. Rivers plays her cool, usually somewhat removed from the center of the stage, and always throwing curveballs. It’s not that she withholds love, it’s that her wisdom simply isn’t helpful. --Jacob Davis, Picture This Post
- SMALL JOKES ABOUT MONSTERS--Rivers is especially strong as the tough but loving mom who never hesitates to speak her mind. She can be brutally insulting. --Doug Deuchler, OakPark.com
- THE WINTER WOLF--Rivers’s indispensably warm and layered performance, accomplished while simultaneously bringing to life a previously unheard of demigod beast, goes a long way toward lending this simple story the gravitas it needs even to win over young audiences. --Kris Vire, Storefront Rebellion
- THE WINTER WOLF--Shariba Rivers, manipulating an oddly suitcase-like puppet version of the creature, breathes just the right combination of solemnity and playfulness into the proceedings. --Justin Hayford, Chicago Reader
- IN THE CANYON--Where a light exists both performance-wise and within the narrative is Wendy. This is perhaps the standout performance for Shariba Rivers, who’d already been incredible to this point. Wendy is solid, soft, smart and acerbic—the best of her mother and then some,,,she’s the one point of hope, if small. She’s stalwart and determined to keep fighting, and remind us to do something more. --Marielle Shaw, 3CR
- IN THE CANYON--Shariba Rivers, who plays Hope’s mother Sarah, embodies the stately southern woman with a quiet strength and more than enough kindness and hospitality to go around, without ever becoming cliché or insincere.... Rivers becomes the calm in the room, the buoy you’ll look back on when the waters get choppy, which they will quickly. --Marielle Shaw, 3CR
- IN THE CANYON--Shariba Rivers and Peter Moore as Actor Six and Actor Seven carry a particularly interesting track – beginning as a married couple devoted to the church, and later performing in a completely different power dynamic.... Moore and Rivers portray that switch gracefully, and create an especially frightening and effective relationship as the criminal and officer. --Lauren Katz, Picture This Post
- IN THE CANYON--Starting in 2007, In the Canyon follows Hope and eventually Hope's daughter Wendy ( a magnificent Shariba Rivers ) through roughly 60 years. Over the decades, the world of Obama becomes the world of Trump and then a world not unlike Margaret Atwood's Gilead...Sharpe's Hope and Rivers' Wendy provide the ferocity that keeps In the Canyon moving relentlessly from the present into the foreseeable future. --Catey Sullivan, Windy City Times
- REFRIGERATOR--Each cast member has transcendent moments, with Shariba Rivers as the coldhearted, pragmatic Mitchell a particular standout. --Dmitry Samarov, Chicago Reader
- REFRIGERATOR--The performances are solid all around (Rivers and Cutler are particularly good), and the cast handles Baisch’s dialogue with aplomb. --Alex Huntsberger, Time Out Chicago
- REFRIGERATOR--Pimentel’s direction moves the action along and features good performances by the whole cast, especially by Andrew as Roland and Rivers as Mitchell. --Nancy Bishop, Third Coast Review
- DONTRELL, WHO KISSED THE SEA--But, above all, Shariba William’s [sic] is brilliant as Dontrell’s mother–the living embodiment of his metaphorical sea. In (her) deep and utterly soulful performance, she is, at once, the carrier of her son’s anxiety, possibility, and dreams. --Karen Topham, Chicago on Stage
- DONTRELL, WHO KISSED THE SEA--...the two will have to deal with Mom – a force to be reckoned with (as is Shariba Rivers in the role of Mom).... seven players in a movie-star-caliber cast (casting is by Catherine Miller). --Bill Esler, Buzz Center Stage
- DONTRELL, WHO KISSED THE SEA--However, the most powerful scene of the play to us is when his mother expresses her thoughts and feelings about his decision to explore the sea, a mother's love of trying to guide her child into a destiny of surety, not of the uncertainty of the waves of the sea. --Rick and Brenda McCain, Chicago Now
- INSURRECTION: HOLDING HISTORY--And the women, led by Sydney Charles (often in blonde-wig drag) and Shariba Rivers (playing Mutha and Mutha Wit, who speaks for the temporarily mute TJ) are equally accomplished, funny yet turning to fury or fear on a dime. --Dueling Critics
- INSURRECTION: HOLDING HISTORY--Shariba Rivers enters in older, rattier clothing that might be found on a woman of her status in the 1800s south, and she begins to sing a stunning lullaby.... This ensemble tackles the piece with ease, and successfully carries the audience from one moment to the next. --Lauren Katz, Picture This Post
- JB--Pastor's ensemble is strikingly good, more or less without exception. Marssie Mencotti gives a particularly strong, blustering and blistering performance as Religion, as does Shariba Rivers as both Science and J.B.'s son, David. --Christine Malcom, Edge Media
- THE TERRIBLE--...wouldn’t play as well without the quality performances from Rivers and Fowler. Delving into the depths of a mother without her son and a man without his mind comes two beautifully nuanced performances. --Jerald Raymond Pierce, Chicago Stage Standard
- THE TERRIBLE--There is a truly incredible performance from Shariba Rivers as a woman haunted by loss and terrified of the violent present, yet enormously powerful in her empathy and love. --Mark Christopher
- POLAROID STORIES--There are three standouts; Shariba Rivers, Luke Michael Grimes and Andrew Cutler who each hypnotically bring you into their world without the audience member knowing how or why they are doing it. Ms. Rivers (Persephone/Semele) is instantly engaging and a powerhouse in her subtle manipulations trying to get a fix. In one scene, she tosses the word “love” around where each time she says it, or it is mentioned to her, it takes on a dimension all its own. --Showbiz Chicago
- POLAROID STORIES--That task falls largely to Shariba Rivers, whose brief monologue about the baby she gave up for adoption is as blunt and strong as they come. --Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune
- JASON AND MEDEA--Rivers is the most intense of the cast and actually feels like she’s the only one straight out of a classic Greek play. --Patrick Dyer, Chicago Theater Beat
- SPEAKING IN TONGUES--Shariba Rivers plays the role of Tricia...Ms. Rivers has an edge to her that shows how the character planned and envisioned her way out. And ... is stunning to behold in the role. --K. D. Hopkins, Chicago Theater Beat
- THE RANT--The show’s strongest element is the raw fury of newcomer Shariba Rivers performance as the boy’s mother, whose opening rant and version of the events is far more gripping than anything that comes after. --Monica Westin, Newcity Stage
- THE RANT--Rivers’ aggrieved Denise, mother of the slain boy, packs a lifetime of angry suffering into every uttered syllable—it’s a weight she both resignedly shoulders and also wields as a weapon against her detractors. --Paige Listerud, Chicago Theater Beat