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Elizabeth Rex

(Illinois Shakespeare Festival)

Prentice] is an actor of immense versatility and presence.

Dave Begel, OnMilwaukee.com

The charismatic Christopher Prentice has no such problem in presenting a Ned who can be brilliant and seemingly fearless in reading and exposing others — including Elizabeth herself — while also proving vulnerable, angry and scared, as Ned avoids what he’s lost in the past and what awaits him in the near future.

Mike Fischer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Much Ado About Nothing

(Illinois Shakespeare Festival)

Measure for Measure

(Stratford Festival)

a lot of fine performances … Christopher Prentice moves us as the doomed Claudio

Richard Ouzounian, Toronto Star

a fine Christopher Prentice

J. Kelly Nestruck, The Globe and Mail

Christopher Prentice expresses Claudio’s fear and resignation with haunting perfection

The Bard and the Boards

Christopher Prentice movingly conveys the agony of a young man who feels so defeated by injustice he can scarcely believe in hope.

Christopher Hoile, Stage Door

This is a top-level production of a great play … The cast looks to be hand-picked … Newcomer Christopher Prentice is rather touching as Claudio.

Herbert Simpson, Artes Magazine

Henry V

(Stratford Shakespeare Festival)

There is much to admire. Tom Rooney is terrific as Pistol and so is Randy Hughson as Bardolph. Christopher Prentice as a nicely dim Nim rounds out this trio of mostly unlovable rogues & Sophia Walker is sweetly determined to be good as their Boy. With Lucy Peacock as Pistol’s wife, they form a court of misrule & slyness . . . just like the younger actors in the glam roles in the official courts. Time & again the Pistol-Bardolph crew’s darkly funny scenes are an immediate satirical response to Henry’s.

London Free Press

The Merry Wives of Windsor

(Stratford Shakespeare Festival)

Christopher Prentice is brilliantly funny playing it straight as Anne’s barely willing suitor Slender; he has great command of the text and mastery of every malapropism … Malpropism-prone Slender gains most of our sympathy here thanks to a fantastically funny performance by Prentice, who has apparently been at the festival for three seasons but was hitherto unnoticed by me. He mangles the English language masterfully; his anxious ambivalence about marriage – and everything else – is a treat.

J. Kelly Nestruck, The Globe and Mail

…the lad being played charmingly if with almost too much restraint by Christopher Prentice

Robert Cushman, National Post

Christopher Prentice stood out among Anne Page’s many boring and broad suitors with the sort of zany/wonderful performance that suggests an excitable man desperately trying to keep control of his limbs

Kelly Bedard, My Entertainment World

…one of the best performances of the night from Christopher Prentice as Master Slender. Prentice’s shaky anti-suitor stole every scene. Prentice is the textbook example of taking a small role and doing something big.

Laura Cudworth, The Beacon Herald

Christopher Prentice rendered an ideal dolt

James Wegg Review

Christopher Prentice as the bumbling and hopelessly clueless Master Slender gives us genuine delight with his repertoire of facial contortions that punctuate each word he speaks.

James Strecker

Christopher Prentice and James Blendick are hilarious as the idiotic Master Slender and his long-suffering uncle, Justice Shallow.

Kelly Monaghan, Intrepid Travelogue

Short Shakespeare! Romeo and Juliet

(Chicago Shakespeare Theater)

…a bright spot, along with Christopher Prentice’s wily Mercutio

Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune

Robin Hood

(Oak Park Festival Theatre)

Credit rests with Christopher Prentice whose agile, uncontrived performance as the gallant outlaw reflects a striking command of Shakespeare’s language

Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald

Hamlet

(Signal Ensemble Theatre)

In ‘Hamlet,’ the name of the game is play and prey. And in its version of Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy, Signal Ensemble Theatre plays it straight with a masterful production – faithful to text and tone – marked by a bravura performance by Christopher Prentice in the title role… Much of the credit goes to the charismatic Prentice. Confident and credible, Prentice has a keen sense of pacing, which he uses to excellent effect in the soliloquies. It is also evident in the crescendo that accompanies Hamlet’s condemnation of Guildenstern’s attempts to manipulate him. His is a classic Hamlet: contemplative, visceral, arrogant, impatient and bit manic. Feigning madness in order to trap his murderous uncle and avenge his father, Hamlet insists ‘I am not in madness, but mad in craft.’ And yet, unrest underscores Prentice’s performance, suggesting that grief over his beloved father’s untimely death and his mother’s sudden remarriage may have unhinged him in ways he doesn’t realize.

Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald

Prentice’s sweet prince is hot-tempered and unusually wry

Kris Vire, Time Out Chicago

And when Hamlet rejects Ophelia, his visible pain at having to carry out his cruel charade is enough to break our hearts.

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City Times

an electrifying title role performance by Christopher Prentice

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City Times (Critics’ Pick, May 16, 2007)

The Zoo Story

(Signal Ensemble Theatre)

Signal Ensemble earns praise for clean direction and strong acting, especially from Christopher Prentice, impressive as the troubled Jerry … Prentice (who turned in a chilling performance earlier this summer as the ruthless Sebastian in First Folio Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’) effortlessly delivers Albee’s dense, vivid dialogue. He conveys Jerry’s alienation and loneliness with detached sadness and tired resolve. A long, well-paced monologue about Jerry’s love-hate relationship with his landlady’s dog defines his engrossing, cliché-free performance nicely underscored by paranoia and longing.

Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald

… this is Prentice’s showcase. He moves and talks with the intensity of a shock treatment, keeping a precarious [balance] on a razor-wire of ramblings about the grotesqueries of life.

Catey Sullivan, Windy City TImes

Christopher Prentice, as Jerry, was magnificent as the story-telling poor loser who recounts his trip to the zoo, his life in a four story walkup and his encounters with the landlady’s dog. Prentice delivers one of the finest, most engagingly hypnotic performances seen on a Chicago stage this year. The difficult long speeches and monologues test the metal of any actor yet Prentice is so natural and expressive that he becomes down right scary as the crazy vagrant. Prentice adds physical movements and facial gestures to effective convey Jerry’s rage.

ChicagoCritic.com

The Tempest

(First Folio Shakespeare Festival)

…the king’s ambitious brother Sebastian (played with icy restraint by Christopher Prentice)

Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald

It’s some of the smaller villains—Christopher Prentice’s lean-and-hungry Sebastian chief among them—who stand out here.

Catey Sullivan, Windy City Times

This may be one of the few productions I have seen where the treacherous siblings Antonio and Sebastian really stand out among the King’s entourage, thanks to the polished and duplicitous portrayals of Michael F. Goldberg and Christopher Prentice, respectively.

Joe Stead, Steadstyle Chicago

There is some exceptional talent compiled on the stage, with outstanding performances by Ronald Keaton as Stephono, Christopher Prentice as Sebastian, Phil Timberlake as Caliban and Elana Ernst as Miranda.

Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago

Hamlet

(The Velvet Willies)

Christopher Prentice, in the title role, has a face and a deft command of classical rhetoric destined for recognition beyond the storefront circuit. Why not see him now instead?

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City Times (Critics’ Pick, Aug. 3, 2005)

Prentice makes a sturdy titular prince

Christopher Piatt, Time Out Chicago

Christopher Prentice gave a marvelous performance as the Prince of Denmark. Prentice’s Hamlet was wonderful. (Barbara Gaines should see this guy work.) Prentice gave a rich, nuanced and complex performance. His Hamlet and the fine work from Elizabeth Bagby and Joseph Sterans make this Hamlet work.… But Christopher Prentice’s performance as Hamlet makes the show worth seeing.… I’d catch Hamlet if only to witness Prentice’s journeyman’s work. He is an outstanding talent who needs to be working at Navy Pier for Chicago Shakespeare.

ChicagoCritic.com

Practical Anatomy

(Sansculottes Theater Company)

Strong performances from Dan Kerr-Hobert and Christopher Prentice as the merry murderers anchor this dark epic

Lawrence Bommer, Chicago Free Press

She Stoops to Conquer

(Signal Ensemble Theatre)

Christopher Prentice’s Marlow, a Jekyll-and-Hyde vacillation between arrogant foppery and sputtering, stammering nitwit, is worth the price of admission.

Kris Vire, Time Out Chicago

and she is well matched by the dashing Christopher Prentice, as bright and hilarious a couple of foolish young lovers as you could want

Joe Stead, Steadstyle Chicago

Landslide

(Signal Ensemble Theatre)

…a smartly detailed premiere…Prentice’s somewhat deadpan, self-deprecating delivery gives certain lines — ‘I think it’s telling and unfortunate that I’m known for being good at giving eulogies’ — the necessary lift to keep the play aloft.

Lenora Inez Brown, Chicago Sun-Times

As You Like It

(The Velvet Willies)

Christopher Prentice is wonderfully understated as that most modern of Shakespeare’s characters, the melancholy Jaques

Brian Nemtusak, Chicago Reader

Assassins

(Boxer Rebellion Ensemble)

Christopher Prentice and Shannon E. Farmer bring strong presence to Booth and Guitteau.

Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City Times

As the show’s primary devil, Christopher Prentice makes a charming John Wilkes Booth

Web Behrens, Chicago Free Press

Much Ado About Nothing

(Signal Ensemble Theatre)

Christopher Prentice as Benedick was outstanding with his biting sarcasm. He has a wonderfully powerfully [sic] intense delivery.

ChicagoCritic.com