'Jamaica, Farewell'' ✭✭✭

( May 17, 2012 )

The very entertaining "Jamaica, Farewell," which has arrived here from Los Angeles under the skilled direction of Joel Zwick, is a different kind of international show, but one just as potent and revealing of global forces as a window into some distant land. One woman's first-person story of her determination to leave the Caribbean island of her birth and find her way to a new life in America, this is a swashbuckling tale of dislocation about an ordinary person whose aspirations don't contradict her love of home. Actress Debra Ehrhardt is so sincere and honest, it is easy to connect with her experience with genuinely surprising intensity -- even if your own experience of Jamaica mostly involved the beach at Negril and a few buckets of Red Stripe. -- Chris Jones

Through May 27 at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St.; $35 at 800-838-3006 or jamaicafarewelltheplay.com