"It's not that 'A Persistent Memory' is abstruse or hard to follow; rather, it's that the scenes don't build to a coherent portrait of the canker gnawing at David's soul…Furthermore, the script is loaded with plot danglers that never get addressed…Under Jessi D. Hill's direction, the search for a clear throughline fails and the performances are highly variable…'A Persistent Memory' is so weighed down with plot points and psychological baggage that it tips over."
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"David doesn't know when he is...Hofmann, with the purest of intentions, has let this plot point dictate the form of the entire play without a believable anchor as to its appropriateness...Ledbetter does all he can with David...but he doesn't link them all together into a single unified personality any more than the writing does...You get a similar sense of confusion from director Jessi D. Hill, as if she's attempting to wrangle a bunch of ideas that just don't add up."
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"A gripping and emotional account of the experiences that mold human memories and the lasting impact they create...Ledbetter does a convincing job of portraying a young adult who wrestles greatly with being present in life...'A Persistent Memory' is powerfully haunting and will leave audiences pondering the significance of memory in determining their life’s journey. A smart, valuable, and heartbreaking piece of theater that you won’t soon forget!"
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“The play’s development is beautifully structured by the playwright to symbolize and reveal David’s emotional growth however haphazard because it is relayed by emotional memory. This is cleverly effected by Hill’s superb direction evidenced by her choice of dramatic elements in the production design...The elements which are evocative and measure the poetic, philosophical concepts intimated in the play raise the themes to a heightened symbolism. It is ingenious crafting.”
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"Neither Jessi D. Hill’s snail-paced direction nor any of the mostly low-energy performances...can do much to enliven Hofmann’s play...Hofmann also includes several intrusive expository monologues...His choice to scramble the play’s chronology may have poetic qualities but it’s a distracting conceit that only serves to highlight the play’s weaknesses...I’m afraid ‘A Persistent Memory’ is one I’m likely to soon forget."
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“It is hard to tell where exactly this play fails, as the acting is so inconsistent and the cast speaks in a singsong that lulls you to sleep. The plot is so convoluted that you don’t care enough to pay attention. Ledbetter is not charismatic enough to make us care and his role is thinly written and confusing. Jessi D. Hill’s directing doesn’t help. Even the design elements don’t fuse properly. I honestly don’t understand how this got produced. For a 90-minute show, it felt like an eternity.”
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"Playwright Jackob G. Hofmann can clearly write. In this play, however, he seems to have been carried away by his own dialogue. Diverting exposition makes the piece feel jerky, muddling essential plot lines, losing the interesting elephant metaphor in the shuffle. Drew Ledbetter (David) is the weak link in a talented cast…Accents are varied contributing to authenticity."
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"A slow-moving drama...Told nonlinearly, 'A Persistent Memory' pieces together moments to offer a muddled message...Jessi D. Hill makes the most of the text. While the pacing is inexcusably slow, Hill does try to track David’s journey clearly...'A Persistent Memory' is one of those shows that you can see the team put the effort into constructing a strong production but the text was just not up to par, yet."
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