Author: Tom Williams

However, all of this is lost in the final two acts, light-hearted and full of slap stick. It’s challenging for actors and audience alike to transition from the first portion of this play to the conclusion. The final two acts attempt to find a way to unconvincingly wrap up the tragedy of the first three acts in a tidy bow. However, the cast has the utmost fun attempting to do so. From the beginning of act four, the cast reminds its audience aggressively that “Now is the time to laugh!” Such coddling proved difficult for me. Still, several performances shine through, but the cast could not rise above the uneven source material that is Shakespeare’s Winter Tale.

Iphigenia in Aulis is the first of three ancient Greek tragedies Court Theatre will perform over the next three years. The others, written by the other two surviving tragedians, will together form a trilogy telling the story of the House of Atreus. It’s an ambitious project that will mainly be of interest to academics and die-hard theatre fans, but it’s off to a strong start.

Hellcab, originally premiering in 1992 as a limited-run late night show, went on to become one of the longest running shows in the history of Chicago theatre, running for over nine years. For the past two seasons, Profiles Theatre has revived the play, this time featuring the original Driver, himself, Richard Cotovsky. The play follows Cotovsky as he collects fares in the city of Chicago throughout Christmas Eve, from morning to night. Like a fever dream, the Driver and audience alike bear witness to an electric group of passengers, from bible thumpers to drug addicts, as the Driver collects measly fares to make a living.