As with the original myth, the heart of Eurydice is the love between Eurydice and Orpheus and, here, also between Eurydice and her father. If a production can’t make me feel this love in the actors, then 95 minutes of Sarah Ruhl’s sentimental poetry is a long time to endure just to see them all finally dunked in the oblivion of the River of Lethe. And by the end, I was just about dying to dunk myself.
Read More
It is well-known how easily a play about itself can go awry, especially when it contains heavy use of unusual performance techniques. However, writer Dan O’Brien knew that the story of his relationship with war photojournalist Paul Watson defied conventional narratives—it’s messy, inconclusive, and made up of snapshots taken from chaos. Fortunately, Stage Left director Jason A. Fleece knows just how to handle his two-man cast and team of designers to make each moment of the story clear and effective. Against the background of the shooting down of American Black Hawk helicopters in Somalia in 1993, as well as the threatened serenity of the Arctic, two men explore the ethics of their professions, and what drives them to keep on sharing theirs and other peoples’ dysfunctions with the world.
Read More
With their long-running escape room The Last Defender playing downstairs, and their first show, Death and Harry Houdini being revived upstairs, The House Theatre has decisively conquered The Chopin. Both are major hits for the highly innovative company, which use non-standard storytelling techniques, and both, it so happens, force people to rely on their ingenuity to escape mortal peril. Magician Dennis Watkins stands a far better chance of prevailing than the defenders in the basement. In this latest revival, Watkins is at total ease in the role of Houdini, but Nathan Allen’s writing incorporates the escape and magic tricks into a story as exciting as it is tragic and ironic. With the addition of The House’s always evocative music, composed by Kevin O’Donnell, Death and Harry Houdini is far more than a parade of illusions; it captures the magic of theatre, as well.
Read More
Take the premise of an all-female cult that butchers men, and fill it up with camp, gore, and crude humor, and you should have something that’s funny, scary, or at least, offensive. But no, About Face Theatre’s Chicago premiere production The Secretaries is simply dull, and plods along for two hours without any emotional resonance.
Read More
We admire their spirit and determination; we feel their pain and we share Lucy Parsons’ passion and grief. Once this marvelous musical is finished, we realize that we have witnessed fine art piece – a rarity for a musical. Haymarket: The Anarchist’s Songbook is one of the finest new musicals mounted on a Chicago stage in years! This show is a polished, finished product that begs for a long Chicago run before it moves across the nation.
Read More
If you are a princess purist, this may not be the show for you and it is definitely not appropriate for young audience members (kids). However, this is a great night out and you will be entertained by this bawdry “Once upon a time tale” that our favorite princesses share.
Read More
What happens when you throw together a dead president, the best-selling English-language author of the nineteenth century, and an aristocratic Christian anarchist? As it turns out, not much. Director Kimberly Senior and her three-man cast wring every bit of drama and humor they can out of Scott Carter’s dry idea-play, but the gospel according to these three people who have all faded into and been surpassed by history is long on premise and doesn’t delve much deeper into philosophy than most people are likely to have already gone on their own. Actually, upon examination, the premise is self-defeating, but more on that later. It does contain some fine performances though, and another round at the sort of questions Carter asks is what a lot of people consider leisure to be for.
Read More
Twisted Knots has its moments…some funny ones and some poignant ones. Ryan Kitley’s Frank is an “every man” who mirrors the show’s target audience…the 40/50’s somethings. At only $30 for tickets, Twisted Knots is an entertainment bargain for an Equity show. There are enough funny and honest moments to satisfy.
Read More
Chimerica is about an hour too long as it tries to cover too much mystery and too much backstory. While I was engaged throughout, eventually the work wore me out. Better motivation for Joe’s relentless search and more details why Lin finally resolved the mystery the way he did–why now? Coburn Goss and Norman Yap anchor a cast invested in the story.
Read More
Don DeLillo’s post-modernist novel White Noise is made up largely of lists of consumable products Americans obsess over, in DeLillo’s opinion, to distract ourselves from our fear of death. In young Polish author Dorota Masłowska’s 2008 play No Matter How Hard We Try, Or, We Can Exist on the Best Terms We Can, characters take stock of their meager, disgusting possessions and materialistic aspirations in increasingly vain attempts to convince themselves that they care about living. But Masłowska’s play is no mere joyless slog through a post-Communist hell. Director Max Truax’s heavily choreographed direction keeps the play visually interesting, while his ensemble delivers black humor with wicked wit. The result is a harrowing examination of modern Poland, which is all the more alarming for how easily we can recognize our own lives in it.
Read More