MUST SEE

The Night Alive is a brilliantly constructed drama that unfolds as finely directed and beautifully acted work that leaves audiences moved and satisfied that their lives and their aspirations are in a better place than Tommy, Doc and Aimee. We are glad we shared their experiences of these very human souls as only a master playwright can present them. The Night Alive is one of the finest players seen on a Chicago stage this year! Don’t miss it.

His home, his family, and his trappings hold him as a prisoner in life. As he struggles to find a place for himself in a world whose prejudice and racism has shit him out, Bigger suffers from a low self-esteem that when he looks in the mirror, he sees not himself but what society wants him to be – their “native son.”

This show is wildly entertaining as Tony explains how important painting birds has been to him. He quotes Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, ” a meaningful poem to Tony. To visit several artists and urban personalities to get an unique view of their take on Chicago, birds and, of course, artistic mentors. Tony and Stan are folks worth getting to know. Their honesty, outspokenness and talent shines in this special show that easily makes us laugh and appreciate these characters. I guess Tony will always be a “Chicago legend” even if he leaves for the Big Easy.

We learn about the nerdy, deep-thinks twenty-five year old Isaac Newton (Jurgen Hooper) as he is committed to becoming famous as a innovative scientist in the mid 1600’s in England. Told in contemporary language in modern cloths, Lucas Hnath engages us into the thinking-man’s world of science and philosophy or “natural philosopher” as it was known then, the physicist and mathematician Issac Newton became known as one of the greatest “thinkers” of all-time. Hnath playfully creates the young, ambitious world of Isaac as he believes that his ideas came directly from God despite his challenging revisionist Christian beliefs.