Lee Blessing calls his A Body of Water as puzzle play; that sure is accurate. When a middle aged couple awaken each day and don’t know who they are, where they are, or the why of anything, the mystery is presented. The couple struggles to discover what has happened to them. Fear and disorientation consumes them.
In Paul Edwards’ smart, nicely paced and well acted stage adaptation, Peyton Place unfolds as a period piece of life in the repressed 1950’s small town America. We meet three women coming to terms with their sexual identities. Constance MacKenzie (Sheila Willis) is an emotionally drained woman and mother to the sensitive and precious daughter Allison (Catherine Gillespie) – am aspiring writer. Add Selena Cross (Sara Renee Gilbert), the poor girl from the ‘shacks” and we have three microcosms of the emerging women of the ’50’s.
Mievelle calls The City & The City – “wired fiction” – sc-fic and fantasy meets horror meets ghost stories or some combination thereof. It is a mystery rapped into a location fantasy that often confuses more that enlightens despite a worthy cast of ten players who each give it a go.
Improbable Frequency is set during WWII—or “The Emergency” as it was then known to neutral Ireland—and recounts the adventures of Tristram Faraday (Mike Dailey)—a British code breaker, spy, and cruciverbalist (meaning one who compiles crossword puzzles). Being dispatched to Dublin in 1941 to investigate a series of implausibly portentous radio broadcasts, Faraday there encounters a colorful cast of IRA revolutionaries, mad scientists, and double agents. Infiltrating their nefarious ranks, Faraday comes face to face with an insidious scheme to…well, best not get into that now. Let’s just say that Improbable Frequency carries on in the absurdist vein (think James Bond meets early Tom Stoppard), humorously stretching the limits of plausibility as far as they can go.
From Doo Wop to Hip Hop, Black Ensemble Theater’s current confectionery treat, is so sweet it’ll cause a cavity. Executive Director Jackie Taylor and Associate Director Reuben Echoles have collaborated to bring us a remarkable showcase of some of Chicago’s biggest and brightest voices, belting through a panoply of favorites for both young and old alike.
What makes this cute and eye-popping techno production work (despite a computer crash) work is the terrific charming and totally honest performance by Matt Holzfeind as the nerdy wholesome nerd. We easily relate to Elliott as he works out his personal foibles involving his inability to sustain a romantic relationship. His possible soul mate, Molly, played with truthful ambivalence by Kristina Valada-Viars, seems also befuddled by her mixed feeling about romantic commitment.
Romeo and Juliet is an ideal gateway to the world of William Shakespeare for many a young theatergoer, and those wishing to inoculate wee ones early in the wonders of the Bard might do significantly worse than with Chicago Shakespeare’s 75-minute rendition of this much-loved tragedy.
If the CSO wants to play Wagner is has to start to take the musical challenge seriously. It is likely that Asher Fisch, a regular opera conductor, will offer up something slightly more palatable in next months’ “Mahler and Wagner” program, but, in truth, I am loath to trust this orchestra with Wagner’s music any time soon.
25 Saints is a gritty, well paced, action-packed 75 minute one-act drama that depicts how desperate ignorant people can easily become violent when pushed to their boiling point. It is a grim look into the world of poverty that makes folks resort to crime and violence that we choose to ignore. 25 Saints is filled with powerful, well-executed stage combat and fine actin
In the last analysis, I find myself sympathetic to Shinn’s project. As DOMA goes to the Supreme Court and as states for the first time reject constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, insisting too stridently on inherited narratives of “queer victimhood” feels forced and disingenuous. Queer people—no longer uniformly marginalized to the closet—have an opportunity to recast themselves as committed agents of social change. The implications for queer storytelling are immense. Unfortunately, Teddy Ferrara doesn’t quite pick up on them.