REVIEWS

Last year, Victory Gardens audiences saw the world premiere of Marcus Gardley’s An Issue of Blood. Set during Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, the play examined the birth of institutional racism in England’s North American colonies, which is an important part of history to remember, since racism is often excused as natural and inevitable. Now, audiences have the chance to see the Midwest premiere of The House That Will Not Stand, which shows how racial relationships were upended in Louisiana following the transition from French to American control.

That being said, I did find myself wanting more from the play emotionally at the end, and while I suspect the issue lies in the protagonist, I’m more suspect of the characters themselves than the acting — which, again, I admired. Though, I am told, Shanley was very close to these characters (he grew up with them, so to speak), the slight contrivance of the lonely-hearts-bar conceit here works for the play’s metaphysical mood just as much as it ends up diluting the characters’ histories into thinly drawn, expositional clichés (again, tending toward the parabolic). Nevertheless, The Poor Theatre’s production of Savage in Limbo offers something both poetically and artistically substantial for anyone who appreciates fine acting in close quarters and an intense examination of the savage desperation lurking in unsatisfied lives.

As Black Ensemble reprises its greatest hits this year, it also gives each of its company members a chance to revisit their major roles. This summer, company regular Rashawn Thompson is reprising his role as Marvin Gaye in one of the earliest biographical revues Black Ensemble did in their Ravenswood theatre.

Before he wrote the Tony Award-winning Red and the screenplays of The Aviator, The Last Samurai, and Gladiator, John Logan was fascinated by courtroom dramas. His early play Never the Sinner, about Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, played in Victory Gardens last year, and now, City Lit Theater is reviving Hauptmann for that play’s thirtieth anniversary. Artistic director Terry McCabe, who also directed Hauptmann’s world premiere at Stormfield Theatre, and has directed it several times since, including at Victory Gardens, calls it his favorite play.

Part promenade and part performance art, this meditation on death, medicine, and spirituality, with a commissioned text by Emma Stanton, is a dizzying display of symbols and archetypes whose meaning is highly subjective. But though the work is confusing and often frustrating, it is an interesting use of the Chicago Cultural Center’s strange architecture, and contains athletic, daring choreography by Thom Pasculli.