This lightweight fare is a delight for everyone, especially those between 40 and 50 years old. ABBA was their group. ‘Dancing Queen,’ ‘Honey, Honey,’ and ‘Take A Chance On Me’ recall the 70’s when romance, sensuality and adventure reigned.
In this cynical world, the cyclical words of Mamet’s characters are frustrating in that they are unrepentantly bleak. As a piece about racism in America, that makes a sad sort of sense. Maybe we are just talking in circles without moving forward. As a piece about the law, it falls into another tired (and not nearly as true as Hollywood would paint it) stereotype of the scheming, soulless lawyer that is forgiven only for the performances. It’s not really about the law anyway. It’s a springboard to a race discussion that for some will seem tired and played out
The dynamic of this drama lies in the bickering, sexual advances, mockery and stress each student endures as they struggle for grades, money, acceptance, and some sexual release. Much of this 1 hour and 55 minute play builds the emotional tension nicely as director Jonathan Berry swiftly paces the dramatic tension toward a wrenching conclusion
In The Drawer Boy, we meet two friends living and working a farm in 1972 rural Ontario. Angus (Will Kinnear) and his friend Morgan (Nick Polus) who run their farm through a harmonious daily ritual based on Morgan being the farmer and Angus being the cook, housekeeper and account. Tolerance, trust and routine rule their lives. They seem content until a young man-an actor- arrives at the farm asking to learn about farming by living and working with Morgan and Angus.
But once the show is trimmed and refocused, Invisible Man will emerge as a masterful stage work. After all the text of the Invisible Man remains an important depiction of the American experience. Teagle F. Bougere tour de force performance gives the Invisible Man demonstrates the human search for identity by an anti-hero everyman
The early scenes that depict the determination and strength of each women are marvelously played out as each establishes their own rules for the relationship. Pearl will only sing unheard slave and work songs if Susannah works to find Pearl’s daughter. The two eventually unite to allow each to become “successful” on each’s terms.
I must say that playwright Dennis Kelly over works the speeches that come across as as personal confessionals or sketches or interwoven scenarios that have a thin strand with one couple – David (Peter Moore) and Jess (Julia Siple) – debt-laden misery of a married couple as their spending and lavish lifestyle threaten their peace.
Nick is a sexually frustrated teen and adventure seeking lad who devises ever more dangerous Internet games to quench his thirst for danger and control over others. Based on a true story of a British teen who ventured down a dark path into the virtual world from a 2005 “Vanity Fair” magazine story, Nick creates a fictional Internet identity first as a harmless prank then as a personal obsession
Prolific playwright Brett Neveu, a company member of A Red Orchid, presents his sixth world premiere at the intimate Old Town Chicago theatre. Megacosm is an amazingly eerie and totally engrossing cliff-hanger 85 minute one-act comic mystery…Chris (Larry Grimm) is a nerdy shaggy-haired inventor anxious to make a presentation to Britt (Danny McCarthy) the head of a multinational corporation. The atmosphere around the company’s headquarters is ripe with violent protestors.
Better this work is defined in traditional Japanese formats with Asian actors without all the contradictory style elements. I’d get rid of the terrible songs and I’d trim at least 40 minutes off the script. Me and most of the audience members in the production I saw became restless and bored with this redundant and wordy work.