Theatre Reviews

William Finn is one of the most accomplished living Broadway composers, and therefore, making a revue of his songs is a reasonable proposition. However, while the Golden Age Broadway composers such as Irving Berlin and Cole Porter normally wrote songs without any context, and mid-late-century figures such as Stephen Sondheim wrote songs that were highly entertaining in their own right, William Finn’s modern chamber operettas and song cycles are dependent on the whole of their presentation for emotional impact.

While American plays like Buried Child, August: Osage County, and especially The Lyons often adopt a blackly humorous approach to self-destructive households, The Seedbed is much quieter and sympathetic to its characters. It’s no bore, though, since Delaney makes the play into a mystery for the audience, as we are first kept in the dark about the exact nature of the incident which caused this family’s crises, and then confused about which of them, if any, can be trusted.

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.