Theatre at the Center kicks off the holiday season with the regional premier of a musical based on Truman Capote’s 1956 short story “A Christmas Memory.” The show does indeed take the form of a memory, and mixes childhood nostalgia with just the right amount of melancholy. The small cast easily shifts through a wide range of music to expand Capote’s story while remaining faithful to his tone.
Iphigenia in Aulis is the first of three ancient Greek tragedies Court Theatre will perform over the next three years. The others, written by the other two surviving tragedians, will together form a trilogy telling the story of the House of Atreus. It’s an ambitious project that will mainly be of interest to academics and die-hard theatre fans, but it’s off to a strong start.
Mysterious, yet often funny, director Jonathan Berry infuses the classic who-done-it with playfulness
The Mousetrap, running in London since 1952 with more than 25,000 performances, is the world’s longest running stage play! It has also been considered the model for doing murder mysteries on stage. Who can argue with such success? Kudos to Northlight Theatre for mounting a spirited production of the Agatha Christie classic.
Hellcab, originally premiering in 1992 as a limited-run late night show, went on to become one of the longest running shows in the history of Chicago theatre, running for over nine years. For the past two seasons, Profiles Theatre has revived the play, this time featuring Richard Cotovsky, who played the Driver more than 200 times in the original run. The play follows Cotovsky as he collects fares in the city of Chicago throughout Christmas Eve, from morning to night. Like a fever dream, the Driver and audience alike bear witness to an electric group of passengers, from bible thumpers to drug addicts, as the Driver collects measly fares to make a living.
William Mastrosimone’s 1985 tale of violence and the quest for personal redemption, Tamer of Horses, is still, unfortunately, relevant in 2014. Teatro Vista has mounted a fantastically powerful drama fueled by extraordinary performances and tight flowing direction by Ron OH Parson.
As a Dickens adaptation, the show is long, and I wish the evening performances didn’t start so late. There are a few plays-within-the-play that could have been left out. Still, anyone who isn’t satisfied just seeing A Christmas Carol this winter would do well to give Great Expectations a try. Given the challenges of a smaller theatre, many of Gerace’s solutions are ingenious. The cast seems to make up far more people than they do, and the whole show is a celebration of the imagination
City Lit Theater, the jewel of Edgewater, specializes “in literature theatre including stage adaptations of literary material.” They return to that mission with a wonderful remount adaptation (by director Terry McCabe) of two of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories: “A Scandal in Bohemia” (the first of a series of 56 short stories) and “The Final Problem” (the intended last of the Holmes short stories—ten years later, Doyle resumed doing more Holmes stories).
Mud, River, Stone wraps up Eclipse Theatre Company’s season dedicated to Lynn Nottage. The choice is odd, since the play, written in 1998, is one of Nottage’s earlier works, and is an ancestor to her Pulitzer Prize winning Ruined, which Eclipse has already produced earlier this year. This production is strong, but has to compensate for an illogical script.
Women At War also speaks to the unique problems women face in the military. From being basically unwelcome by the male military establishment to the different stress levels women experience to the constant embarrassment to physical assaults (by fellow troupers) to the basic loneliness and fears of combat zone life, women are still learning survival techniques that present more problems than males ever faced. The mixing of genders in stressful and fearful circumstances often leads to victimization of women personal.
Spartan Theatre Company takes its names from its minimal budget and aesthetics. The company was founded in 2012 by three Roosevelt University alumni. Therefore, they deserve especially high praise for their excellent production of Tony Kushner’s 1980s work A Bright Room Called Day, now playing at Chemically Imbalanced Theater….This show was a bold choice for such a young company, and they do it justice