Beverly Friend

If someone could tell you in advance exactly what was going to happen in your life, and how everything was going to turn out, and if you knew you couldn’t do anything to change it, would you still want to go on with your life?

That’s the key question asked by Bee, the central character in Parallelogram, and it provides the theme of this remarkable, thought provoking play.

How delightful to find such an original and amusing “parody-plus-tribute” to the golden age of Broadway musicals. If ever you longed to return to their past glory, now is the moment, and Marriott Lincolnshire is the place.

The interplay between American Brenda (Ginger Lee McDermott) and her adopted Chinese daughter Jade (Christine Bunuan) – told in vignettes that swing from the Jade’s winsome childhood, through her rebellious teens, to her ultimate maturity – reinforces a vivid, compelling look at personal identity.

“Taming of the Shrew” — one of Shakespeare’s most frequently performed plays — has survived innumerable incarnations on stage and in film – some more successful than others. While Neil LaBute’s additions do offer humorous and entertaining moments, his version unfortunately damages rather than enhances the drama.

Where Wilde’s play is original, Lauren Wilson’s Chemical Imbalance is a clever, highly comic spoof of Robert Louis Stevenson’s quite serious work on the dual nature of man – the good vs. the evil. And if the story of one split personality is insufficient, playwright Wilson adds identical 10-year-old, twins (played by bouncy, blonde Tiffany-Leigh Moskow) – demonic Penelope vs. angelic Calliope. They not only parallel the Jekyll/Hyde situation, but are integral to the story because a drop of their blood is needed to provide an essential ingredient for the evil venom and its potential antidote.

The House on Mango Street provides an exploration of neighborhood and community, and the play brackets this with opening and closing songs (sung by the full cast) which trace a Mexican-American family’s journey from renting in familiar Chicago residential areas – from Loomis Ave. to Keeler and Paulina – before they actually buy a house on Mango.

Fedra (aka Phaedra) is a modern retelling of a Greek myth of unrequited lust and revenge. Queen Fedra (J. Nicole Books) – much like Potiphar’s wife in the Bible – fails to seduce the object of her affection and retaliates by crying rape

What a cast. Under the fine direction of Michael Halberstam, actors Sean Fortunato and Timothy Edward Kane as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are masters of comic timing, effortlessly batting repartee at each other. Their forlorn faces wonderfully register bemused puzzlement. Bright eyed, charismatic Allen Gilmore brings humor and authority…