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MUST SEEREVIEWSREVIEWS BYTheatre ReviewsTom Williams

The Caretaker

The Caretaker is an “actor’s play” that needs strong nuanced performances and director Ron OJ Parson has found three from Chicago’s “A” list to people The Caretaker. From the stoic Aston nimbly played by Anish Jethmalani to the manic fast-talking Mick ,played with verbal prowess by Kareem Bandealy, to the complex and contradictory Davis played richly (and humorously) by WilliamJ. Norris, Pinter’s classic is sure in good hands.

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Lykke Li – Live at the Vic

She walked onto the stage swathed in sheer black, with matching black drapes hanging from the rafters, drifting through the smoke and light like a raven: cunning, cocksure, alluring. Immediately the deep thundering of bass toms filled the room, as if Glasvegas were playing a rave in Detroit. The sound of electric organ floated through the air and an acoustic guitar brought an earthiness that grounded the otherwise largely electronic aesthetic. Then Lykke Li opened her mouth and it sounded as if Fiona Apple met Joan of Arc on the stake.

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REVIEWSREVIEWS BYTheatre ReviewsTom Williams

Five Flights

The play is a mixture of styles containing a gay relationship, family quarrels plus the haunting effects of bird obsession turned into a religion featuring a gay professional hockey player who loves ballet. This enchanting work is a mixture of hilarity and heartbreak that challenges the normal conventions of storytelling. It works because of the passion and intensity of the characters.

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The Nutcracker

as so many of the great stories are, The Nutcracker is also prone to reinvention, which is what the House Theatre has done here. The storytelling is infectious. A happy equilibrium is struck between straight acting, sheer exuberance, and clever winking at the audience. To call this a children’s show would miss the point; to call it a Christmas show would too, although to a lesser extent. It is, after all, about saving Christmas. But more than anything it’s a good time, and certainly gets you in the mood for what can otherwise be a soul-crushing shopfest that has now started to infest even Halloween.

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Red Light Winter

The script is at once serious yet playful, superficial yet deep. Depression, suicide, and deadly disease sit next to the dalliance of drugs and frat-boy pranks. It’s the combination that Adam Rapp balances so well that makes this piece what it is. And Mary-Arrchie Theatre brings a smart interpretation of the text with strong actors that make this a piece really worth watching.

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Boris Godunov

Modest Mussorgky’s only completed opera is not for the faint of heart; it is not for those who like the Italians and nothing else, the lyrical, the symphonic, the easy ones. Boris Godunov is a difficult piece, at once crass and deep, with, on the one hand, somewhat technically amateurish composition, and, on the other, incredible insight into not only how to musically convey the moods of the characters but how to convey the chaos and horror around them.

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