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We meet a woman with raccoon-like eyes who is in a sealed shelter filled with survival items. This woman rambles on and on about “The End is Coming!” and how we need to be prepared. While the hard working Karie Miller tries to engage us with audience involvement that includes throwing a large beach ball back and forth with the audience, we never get fully engaged since Miller comes off as a wound-too-tight nut job. Add the fact that shelves full of survival items continues to crash to the ground that Miller seems to ignore and we wonder if we are in a surreal dream scape?

We meet two old-time Chicago detectives, Getz (Danny Goldring) and his wound-too-tight partner Bass Podaris (Phillip R. Smith) both use extreme methods to solve cases. Bass has troubles: his partner is a knucklehead, his boss is a hard-nose and his cases are being overturned and his bimbo wife is cheating on him, To make things worse, he’s chasing a prep who has a screwdriver stuck in his head! His world also has an assortment of shady folks: cruupt corners, a TV-personality doctor, and, of course, a femme fatale.

This is a darkly funny romantic comedy filled with unique, yet livable characters, each striving for their identity, love, and fulfillment. Only one is a sincerely noble person who ultimately is true to himself. This production delivers.

The Strange Tree Group usually does works by Emily Schwartz but the have expanded by mounting a new work by ensemble member Elizabeth Bagby – The Half-Brothers Mendelssohn. Featuring a clever set (designed by Kate Nawrocki & Emily Schwatz) with a terrific “time machine” designed by Emily Schwartz,etc, The Half-Brothers Mendelssohn is a quirky, funny , and clever take on time travel and it’s complications.