Tom Williams

Partners by Dorothy Fortenberry tackles adult partnerships as it involves complex relationships. Four friends in Brooklyn share many common interests. Clare (Lauren Pizzi) is a gourmet chef just out of culinary school who photographs food for advertising agencies. Her best friend and potential business partner, Ezra (Wil Von Vogt) is a gay man who strives to “make it’ by creating a mobile Mexican-styled food truck with Clare. Clare is determined to have Ezra and Brady (Blake Russell) get married. She wants that more than Ezra and Brady. Meanwhile, Paul (Brian E. Crawford) is the supportive yet subtly domineering husband to Clare.

we meet Henry Moss (terrific work by Fran Nail) in various states – as a dead man, as a spry drunken soul, and in various states seen from his son’s memories. We see that Moss was a booze-riddled broken man whose violent ways broke up his family and ultimate led him to the New Mexico desert where despite being cared for by a neighborly man, Estaban (Arvin Jalandoon) and his lover Conchalla (Yadira Correa), a Mexican woman shaman, Moss drinks himself to death.

The formula has been proved over the years as how to mount a comic revue: find six talented and creative performers, give them a theme, then get out of their way and let them develop a funny skit-based comic revue. This 38th revue uses the formula to keep the laughs flowing for nearly 2 hours while we imbibe a drink and consume some tastes. The Second City, over the years, has offered a terrific value night out for couples and groups seeking escapist entertainment. The latest Second City show delivers the new revue. “Apes of Wrath” showcasing several new comic talents.

The effects on revenge and the need for both personal and societal closure are at play here. The thriller is so convincingly played by the terrific Sandra Oh that we can almost forgive the needlessly unresolved plots items. After apparently trapping Miranda in a damning lie and his failure to admit and seek forgiveness, we never know if Paulina shoots Miranda. We also never get enough evidence to determine if she is a vengeful spirit or an insane soul?

Their Hamlet, now playing in scenic Oak Park, is set in 1920’s gangster-ridden Chicago wherein Claudius (Jack Hickey) is not king but the mob boss. Wide-label three-piece stripped suits complete with shoulder gun holsters and fedora hats dominate here. The mob rules . This tragedy is based on the torment of nephew Hamlet (Michael McKeogh) who is still mourning the death of his father killed by his brother Claudius in order to rule the mob. Claudius also took Hamlet’s other, Gertrude (Kelly Lynn Hogan) as his wife.