TimeLine Theatre’s mission is to produce history inspired works that connect with today’s social and political issues. They sure have a gem in J.T. Rogers’ Blood and Gifts. In a well-paced and superbly acted drams, Blood and Gifts take us back to the 1980’s as CIA agent, James Warnock (Timothy Edward Kane) struggles to stop the Soviet Union from escalating its war in Afghanistan toward Pakistan as the Cold War Doctrine’s policy of containment of Russian aggression unfolds
Most plays when they fail to work do so because of a lack of sufficient texture: characters are too broadly drawn, the setting lacks detail and nuanced specificity, the dialogue skirts true feeling in favor of stagy declarations. In these respects, Dana Lynn Formby’s new play If You Split a Second—receiving its world premiere with the Pegasus Players—is not like most plays. But that doesn’t necessarily means that it works either.
In 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduces to the world his “consulting detective” Sherlock Holmes (Nick Lake) and his new sidekick, Doctor Watson (Brian Pastor). We meet the 20something’s as they first become roommates to save money and seek companionship. Watson is recovering from wounds from the Second British Afghanistan War while Holmes, ever the self-absorbed scientist, relishes on the prospect of having someone to admire his cleverness. We see the two as young gentleman filled with curiosity and determination. In a world premiere adaptation by Paul Edwards, A Study In Scarlet is a most engaging and surprising yarn.
So what can we say about the Chicago premiere of playwright Lynn Nottage’s By the Way, Meet Vera Stark? Well, for starters, its funny, alarmingly smart, and beautifully conceived under Chuck Smith’s current direction at the Goodman Theatre.
But given all that, why doesn’t it work?
This one-man show explores the nature of being a minority within a minority in a magical, mythical journey to the land of Common Grounds.
At times, Mascot feels as thought its attempting to do for personality disorders what Sarah Kane’s 2000 psycho-monologue Psychosis 4:48 did for clinical depression, isolating the psychological symptoms in a dramatic vacuum and giving them a more or less unrestrained ability to manifest themselves. The audience—like a room full of clinicians—is thus always on the outside looking in, giving us the sense that what we are watching is something much darker than lies ostensibly on the surface, i.e. a scene of frustrated bondage and unflagging sadism. A man beyond our help, but who nonetheless approaches us with all the charm and insinuating familiarity of a self-knowing psychopath. Someone who evokes our pity even as we think he might be oddly dangerous.
What holds this theatrical effective piece together is the honesty of the epitaphs since the dead on longer had to use their ‘live’ facade making the truth easy to render. The dramatic monologues demonstrated the variety and the actual actions and motivations of a vast variety of folks from a small town
Get to the Civic Opera house to experience the original Oklahoma! in all its glory, all its down-home charm, and all its artistic acumen. You’ll either discover or re-discover the genius of Rodgers & Hammerstein as they changed the landscape of Broadway musicals forever with Oklahoma! After seeing many fine productions of this classic show, I must report that Gary Griffin and the Lyric’s production is the finest, most heartfelt production of Oklahoma! I’ve ever seen!
The Pajama Game is an ageless fable that has a fresh winning grin on its face from the outset. It is a vibrant young, funny, earthy and spirited show with a score featuring a wide-ranging mixture of tunes. The Pajama Game is one of my all-time favorite Broadway musicals and the Music Theatre Company’s production serves the piece well.
But all in all, Tea with Edie and Fitz needs desperately to learn how to walk before it can run, remembering in the last analysis that no amount of “literary” cleverness can substitute for emotional honesty and depth of character.