After The Fall is a study of one man’s search for meaning through the thoughts and memories stuck in his head. Using a narrative flashback featuring generous use of personal confessional monologues, Quentin (Nathanial Swift in a powerful, honest tour de force performance) is obsessed with how pointless is life has been. His focus is on his personal fall from innocence as he shows an intense moral discomfort.
This Train not only utilizes the power of spoken language, but the power of song, art, and even “hobo language.” A combination of storytelling, multimedia, song; This Train is a rare piece of theatre that is not to be missed.
Hesperia is one of these instances, confidently relying on the ability of the actors and the language of playwright Randall Colburn to create a wonderful evening of black box theatre.
Bob Knuth once again has created an elegant old money family estate drawing room set that hints at the elegance of the rich and privileged Lord family of Philadelphia, circa 1930’s. Add the period-perfect costumes (by Elizabeth Wislar) and The Philadelphia Story plays like a classical drawing room comedy of manners. This production is light-hearted, fast-paced filled with whimsy.
I must admit that I’m not a great lover of Superstar due to its pop/rock elements and its completely sung through rock style. However, Flaster’s casting and the skillful enunciation by the singers together with a blend of high-energy staging and haunting dramatization of Christ’s final days made this production of Superstar and explosive journey of redemption for me.
Scott Ferguson and the new Bailiwick Chicago collective of Chicago non-Equity players have reinvented and revived the troubled, over-produced and over-amped Broadway production of the 1998 musical, Aida, with music by Elton John and Lyrics by Tim Rice.
Through a sassy, smart and light-hearted score and witty fun lyrics by Alan Schmuckler, this unique take on Andersen’s tale is a warm expertly directed fun 75 minute Broadway musical. The colorful characters are aided by sophisticated songs that effectively tell the tale.
Performed in the intimate Richard Christiansen Theatre, located inside the Victory Gardens Biograph Theatre, Hard Headed Heart is a collection of three short stories, (The Puppet Show of Don Cristobal /St. James Infirmary/The Blackbird) re-interpreted and performed by Thomas. Each story has its own separate stage scenery, all masterfully designed and constructed by Thomas himself, and it own emotional identity
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.
When Billy Lomax from Georgia, circa 1963, hears the first two tracks from the jug band – That Sordid Little Story – he believes that the band has written his life story in their lyrics. He believes that the band is somehow connected to the father he has never met. Billy’s leaves home on a journey across America’s Bible Belt in the Deep South.