Mud, River, Stone wraps up Eclipse Theatre Company’s season dedicated to Lynn Nottage. The choice is odd, since the play, written in 1998, is one of Nottage’s earlier works, and is an ancestor to her Pulitzer Prize winning Ruined, which Eclipse has already produced earlier this year. This production is strong, but has to compensate for an illogical script.
Read MoreWomen At War also speaks to the unique problems women face in the military. From being basically unwelcome by the male military establishment to the different stress levels women experience to the constant embarrassment to physical assaults (by fellow troupers) to the basic loneliness and fears of combat zone life, women are still learning survival techniques that present more problems than males ever faced. The mixing of genders in stressful and fearful circumstances often leads to victimization of women personal.
Read MoreSpartan Theatre Company takes its names from its minimal budget and aesthetics. The company was founded in 2012 by three Roosevelt University alumni. Therefore, they deserve especially high praise for their excellent production of Tony Kushner’s 1980s work A Bright Room Called Day, now playing at Chemically Imbalanced Theater….This show was a bold choice for such a young company, and they do it justice
Read Morelan Souza’s Chicago directing debut is a reinterpreted of the 1960 Camelot that starred Julie Andrews and Richard Burton.
Based on the old English mythology from T. H. White’s “The Once and Future King,” Camelot’s story revolves around the idealistic, fair-minded English king who establishes rule of law over the ‘might equals right’ mentality.
Read MoreVerdi’s 1853 opera is here interpreted during a civil war in early nineteenth-century Spain. Loyalist commander Ferrando (bass Andrea Silvestrelli) keeps his soldiers awake one night by telling them a spooky story. Years ago, the old count had a “gypsy” burnt at the stake because he blamed her sorcery for his younger son’s illness. The gypsy’s daughter then abducted the little boy, and burnt him on the same pyre as her mother. It just so happens that this is the backstory to the plot, and the present Count di Luna (baritone Quinn Kelsey) is the surviving brother. Currently, he is at the castle to woo the noblewoman Leonora (soprano Amber Wagner).
Read MoreTympanic Theatre Company loves to produce “the best kind of weird” plays. The truly have done so with Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Social Creatures. This 90 minute work seemed to last hours as the work labored along at a snails pace
Read MoreThe Devil’s Day Off is a new work written by Signal Ensemble member John Steinhagen. It depicts bored, irritated Chicagoans during a 24-hour long power outage during a heatwave. As tempers flare and bodies wilt, we are treated to many sliver-thin slices of life.
Read MoreEmma is attending a college party in Chicago. She’s the only black woman there. A black man who looks like Idris Elba is also in attendance, but other than him, everybody is white, upper-middle class, artistic, and liberal. Emma says they’re wise enough not to be bothered by it. They are not, however, wise enough to refrain from constantly being unintentionally offensive. Emma knows she is being shown off. She resents the other women asking her to confirm that they’re oppressed.
Read MoreConsidered to be Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most beloved musical, The King and I is set in Siam in the 1860’s. It tells the story of Anna, a widowed Englishwomen, who becomes a tutor to the King’s children as part of the ‘westernization’ of Siam by the King. The King, played with a tortured nature by Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte is torn between clinging to his ancient customs and embracing modern ways.
Read MorePlaywright Abbie Spallen has a bit of McPherson’s wacky characters, some of Friel’s monologues with a dose of McDonagh’s dark humor in her plays. Strandline is a funny yet searing work that deals with the mourning for Mairin’s (Kirsten Fitzgerald) dead husband who drowns in sight of Mairin and town’s folk during a wedding celebration in a seaside town on the Northern Ireland border. It seems that Mairin’s husband drowned trying to save some French tourists.
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