A long tragic Sunday—Binge theater
Posted: September 2, 2014 Filed under: Theater | Tags: All Our Tragic, My Name Is Asher Lev, Sean Graney, Stage 773, The Hypocrites, Timeline Theatre 1 CommentIt was a sunny warm summer Sunday, and a holiday weekend. Most people would spend their time outside, hiking, biking, on the beach, at a family picnic. I spent 12 hours inside a mostly darkened theater, having one of the most captivating theatrical experiences of my life.
All Our Tragic at The Hypocrites
Yes, it was my All Our Tragic binge day at The Hypocrites. Some people binge on Orange Is the New Black. I’ve binged on three plays a day at theater festivals and at the six-hour production of Gatz, a reading of The Great Gatsby. This time I binged on 12 hours of Greek tragedy, including uncounted beheadings, stabbings, poisonings, horse stompings and ritual sacrifice. It was exhilarating.
(Actually, Chicago Magazine did total them. See the Death by Numbers chart. There were 63 murders and gallons of blood.)
If you consume or read about theater, you know that All Our Tragic is the latest production created by the very creative and passionate Sean Graney, founder and former artistic director of The Hypocrites. All Our Tragic is actually a four-act play adapted from all 32 surviving Greek tragedies by Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles. Graney has mashed them up into four parts titled Physics, Politics, Patriotics and Poetics.
All Our Tragic is tragic, yes, and involves lots of murders, yes, and blood, yes. But it’s also a bit loopy, with marvelously crazy costumes, lots of pop culture references, and anachronistic musical interludes by the Odd Jobs. Three women (sort of the chorus in a Greek play) dressed as waiters, maids or nurses, play stringed instruments and sing songs such as “When the Saints Go Marching In,” “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” “Shenandoah,” and “Hard Times.”
There are some excellent performances among the cast of 23 (14 actors, 3 Odd Jobs, and six Neo-Titans or fighters). Walter Briggs goes from wide-eyed innocent Herakles to general and king Agamemnon. The talented and versatile Zeke Sulkes plays Aegeus, the king with goat feet, as well as Kreon and others. Luce Metrius is really fine as Jason and Achilles. Christine Stulik, Erin Barlow and Dana Omar stand out among the seven sisters (think of the Pleiades) armed with lethal umbrellas.
Those should be familiar characters, even if you haven’t seen many classic Greek plays. You’ll remember these stories from reading about Greek mythology and Greek heroes. (Herakles carries an illustrated book of the Greek heroes because he wants to be one.)
It’s really only nine hours of theater, broken up with intermissions and food breaks. The show is the first production at The Hypocrites’ new space on Milwaukee Avenue at street level below the Den Theatre. You don’t need to leave the theater because snacks are served at all breaks with lunch and dinner meal breaks. Coffee, water and a cash bar are available. The food is vegan, Middle Eastern and delicious. Dinner break is an hour and there are many restaurants nearby, in case you want to leave the theater.
The Greek marathon goes on from 11am to 11pm Saturdays and Sundays through October 5. You can also see each play separately on Friday nights and some Mondays. But the immersive experience is mesmerizing and worth giving up a day of your life. There wasn’t a moment when I wasn’t fully engaged. I was never bored or checking the time on my smartphone. The full house audience Sunday also came to stay and be fascinated by the Hypocrites’ tragic bash.
This post is sort of a wandering commentary about what it’s like to spend a long tragic Sunday with The Hypocrites. I haven’t tried to write this as a review because there have been plenty of those already, including this amazing one by two of my Gapers Block colleagues, who did team coverage of All Our Tragic.
My rating for All Our Tragic: 4 stars.
My Name Is Asher Lev at Timeline Theatre
This weekend I also saw and reviewed the excellent new Timeline play, My Name Is Asher Lev, at Stage 773 on Belmont. This is the story about the young Hasidic man in Brooklyn who is torn between his family and religion and his passion to be a painter. The play is written by Aaron Posner and adapted from the best-selling 1972 novel about the Brooklyn Hasidic community by author and rabbi Chaim Potok.
Director Kimberly Senior has done a terrific job of working with the three actors, two of whom play many parts, and creating a strong and compelling whole. Here’s my review in Gapers Block.
My rating for My Name Is Asher Lev: 4 stars.
Suggestion for theater-lovers
See the Theatre in Chicago website for compilations of current plays. It’s a great resource.
That’s my week: The Jungle + Boyhood
Posted: July 23, 2014 Filed under: Movies, Theater | Tags: Boyhood, Oracle Theatre, public access theatre, The Jungle 2 CommentsOn two consecutive days last weekend, I had the good fortune to be in the right place for amazing dramatic experiences. You’ve probably read a lot about one—Richard Linklater’s film, Boyhood. But probably not much about the other. Both are exceptional works.
The Jungle at Oracle Theatre
Photo by Jason Fassi.
Matt Foss’ play is adapted from Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle. It’s set in Chicago in 1906 and focuses on the immigrant families who came here to find jobs and a better life than they could hope for in their European homelands. They found work—and a good deal more—in Chicago’s stockyards. Sinclair’s book, while focusing on the grim lives led by these immigrants, also described the conditions of the stockyards in gruesome detail. To his chagrin, it was the stockyard images that people focused on…possibly because they were appalled to think that was where their meat came from. Like other muckrakers of the time, he hoped to focus public attention on the needs of the people and bring about government action for change.
Oracle Theatre is presenting the world premiere of this play, directed by Foss, who also developed the ingenious stage design that I describe in my Gapers Block review. The play is 100 minutes and will remind you why Chicago theater is great. In your face? Yes. Focused on a message? Absolutely. And tragically, exuberantly dramatic.
Oracle Theatre is committed to free art for all and so their tickets are free (but you should reserve a seat). I write a little about their business model at the end of my review. So far, they seem to be operating successfully with no “earned income.” They deserve your support, not because they’re free, but because they tell great stories.
Boyhood, Richard Linklater’s film about growing up
This film is having a gradual nationwide rollout, and Chicago is in the first wave of releases. You can see this beautiful film at River East 21 or Landmark Century Centre right now. Here’s what I said in my brief Letterboxd review:
Boyhood is a beautifully edited story of a boy growing into a young man. That’s all. Just life, compressed into 164 minutes. The transitions of age and family change are done so smoothly that sometimes you miss them. The film is rich in conversation (that often seems improvised, although it isn’t) about life, its meaning and potential. Linklater’s felicitous choice of a 6-year-old boy who would continue to be interesting for the next 12 years is amazing. Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke, the boy’s divorced parents, also change over the years; they both give terrific performances.
Two years and counting
Nancy Bishop’s Journal is two years old. It’s amazing to me that I’ve continued to write regularly and at length about the things I love: Theater, film, books, music, art and design, Chicago stuff, and sometimes food. My total is 120 posts since July 2012.
I’m also writing regularly at gapersblock.com/ac/, where I’ve written 113 posts in the last 15 months—reviews of theater, art, architecture and design. You also can find my writing at culturevulture.net, an online arts magazine, where I review theater and other Chicago culture, and at theandygram.com, where I post new Chicago theater reviews.
Nancy Bishop’s Journal is two years old. It’s amazing to me that I’ve continued to write regularly and at length about the things I love: Theater, film, books, music, art and design, and sometimes food. My total is 120 posts since July 2012.
I’m also writing regularly at gapersblock.com/ac/, reviewing theater and art.
Hanging out at O’Neill’s: Long Day’s Journey at the Critics Institute
Posted: July 16, 2014 Filed under: Books, Food, Theater, Writers & writing | Tags: Eugene O'Neill Theater Center 2 CommentsThink of it as grad school in a bottle. Two weeks of 20-hour days filled with discussions, theater productions, review writing and critiquing, and never, never enough sleep. That was my recent two-week sojourn as a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut.
The Mansion at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center
The center is located in a beautiful part of rural Connecticut, on the shore of Long Island Sound. So there were a few brief opportunities to visit the beach, or, more likely, to see it from a distance as we sat under a tree for one of our discussions. We stayed in a college dorm nearby and got shuttled back and forth to campus. The O’Neill Center is quite large, with two theaters inside and two outside. The “mansion” is home to the O’Neill’s administrative offices and the kitchen and cafeteria where everyone ate (no ratings for the food). Another large home houses more offices and meeting rooms. There’s also the favorite Blue Gene’s Pub, a cozy tavern that was busy every night. Our morning meetings (before the heat set in) were usually held in the Sunken Garden, under the trees with a view of the ocean. In the afternoons, we met in the Founders Room or another meeting room. (All photos by Nancy Bishop.)
The Monte Cristo Cottage, O’Neill’s childhood summer home, is in New London, a short drive from the campus. The house was the setting for his masterpiece, Long Day’s Journey into Night. We spent part of a day there, touring the house and talking about theater—and feeling some of the eerie O’Neill spirit.
Many other theater conferences were going on at the O’Neill at the same time. The National Playwrights Conference, the National Music Theater Conference, and Theatermakers (a six-week intensive for student playwrights, actors and directors). The National Puppetry Conference had just ended and the Cabaret and Performance Conference was about to begin.
Chris Jones, chief theater critic of the Chicago Tribune, is the new director of the institute, and he has added some new features to the workshop. For instance, one lovely Saturday evening, we went to Mystic, where we split up into smaller groups to have dinner (and write restaurant reviews when we got home). We saw a movie one night for the purpose of discussing the adaptation of a work from stage to screen. (See my Jersey Boys review.)
My 13 fellow Fellows were theater and arts writers and a few graduate students, mostly from the northeast but also from Dallas, Phoenix and Louisville—and three of us from Chicago.
Our days were filled with talks by visiting theater critics and other theater experts and sessions where our reviews were critiqued by Chris, the visitors and each other. It was a fabulously invigorating experience. Our nights were spent going to the theater and then writing reviews about what we had seen, for submission by early the next morning. Did I say never, never sleep?
I’ll give you an overview of some of the sessions we had with visiting critics and theater folk.
Michael Phillips, the Chicago Tribune’s chief film critic, is a former theater critic for the Tribune and several other papers. He talked about his favorite film and theater writers and gave us some valuable insights on writing reviews. He also talked about the art of adapting a work from stage to screen.
Dan Sullivan, Jones’ predecessor as director of the NCI, was a theater critic for the LA Times and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. We read the Tennessee Williams short story (“Portrait of a Girl in Glass”) that later became the play, The Glass Menagerie, and Dan talked about the structure of the play and its first reviews in 1944.
Josh Horvath, a sound designer from Chicago, was at the O’Neill Center to handle sound design for one of the O’Neill productions. He described who handles what in the sound area during a production, and the difference between orchestration and sound.
Jeffrey Sweet, playwright, who worked for years in Chicago, is author of Flyovers, The Value of Names, The Action Against Sol Schuman and Class Dismissed. He also is author of the new history celebrating the O’Neill’s 50th anniversary—The O’Neill: The Transformation of the Modern American Theater (Yale University Press, 2014).
Waterford Beach Park at the O’Neill Center
Matt Wolf, theater critic for the International New York Times and formerly for the International Herald-Tribune. He’s a Yank, based in London, so he regaled us with tales of the London theater scene. He also was an excellent person to work with on critiques of our reviews.
Linda Winer, theater critic for Newsday, and formerly critic for the Chicago Tribune, provided a wealth of information about the role of the critic.
William Grimes writes for the New York Times, where he was chief food critic from 1999 until 2004. He told us his personal rules for the colleagues who accompanied him on his food adventures (everyone orders something different, don’t eat slowly, make at least three visits to the restaurant) and gave us many great insights on writing—about food and other topics.
Hedy Weiss, theater and dance critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. Hedy, a former dancer, had us start our session by doing stretches on the patio outside our meeting room. We watched different types of dance videos to get a sense of how to review this art that most of us were not experienced with. We also saw and reviewed the 2013 documentary—Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq—about the great ballerina who was stricken by polio at 27 and never danced again. After years of treatment and therapy, she was able to live a vibrant and active life (confined to a wheelchair) for several decades. The film was a PBS American Masters episode and had an art house release.
Nick Wyman, president of Actors Equity and an actor in one of the National Music Theater productions.
Peter Marks, theater critic for the Washington Post. Peter was a delightful and thoughtful participant in our discussions. I learned a lot from listening to him critique our reviews.
O’Neill creatives—director, playwright, composer, lyricist and scene designer—who talked about their crafts and what pisses them off about theater reviews—and reviewers.
We saw and reviewed four of the O’Neill productions in staged reading form. By agreement with O’Neill, I’m not at liberty to discuss those in any way. Playwrights live at the O’Neill for a month and work with directors and actors in rehearsals that result in public staged readings. A similar process enables several playwrights, lyricists, and composers to develop new work in a variety of music theater genres. The O’Neill provides artistic and administrative support so that the artists can explore the material with directors, musicians, and Equity performers. Even after brief rehearsal and rewriting periods, you could see that some of these productions will definitely appear on stages or screens near you some time soon.
We also took field trips around Rhode Island and Connecticut to see and review regional theater.
At Trinity Rep in Providence
At Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, we saw an excellent production of Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind. This veteran repertory company presented a gripping version of this Shepard play. It was my favorite performance of the two weeks.
Elvis is in the building
At the Ivoryton Playhouse in Ivoryton, Connecticut, we saw a so-so production of All Shook Up. The cast was enthusiastic but the quality was community-theater level.
At the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, we saw a fine production of Fiddler on the Roof. I should say, I heard a fine production. Some of us were sitting in the second-row balcony just over the stage where we had almost no view of the performance. The music was great.
At Connecticut Repertory Theatre on the UConn campus in Storrs, we saw Leslie Uggams in a bizarre production of Gypsy. Bizarre because she was so miscast in the role. The theater trumpeted the production as the first time an African-American actor was cast in an Equity production of Gypsy with a multiracial cast. Many of the cast members were quite capable, but, unfortunately, Uggams was about 20 years past her time for this show. For the story to work, Mama Rose should be in her 40s or maybe early 50s but Uggams is in her 70s—and not a frisky 70. The actor who played her love interest was nearly comatose—either from shock or lack of direction.
By the end of two weeks, we were all sleep-deprived but exhilarated from the intellectual and creative experience. We worked straight through from Saturday thru Friday 14 days later, with one day off.
BobbyB’s Deli, Waterford CT
To make up for the relatively awful food in the campus cafeteria where we ate most of our meals, we had a few good food excursions. To Bobby B’s Deli, a short walk from our dorm, where we had amazing egg-on-bagel sandwiches. To a tavern in Ivoryton, where I had a sensational lobster roll. To Ocean Pizza in New London, for a fried scallop grinder that was mmm-mmm but too much to eat. To Azu in Mystic for some sophisticated casual food. To an Italian café in East Haddam for a pre-show dinner. And home again to eat my own cooking. Delicious.
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Theater musings: Politics and family
Posted: June 27, 2014 Filed under: Theater | Tags: Ariel Dorfman, Sam Shepard, Sandra Oh, Strawdog Theatre, The Artistic Home, Victory Gardens 1 CommentI’ve seen and reviewed a couple of plays and other events since last week and I have a few opinions I want to get off my mind. You won’t be hearing from me for a couple of weeks because I’m going to a very exciting writers’ program. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.
Death and the Maiden at Victory Gardens
A gripping political play by Ariel Dorfman, set in a country “that is probably Chile,” in the time after the regime of dictator Augusto Pinochet. See my brief review on Gapers Block, which links to my original detailed version on theandygram.com.
Death and the Maiden, starring Sandra Oh in a strong and nuanced performance, runs thru July 20 at Victory Gardens Biograph Theatre, 2433 N Lincoln Ave.
The Late Henry Moss at The Artistic Home
I tweeted a link to my review on Gapers Block, with this comment: “You think your family is obnoxious? See what a Sam Shepard family is like.” A very good production of a play that is not for the faint of heart. The Artistic Home cast is talented and the acting solid. Their productions are reliably so.
The Late Henry Moss by Sam Shepard runs until August 3 at the Artistic Home, 1376 W Grand Ave.
Charles Ives Take Me Home at Strawdog Theatre
This play, now closed, got excellent reviews. The two lead performers give fine performances and are also solid at their respective talents: music and basketball. The father, a violinist, doesn’t understand his daughter’s obsession with basketball. The daughter, a basketball player, doesn’t understand why her father thinks music is the only thing that matters in life. The conversation and interplay is entertaining, but the plot doesn’t hang together. At the end of the 80-minute play, I thought, well, ok, did I just waste an evening or what?
If I had been reviewing this play, I would have given it two stars or “somewhat recommended,” as several reviewers did. And others gave it three or four stars.
And one more thing….
Chinatown. A movie review, for your home viewing. Have you seen Roman Polanski’s Chinatown in the 40 years since you first saw it in a movie theater? This 1974 film is absolutely brilliant. Every single detail–of clothing, behavior, autos, and clues to the mystery–is perfect and perfectly positioned. And of course, superb performances by Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston make it as astonishing film.
I liked it when I first saw it, but in recent years, I’ve learned a lot about filmmaking and directing (thank you, Roger Ebert!) and I was able to get even more out of it. Chinatown is available streaming on Netflix or, of course, on DVD. Next time you’re looking for a great movie to watch, choose this one!
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Theater to feed my obsessions: Bombs, dystopia and technology
Posted: June 20, 2014 Filed under: Art & architecture, Movies, Theater 2 CommentsI have a few obsessions and they’re probably baffling or inscrutable to most of my friends and relatives. If you’re a rock music fan, you’ll understand my Bruce Springsteen obsession. But my obsessions with the Spanish Civil War, technology and dystopian societies, and the genius physicists who created that engine of doom, the first atomic bomb, are a little weird, I admit. I’m not going to try to explain them here. But I don’t miss a chance to read about, or see dramatizations of, those topics. And that explains why I really liked a few of the plays I’ve reviewed and seen lately.
The Half Life of Memory by Cold Basement Dramatics
Those genius physicists—Oppenheimer, Fermi, Einstein and Teller—do a song and dance number in this memory play now being performed by a small theater company at the city’s Storefront Theater on Randolph Street. The protagonist is a retired physicist suffering from dementia, who dreams that his memory is radioactive and will allow him to create the next huge weapon of mass destruction. Edward Teller eggs him on, while the other physicists are less sanguine about the idea.
Cold Basement Dramatics does a good job with this difficult topic. Mark Maxwell plays the protagonist in an intelligent and graceful style and the rest of the cast is very good too.
Here’s the opening of my Gapers Block review:
“Our memories can beguile us, deceive us, even betray us. On the other hand, we also create those deceptions by repressing memories and even creating memories that never existed. The Half Life of Memory, Jason Lindner’s fascinating new work produced by Cold Basement Dramatics, is a memory play… with a bang.”
Playwright Lindner created the character based on a relative who was one of the Manhattan Project physicists. The play has some rough edges but is definitely worth your time and interest.
The Half Life of Memory runs thru June 29 at the Storefront Theatre, 66 E Randolph St. Tickets are cheap too!
Tyrant by Sideshow Theatre Company
Tyrant shows us how a future society has solved the problem of homelessness and unemployment. Sideshow presents a dystopian future in this world premiere play by Kathleen Akerley and they do a decent job with it. The topic and treatment are interesting, and this kind of risk-taking deserves an audience. (My rating was “somewhat recommended.”)
This is how my Gapers Block review starts:
“Here’s a solution for the problem of homelessness. Gather up the homeless and give them the choice of joining the military, leaving the country, or moving to a center for special training. The latter group is assigned to wealthy people to perform household and personal chores. In Sideshow Theatre Company’s Tyrant, Congress does that one year from now with the US Rectification Act, which allows “rectifees” to be “actualized” by the presumably well-intentioned 1 percent (or perhaps 10 percent).”
Tyrant runs through June 29 at Theater Wit, 1229 W Belmont.
Ask Aunt Susan at Goodman Theatre
Alex Stage and Marc Grapey at the Hole in the Wall Bar.
The play in Goodman’s smaller theater space is a modernized version of Nathanael West’s novella, Miss Lonelyhearts. Rather than being a 1930s newspaper advice columnist, our protagonist is a young man who creates content and code for an internet company. His boss, the funny, fiendish Steve, asks him to start giving advice online to readers who write in with their problems. This becomes a huge success almost immediately, but Aunt Susan doesn’t know how to handle his fame. Nor does his girlfriend Betty. But Steve and his partner/wife Lydia do and they move Aunt Susan to version 2.0.
Ask Aunt Susan has gotten a few negative reviews but most are in the “recommended” category, as mine was. The 90-minute play has some flaws and needs some work, but it’s great fun and asks us to question how we maintain our lives today. Plus Marc Grapey’s performance as Steve is not to be missed. Grapey is a terrific comic actor and does a four-star job in this play.
My Gapers Block review wonders:
“Ask Aunt Susan… is a smart, funny 90-minute tear through today’s era of digital connections and a cri de coeur for a slower pace and a little more humanity in our personal relationships. Or is it?”
Ask Aunt Susan runs through June 22 at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N Dearborn St.
I also interviewed playwright Seth Bockley about his thinking on internet obsessions, generational differences, and how he visualizes a play while writing it. Read it here.
Vieux Carré at Raven Theatre
This haunting Tennessee Williams play presents many of the themes of his other works. Loneliness. Failed dreams. Artistic awakening. Poverty. Homosexuality. This is one of Williams’ late plays, written in 1977, and it addresses those themes as he did in better-known works such as The Glass Menagerie and Streetcar Named Desire. This play deserves to be better known. Vieux Carré deals with The Writer (Ty Olwin) as a young man newly arrived in New Orleans and trying to sort out his creative and romantic life, while living in a rooming house in the French Quarter. The denizens of the rooming house suffer poverty, hunger and lost love.
Raven Theatre does reliably high quality work and this play is no exception. The two-act, two-hour play directed by Cody Estle is beautifully handled. Mrs Wire (Joanne Montemurro) owns the boarding house and handles her turn from mean-spirited landlady to grieving her own loss beautifully. She tells The Writer, “There’s so much loneliness in this house that you can hear it.”
Veteran Chicago actor Will Casey plays Nightingale, a gay artist who is dying of tuberculosis and mourning his unsuccessful career. He tries to introduce the younger man to a new love and life style, which The Writer seems to resist. The relationship between the two actors ebbs and flows until its tragic end.
Vieux Carré runs at Raven Theatre Company, 6157 N Clark St, thru June 28.
And a few favorite movies
Hairy Who & the Chicago Imagists
Do you remember the artists known as the Hairy Who from the ‘60s and ‘70s? They were outrageous and confrontational and their work was vividly colored and luridly graphic. You can relive your past art memories in this outstanding documentary, which I just reviewed. It’s having limited showings but you’ll be able to see it in late September at the Gene Siskel Film Center. I’m going to see it again.
Obvious Child
I saw this excellent indie film last month at the Music Box during the Chicago Critics Film Festival. And now it’s back and showing at several local theaters. It’s directed by Gillian Robespierre and stars Jenny Slate as a young woman standup comic who gets pregnant in a drunken one-night stand (that turns into a tender romance). The performances are excellent, the script is raunchy and fun. Most interesting, the concept of abortion gets rational consideration; it’s not treated as an idea that dare not be mentioned. This is the first film I’ve seen that takes this approach and it’s refreshingly natural and naturalistic. I highly recommend seeing Obvious Child.
NOTE: All photos courtesy of the theater or production companies.
May mashup: My pop culture diary
Posted: May 31, 2014 Filed under: Art & architecture, Movies, Music, Theater | Tags: Court Theatre, E Street Band, Profiles Theatre, theandygram.com 3 CommentsBusy end-of-May at Nancy’s house. House guests, including two perfectly darling grandsons, and a family wedding at a grand venue. So I haven’t seen much theater since the last time we chatted. Still, there were a few great movies, one so-so play, and news about a new website that I’m writing for. You’ll find some TV recs too.
First, some architecture notes
South Shore Cultural Center. Photo courtesy Chicago Park District
A lakefront wedding. The wedding was at the beautiful South Shore Cultural Center, right on the lakefront at 71st Street. It was originally a private country club and it’s now part of the Chicago Park District. If you haven’t been there, it is simply lovely and worth a visit. If you’re planning an event, it should be on your list of venues.
The country club, built in 1906, was designed by Marshall and Fox, who designed the Drake and Blackstone Hotels. It was expanded in 1916, also by Marshall and Fox. (Benjamin Marshall also designed the elegant Beaux Arts apartment building at 1550 N State Parkway.) The wedding ceremony was held in the beautiful solarium, looking out at the lake, and then we moved to a reception hall for champagne and greetings, and finally to the dining room. You can see some CPD photos here.
An architecture scavenger hunt. If you’re a fan of Chicago’s Loop architecture, you should sign up for the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s scavenger hunt next Saturday afternoon, June 7. The game starts and ends at the Railway Exchange Building at 224 S Michigan; there’ll be an awards reception in the grand atrium. You’ll find the details in my story on Gapers Block.
Theater notes
Photo by Michael Brosilow.
M Butterfly at Court Theatre. The script by David Henry Hwang is marvelous, very smart and well-written. I thought the Court production left a little to be desired—it was a bit flat. The reviews were definitely mixed from “not recommended” to “highly recommended.” I imagine director Charles Newell might have taken some notes and spiffed up his production since then. The play tells the amazing story of the French diplomat who was deceived for 20 years by a male opera star posing as a female diva. Despite my review, I do recommend a trip to Hyde Park.
Here’s my review; my rating was “somewhat recommended.”
TheAndyGram.com. This is a New York-based theater website that covers Broadway, off-Broadway, Washington, Connecticut and, now, Chicago. My first review (of Cock at Profiles Theatre) is now up on theandygram.com. See it here. It’s a terrific show and I highly recommend it. It runs until June 29; details are at the end of my review.
My headline is “… A Riveting Play That Explores All the Meanings of Its Title.” Here’s how my review begins:
Cock is a play title you very rarely find in a theater review headline. I’m hoping that’s because of fear of internet anti-obscenity filters, rather than puritanism on the part of copy editors. The play by Mike Bartlett is a comedy about sexual identity, a love triangle and a power play among three characters: John, a bisexual who is fighting to discover his identity; M and W, his lovers, who battle each other and John himself to determine the course of their lives.
Movies I loved…or at least liked
The Normal Heart. HBO’s production of Larry Kramer’s play about the early years of the AIDS epidemic is excellent. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I had read enough about the production, and the playwright’s involvement, to be optimistic that its edges wouldn’t be softened. And they weren’t. We needed to be reminded about the terror of the disease first known as “gay cancer.” And to be reminded that the war is not over. The tagline, “To win a war, you have to start one,” is an ideal descriptor.
The acting is excellent. Mark Ruffalo plays a very believable Ned Weeks (Larry Kramer) and there are terrific performances by Julia Roberts, Jim Parsons and Matt Bomer. I originally saw the play off-Broadway in about 1985 and Timeline Theatre did an excellent production last year. I highly recommend the HBO film. Here’s the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZxR9XHS0H8%5B/
Stoker and Blue Velvet. My film group discussed Stoker last week and we’re discussing Blue Velvet soon. They are both excellent films and each is weird, creepy and outrageous in its own way.
Stoker (2013, 99 minutes) is the first English-language film by the Korean director, Chan-Wook Park. (He directed the so-called vengeance trilogy, which includes Oldboy.) His title is surely meant to remind us of Bram Stoker, who created Dracula, but Stoker is just a family name. A family whose father is killed in a mysterious auto accident, whose daughter ( Mia Wasikowska) is obsessed with hunting and saddle shoes, and whose mother (Nicole Kidman) can’t get her daughter to love her. But at the funeral, an uncle (Matthew Goode) appears out of nowhere and befriends mother and daughter. The story is a bit of a takeoff on an Alfred Hitchcock film, Shadow of a Doubt, about a young girl’s relationship with her serial-killer uncle. Stoker has lots of strange and beautiful cinematography and features a psychologically steamy piano duet of Philip Glass music.
If you stay up late or get up early or set your DVR, HBO is showing Stoker June 1 at 3:20am CT.
Blue Velvet (1986, 120 minutes) is an early David Lynch film, before Twin Peaks. The weirdness is set off when an earnest young man (Kyle MacLachlan) finds a severed human ear in a field as he’s walking home. The plot revolves around his boy detective attempts to solve a mystery with a very young Laura Dern as his co-star. Isabelle Rossellini is a nightclub singer who performs “Blue Velvet” and Dennis Hopper is her crazed tormentor, who uses a mask to breathe in gas to energize his crimes.
Roger Ebert hated this film so much that he gave it one star in 1986. He and Gene Siskel disagreed on it, however. (When it was revived 20 years later, one reviewer said it was still “a hilarious, red-hot poker to the brain.”) Here’s a clip of the “At the Movies” review from 1986. Go to 2:35 to see Roger and Gene debate the film.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction
Yes, tonight is the night that we can see the E Street Band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their frontman, Bruce Springsteen, was inducted in 1999. The induction ceremony took place in April but tonight is the three-hour-plus event, with all the honorees, along with a bunch of special guests performing. The band is being inducted in a category that used to be known as sidemen and now is called the Award for Musical Excellence.
Other inductees are Peter Gabriel, Nirvana, Hall and Oates, KISS, Linda Ronstadt and Cat Stevens. Artists are eligible for the Rock Hall 25 years after their first recording. Rock Hall members (including me) voted for a list of eligible musicians and then the panel of judges picks the inductees. My DVR is already set.
Chicago storefronts: Great new theater
Posted: May 17, 2014 Filed under: Chicago, Theater | Tags: Interrobang Theatre Project, Profiles Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Den Theatre, The Hypocrites, Trap Door Theatre 1 CommentI’ve seen five plays in the last two weeks. Most of them are provocative and well-produced gems from small theater companies, generically called storefronts, although they may well be in warehouses, church basements, behind restaurants or in old neighborhood centers. They’re by far the best theater bargains in Chicago and often demonstrate quality superior to the more high-profile theaters. Here are my theater picks for today.
Vatzlav at Trap Door Theatre
Yes, I’m always raving about this company, which produces plays mostly by eastern European dramatists. I like the bitter edge of these plays, their black humor and their historical references and precedents. Their current show, Vatzlav by Slawomire Mrozek, pokes fun both at capitalism and authoritarian governments. Vatzlav, a former slave, is saved from an ocean disaster when he lands on a magical island where inexplicable things happen. The inhabitants include a blind old man named Oedipus, a youth who turns into a bear, a roving ukulele player, and the rich couple who own the island. Don’t try to make sense out of it; just enjoy it. The set is simple and the costumes as usual are brilliant and colorful.
Playwright Mrozek died last August in France. He was often referred to as the Polish Ionesco and his work is compared to that of Czech playwright Vaclav Havel. Vatzlav runs thru May 24 at the Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland.
Director Beata Pilch, whose bio says she was born in the Polish district of Chicago, is founder and artistic director of Trap Door. The company has been invited to Poland to work with Teatr Witkacy and they’re raising funds for the trip. You can donate here.
The Doll’s House Project: Ibsen Is Dead at Interrobang Theatre Project
Henrik Ibsen’s The Doll’s House, published in 1879 and premiered in English in 1889, is now considered a groundbreaking piece of modern drama. It explores gender politics, scandals and marital relationships, and it brought realism to theater, when most were staging traditional costume drama. Calamity West’s new play is inspired by Ibsen’s but it’s not an adaptation. Nora in the original is the first dissatisfied housewife—84 years before Bette Friedan’s book explained the problem to us.
In the new version, Nora is a stay-at-home housewife, dominated by her successful husband Torvald, who doles out her allowance sparingly and monitors her activities. Her main job is recreational shopping. So far, like Ibsen. The new play is set in Manhattan in 1989 on the day the Berlin Wall fell. An old friend of Nora’s arrives to visit and the play veers away from the Ibsen version. The memories and tensions between Nora and Christine are the highlight of the play, while Torvald and the neighbor doctor circle around them and spar over Nora’s affections. The performers are excellent and director Jim Yost keeps the 90-minute play snapping along. The script still needs some work; there are parts that are slow and some of the dialogue seems dated.
The idea of Nora as a rich stay-at-home wife was dated in 1989, unless you moved in the circles of high-powered lawyers, financiers and consultants. In those worlds (where I worked as a marketing minion in those years), the rich stay-at-home dabbler wife was the standard. I met dozens of them at partner meetings. I couldn’t figure out how they spent their time. Recreational shopping, most likely.
The Doll’s House Project runs thru June 8 at the Athenaeum Theatre.
Cock at Profiles Theatre
Cock is a play title you very rarely find in a review headline. I’m hoping that’s because of fear over internet anti-obscenity filters, rather than puritanism on the part of copy editors. The play by Mike Bartlett is a love triangle and a power play among three characters: John, a bisexual who is fighting to discover his identity; M and W, his lovers, who battle each other and John himself to determine the course of their lives.
The setting is London in the present but the set mimics a small arena where cock-fighting might take place. The floor is covered with fake gravel; the arena is surrounded by a low iron wall. The characters frequently take positions at opposite sides, as if about to face off. In the first half, new scenes are signaled with a bell like the start of a new boxing round; after blackouts, the characters open new scenes in attack pose. The set design and the production vigorously directed by Darrell Cox make clear that the title refers to several meanings of the word, including adult male chickens and gunlocks, in addition to the male anatomy.
The actors create an intense atmosphere, which is enhanced by the intimate space. (The audience sits in tiered wooden stalls with cushions provided at the door.) The semi-comfortable seats and the tension among characters mean that 80 minutes is about the most one can tolerate of this drama that forces John to, finally, make a choice.
Cock runs thru June 29 at Profiles Theatre, 4139 N Broadway.
The Way West at Steppenwolf Theatre
Mona Mansour’s play seems to celebrate America’s pioneer spirit and our western expansion, but ends up in personal bankruptcies in 21st century Los Angeles. The family members—a mother and two daughters—have each in her own way found a way to financial ruin. Mom just quit paying her bills, is ignoring her illness, and believes everything will be ok. The older daughter has taken time off from her job in Chicago to help her mom sort thru her records and file bankruptcy. Her younger sister cares for her mother and has gone from job to job; she is in much the same financial shape as her mother. The older sister at first seems like the responsible one, but after she loses her job (learning about it by voice mail), everything falls apart for her too.
The story line is right out of 2008 and could be stronger with a more tightly edited script. The unfortunate musical interludes with western songs by the mother, accompanied by her daughters on guitars, are strange breaks in the action that just don’t work. (The wagon train and campfire projections behind the performers only increase the silliness.)
The Way West runs two hours plus intermission and can be seen thru June 8 in Steppenwolf’s downstairs theater. It’s one of the few times in my 20+ years as a Steppenwolf subscriber that I’ve been disappointed by a production.
More theater news: Expansion project for The Den Theatre and The Hypocrites
The Hypocrites, one of my favorite small theaters, will be leaving their claustrophobic basement space at Chopin Theatre and moving into a new space nearby on Milwaukee avenue that’s being taken over by The Den Theatre. The Den, another of my faves, currently has several performance spaces at 1333 N Milwaukee over a large empty retail space. They’re taking over that space and it will be the new home of The Hypocrites. It’s a great story for Chicago theater and for the Wicker Park neighborhood. You can read more about it in my article at Gapers Block.
May Playbill: Fighters, painters, mammoths and more
Posted: May 2, 2014 Filed under: Movies, Theater | Tags: @CFLX312, A Red Orchid Theatre, Gene Siskel Film Center, Remy Bumppo Theatre, Saint Sebastian Players, Seanachai Theatre, The House Theatre, Theater Wit 1 CommentI’ve seen lots of plays lately, as usual, and wanted to give you a little recap of a few to see, or not.
Lay Me Down Softly at Seanachai Theatre
Seanachai does an excellent job with this terrific Irish script by Billy Roche. It’s a tough story about a traveling roadshow that includes a fake bearded lady, carnival booths and fake boxing ring challenges. Every day is the same; only the towns change. The main story thread is about Dean, a boxer who can’t seem to win, and Junior, a once-champion who was forced to retire because of an injury. The bullying roadshow owner Theo and the cut man and boxers’ mentor Peadar are the other two male characters. Two women create really strong performances to anchor the play. The boxing ring set is handled with great care and almost seems to create a play within a play.
My Gapers Block colleague, Alice Singleton, reviewed it and adds some interesting insights.
Lay Me Down Softly runs until May 25 at the Den Theatre, 1333 N Milwaukee Ave. Like Seanachai’s recent production of The Seafarer, which I reviewed in December, it’s a must-see. Oh, how I love those Irish playwrights.
Dorian at The House Theatre
Photo by Michael Brosilow.
Dorian is an adaptation of the great Oscar Wilde novel, A Picture of Dorian Gray. It’s a visually interesting production that stresses the personal relationships among Dorian, his portraitist and friends and party people of today’s London. It’s the well-known story of Dorian–the man who didn’t age while his portrait did. House stages it in “promenade” style, which means most of the audience is mingling with the actors during the action, which can take place in the artist’s studio, at parties, galleries or performance spaces. I recommended it with a three-star review, and added this:
“This is not a play to attend because you love the writing of Oscar Wilde, notably in his fabulous plays like Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, Salomé, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest, all written in the 1890s. The Picture of Dorian Gray, his only novel, is complex and challenging–and filled with smart, witty dialogue, but you won’t find much of that complexity or dialogue in Dorian.”
Dorian runs until May 18 at the Chopin Theatre on Milwaukee Avenue. My review here.
Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England
at Theater Wit
This play has received excellent reviews, every one of them richly deserved. It’s smart and well written, warmly acted by a fine cast, and directed by Jeremy Wechsler. The script is by Madeleine George, a writer with Massachusetts and Brooklyn connections. It’s about relationships between friends and lovers and the financially stressed closing of the museum at a small northeastern college, which will leave the mammoths homeless.
Every cast member is excellent. The day I saw it, one of the major roles was played by a superb substitute, Penelope Walker. Laura Fisher, an old friend from Famous Door Theatre days, is outstanding in one of the other lead roles. A special treat is the performance by Steve Herson, who plays various characters including the museum caretaker, a reporter, citizens at a town hall meeting, and a board member reading the hilarious minutes of the meeting. In each case, his accent is different and perfect. Also the museum exhibits include prehistoric people in diorama exhibits who voice the concerns of museum visitors.
Seven Homeless Mammoths is a great treat and you shouldn’t miss it. It runs until May 17 at Theater Wit on Belmont.
Mud Blue Sky at A Red Orchid Theatre
Photo by Michael Brosilow.
This is a terrific show at Red Orchid, with great humor, warm relationships, and things you didn’t want to know about airplanes. Here’s how my Gapers Block review begins:
“Loneliness, regrets, friendship, humor, and a little maternal instinct season A Red Orchid Theatre’s new play, Mud Blue Sky. Director Shade Murray gets the most out of Marisa Wegrzyn’s fine script, which revolves around airport life. The tiny Red Orchid space on Wells Street is perfect for the claustrophobic story of three very mature flight attendant friends on a layover at a hotel near O’Hare.” Beth and Sam are still flying. Angie lost her job recently and now lives in a Chicago suburb. Angie misses flying and the others can’t wait to get away from it. That’s the story until they get acquainted with a young man named Jonathan, who helps them find some relaxation and entertainment.
My review is highly recommended at theatreinchicago.com. Mud Blue Sky has been playing to sold-out houses and it’s now extended until June 29.
Our Class at Remy Bumppo
Our Class by Tadeusz Slobodzianek is a play about the Holocaust—set in the small Polish town of Jedwabne in the years leading up to World War II. The play was troubling and thought-provoking and my friends debated and disagreed about it afterwards.
The story begins in the schoolroom where members of “our class” study and play together. They are all friends, whether Jewish or gentile. Hints of anti-Semitism creep in to their school and their play from time to time and gradually increase. The key event is the 1941 massacre of virtually all the Jewish citizens—1,600 men, women and children–by their neighbors. The perpetrators are never accused, never held accountable. In the years that follow, various survivors lie about their role in the event, including one who hid and one who had converted to Christianity.
Despite the power of the first act, most of the second act is bogged down in excessive exposition. Too much detail kills the power of the first act. The play runs nearly three hours, with one intermission.
This is a risky sort of play for Remy Bumppo, which tends to produce superb quality Anglophile theater by great writers. Their regular ensemble is made up of talented and experienced Chicago actors. Our Class takes Remy Bumppo in a totally different, riskier direction and brings in some younger actors new to the company.
Reviews are virtually all “highly recommended” or four star. Our Class runs until May 11 at the Greenhouse Theatre Center.
Death Defying Acts at Saint Sebastian Players
Photo by John C Oster.
Three short plays by three brilliant writers: David Mamet, Elaine May and Woody Allen. Unfortunately, they were all writing on their off days because the scripts in Death Defying Acts aren’t very good. The production is medium, with a few good performances. I really wanted to give this play a better review but I just couldn’t. The theater company decided to create a circusy atmosphere in the lobby and around the production, which was not a great idea. Here’s what I said about that in my Gapers Block review.
“One problem with the whole production is the overworked circus atmosphere. Yes, death-defying acts suggest a carnival with risky high-wire acts. Old circus posters decorate the lobby of the church-basement theater. Before the show opens, an old circus film, Here Comes the Circus, is projected across the stage floor. The crew is dressed in circus clown and aerialist costumes while making stage changes. But it’s a bit over the top, especially considering the lack of death-defying acts on stage.”
Death Defying Acts runs until May 18 at St Bonaventure Church, 1641 W Diversey. The theater space is in the basement; entry door on the west side of the church. Good news is that there’s free parking in the church lot.
And on screen, not stage
The Wind Rises returns. This wonderful Japanese animated film by the master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki is scheduled for a two-week run at the Gene Siskel Center, May 16-29. I wrote about this film when it opened recently. It’s beautiful, hand-drawn throughout, rich and complex in its use of Japanese history and mythology. If you didn’t see it before, you have another chance.
Photo courtesy Siskel Film Center.
Othello at Siskel. The great and greatly flawed Orson Welles 1952 production of Shakespeare’s Othello has been running at the Gene Siskel Film Center. I saw it for the third time last night (the first time was when I was in college at the old Fine Arts cinema, the second a few years ago at the Music Box). The 1992 restoration made a lot of improvements in visual and sound quality. It’s a powerful film, with Welles starring as the Moor. It’s clear why his film presence was so huge; he dominates every scene with his size, voice and expression.
The play is really Iago’s, as Harold Bloom insists in his essay on Othello in his book, Shakespeare: Invention of the Human. The actor who plays Iago in the film (Micheal Mac Liammoir, an Irish actor who founded the Gate Theatre),does a creditable job but can’t stand up to the Welles persona. Because he is Orson Welles, no matter what role he is playing.
Lotsa theater in Chicago: Part 2
Posted: April 4, 2014 Filed under: Theater | Tags: About Face Theatre, Arguendo, Court Theatre, Elevator Repair Service, European Repertory Theatre, Silk Road Rising, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Gift Theatre Leave a commentA few days ago, I posted an article compiling several plays I’ve seen recently. However, I’ve been busy lately, so here’s another bunch. Don’t miss the trailer below for Arguendo, the March production by Elevator Repair Service at the MCA Stage. It’s gone, but still being staged in other cities. You might want to chase it down after you see this.
Water by the Spoonful at Court Theatre
Quiara Alegría Hudes’ play tells several stories of lost souls seeking to find themselves, find redemption or simply a cure for a crack habit. Three of the characters are family members: Elliott, an Iraq war veteran; his cousin, Yazmin, who has an adjunct academic job and seems to speak with the author’s voice; and Odessa, his estranged mother. Odessa moderates a global chat room for recovering addicts.
The chat room concept made the play seem very ‘90s although I know chat rooms still exist. When I tried to find some, they all seemed to be about sex, so the chat room vehicle seemed a little weak. But those scenes demonstrate the value for troubled souls being able to reach out and talk to others without recriminations.
Water is directed by Henry Godinez. Scene and projection design is by the very talented John Boesche, whose projections have embellished Chicago productions for many years. But the jagged hole in the front center of the stage was a little too literal in creating the abyss into which characters might fall.
Water by the Spoonful is touching, thought-provoking and beautifully staged. Its run ends April 6.
Russian Transport at Steppenwolf Theatre
The tough comedy/drama Russian Transport is directed by Yasen Peyankov, who has been one of my favorite Chicago theater artists since I first saw him in shows at the late great European Repertory Company in the 1980s and ’90s. I still get chills thinking about their production of Steven Berkoff’s Agamemnon.
Russian Transport is the story of a Russian immigrant family in Brooklyn who work hard to get along and are joined by Boris, a relative who arrives from Russia. Misha, the father, runs a fairly successful car service out of his home office. His wife Diana (Boris’ sister) keeps tight control on the family cash. Alex and Mira are their children; Mira is still in high school; Alex goes to college part-time, and works a couple of part-time jobs, including driving for his father. They think Boris will need help finding a job and getting set up in America, but it turns out Boris already has a thriving business—which involves young women arriving from eastern Europe. He is by turns friendly, charming and menacing to his niece and nephew. Steppenwolf ensemble members Tim Hopper as Boris and Mariann Mayberry as Diana play roles quite different from their usual style. Both are excellent as are the other three actors.
The play has had mixed reviews but my friends and I thought it was excellent and worth your time and thought. It runs through May 11 in Steppenwolf’s upstairs theater.
More on European Rep. As an aside, this 1987 article from the Chicago Reader is a good overview of European Rep as well as an indictment for the lack of funding for theater in Chicago and the US.
Thinner Than Water at The Gift Theatre
The headline for my Gapers Block review of this fine play is “not just another dysfunctional family.” Here’s an excerpt from the opening of my review:
“Is blood thinner than water, rather than, as the proverb would have it, thicker? Gift Theatre’s new play Thinner Than Water by Melissa Ross makes us ponder this question as water washes over the family members metaphorically as well as realistically…. So many opportunities for family dissension. But the recipe for a hyper-dysfunctional family might start like this: Take one distant and unloving father and three mothers–and add one child from each. As Thinner Than Water opens, the three half-siblings are arguing about who will handle details of their father’s terminal illness.”
Thinner Than Water has strong performances from all its cast members and John Gawlik’s direction makes it the high-quality production we have come to expect from Gift Theatre. You can catch it at this Jefferson Park storefront until May 25. See my complete review here.
Brahman/i at Silk Road Rising + About Face Theatre
Brahman/i is an unusual production—part standup comedy, part lesson in the history (and mystery) of sexual ambiguity. Its subtitle is “A One- Hijra Stand-Up Comedy Show.” As a co-production of Silk Road and About Face, it involves both storytelling from South Asia and questions of sexual identity. Brahman/i, the sole character, is played by Fawzia Mirza, who has performed at many other Chicago theaters. Brahman/i is an hijra or intersex person, who is considered to be both male and female. (I’m working very hard not to use personal pronouns here.) During the performance, the actor changes from male garb to female with sari and jewelry. A guitarist provides occasional accompaniment and comments.
The story told is interesting and complex and tells us bits and pieces of history and mythology as well as stories of Brahman/i’s middle school and her opinionated auntie. We learn lessons from Odysseus and Galileo and see erotic Tantric images from the temples at Khajuraho. The almost-two-hour show is truly a stand-up comedy performance, not a play, although the stories are engaging and humorous; Mirza’s performance is charismatic and energetic. Brahman/i runs until April 27 at Silk Road Rising’s theater in the Chicago Temple on Washington Street.
Arguendo by Elevator Repair Service
This play was staged at the MCA Stage for just one weekend in March, but the Elevator Repair Service production of Arguendo was one of the best things I’ve seen lately. I suppose not everyone would be attracted by a theatrical performance of a Supreme Court case, but this New York theater company is smart and innovative and made the lines sing. Barnes vs Glen Theatre Inc. was a 1991 Indiana case questioning the constitutionality of the Indiana law requiring performers to wear something—pasties and a g string, shall we say—rather than performing nude. The suit was brought by the Kitty Kat Lounge and Glen Theatre, Inc., of South Bend, Indiana. The Barnes in the case title was Michael Barnes, then St. Joseph County Prosecuting Attorney.
The show begins with a reporter scrum outside the SCOTUS building as exotic dancer arrives to observe the trial. Then we move to the courtroom where three justices are seated on a raised area above the stage. Proceedings begin in a dignified manner with opening arguments by petitioner and respondent. Shortly, we realize the justices’ chairs are on casters as they come careening down the ramps on either side of the stage. From then on, the scene changes moment by moment as justices and attorneys wheel around the stage to face each other or the audience. The three actors portraying the justices change voice and physical style to mimic the various justices.
The actor portraying Bruce Ennis, the ACLU attorney for the respondents (the dancers et al) argued on First Amendment grounds that the right to nude dancing was an element of free expression. His energetic arguments began to result in his gradual disrobing—first jacket, then trousers, then shirt, then undershirt and shorts—until he was down to a thong. And soon the thong came off too. He completed his arguments as naked as the day he was born.
Unfortunately, the SCOTUS decision, delivered by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, didn’t agree with the First Amendment arguments—and the exotic dancers lost their case.
The 80-minute play was followed by a fascinating discussion and Q&A by director John Collins with Nancy Marder of the Jury Center at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. Other experts joined Collins at other performances.
I first saw the great work of Elevator Repair Service in 2008, when they performed a full staged reading of Gatz, F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The 8.5-hour production, with meal breaks, was also held at the MCA theater. It was one of those incredible arts experiences that can’t be matched. Except maybe by a terrific rock and roll concert.
Coming up tonight: Bruce Springsteen on HBO
For fans of Bruce Springsteen and rock and roll: The 30-minute documentary, Bruce Springsteen’s High Hopes, will premier on HBO at 8:30pm tonight (my DVR is set). The making-of film was edited and directed by Thom Zimny, so it will be well done. The new album, High Hopes, was released in January.
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Quick takes: Local theater + one great movie
Posted: March 30, 2014 Filed under: Movies, Theater | Tags: Step Up Productions, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Hypocrites, the Musical, Urinetown Leave a commentSpring is the season when a lot goes on in Chicago theater and other performing arts. (It’s still not as stuffed with events as October, however.) This is part 1 of two posts this week.
Theater
Urinetown
Certainly my favorite theater experience was seeing my 16-year-old grandson perform in his high school’s production of Urinetown yesterday. I’ve seen that play so many times I could recite parts of it by heart. But it’s a smart play and the production was really good. The kid did an excellent job, playing three different parts and successfully mastering the quick offstage costume changes required. The last performance was Saturday night, so I won’t recommend you check it out.
Urinetown was written by Greg Kotis (of Chicago’s Neo-Futurists) and Mark Hollmann and opened on Broadway in September 2001; I saw it there a couple of months later. The premise of Urinetown does make you think. It’s set in a period of economic decline and extreme water shortage. If we can privatize highways, bus shelters and parking meters, can “public amenities” be far off? I hope Mayor Emanuel has not seen this play.
Darlin’ at Step Up Productions
Step Up Productions is staging this brave play that treats domestic abuse as part of its mission to benefit a local nonprofit for each production. Darlin’ deals with Clementine, a woman who leaves husband, home and children and moves into an anonymous motel room, where she meets an assortment of down-on-their-luck souls. One of them is a motel maid who blames her injuries on a box of Brillo pads falling on her from a high shelf. She and Clementine share some strong scenes.
The theater will donate a portion of its proceeds to the House of the Good Shepherd, which serves women and children survivors of domestic violence. Last fall’s production, The Benchmark, benefited the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness.
Darlin’ runs until April 13 at the Athenaeum Theatre. See my Gapers Block review. (By the way, you’ll notice that I got in a Bruce Springsteen lyric into my review. Just goes to show that there’s a Springsteen lyric for every occasion–and his fans are obsessively vigilant about using them.)
Into the Woods at The Hypocrites
The Hypocrites move to the Mercury Theatre on Southport to stage their version of the Sondheim musical, based on classic fairy tale characters. The play is a 1987 show by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. Since I have often admitted I hate musicals, you know I’m going into this one with my cynic’s pen in hand. But I do like Sondheim’s music and the lyrics are often thought-provoking.
This show is performed by 10 talented actors and singers and it has received mixed reviews. The setting is designed like a children’s park, suggesting “the playground of a top-notch arts magnet school,” as one reviewer commented. To me, the “into the woods” theme has a dark overtone, and some of the lyrics portend danger. But when the trees are represented by balloons, it’s a clever touch but loses the darkness. I kept wondering if they were going to pop all the balloons to mimic leaves falling off trees. It would be a Hypocrites kind of symbolism.
The Hypocrites do a decent job of this, although I would argue with some of their costume and stage setting choices. The show runs through next weekend, so if you’re a Sondheim fan, you will want to see it.
And one fine movie
Grand Budapest Hotel
If you’re going to see one film this week, make it this new Wes Anderson charmer. On the surface, it’s the reminiscences of the owner of the now somewhat rundown hotel in the fictional central European country of Dubrowka. He tells of his adventures as a lobby boy for Gustave H, a concierge of multifarious talents, played by Ralph Fiennes. I think of Fiennes as a serious actor and I have admired his work in many classic roles, on stage and film. But here he shows he can be a comic actor of the highest caliber.
The film has an amazing cast including short but inspired performances by Adrien Brody, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Owen Wilson, Jude Law and many others. There are too many convolutions, escapes and chase scenes to describe here. And pastry. Lots of pastry.
The brilliant thing about this film is that it is a panoply of film history and film techniques. Not only is there beautiful cinematography, there are models and stop-motion animation. And to show time changes, the color palette and aspect ratio of the film changes from widescreen to traditional boxy shape and back again. Whimsical? Quirky? Idiosyncratic? Nostalgic? Yes, it’s all of those. And on top of the humor and whimsy, there’s a hint of the World War II tragedy to come as German military officers accost Gustave and the lobby boy on a train.
This phrase appears twice in the film: “a glimmer of civilization in the barbaric slaughterhouse we know as humanity.” I think Anderson wants us to remember it.
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