Compañia de Teatro Físico’s LOS REGALOS at the Dance Center and Physical Theater Festival Chicago.

Physical Theater Festival Chicago is curated collection of live performances from around the world, meant to inspire theatergoers and local artists to reimagine what a live theater experience can be and do across cultures, languages, and genres. Now in its 13^th year, the festival was founded to introduce a more progressive, physical approach to theater-making in Chicago. The festival showcases award-winning, ensemble-created works spanning traditions such as clown, mime, improv, puppetry, object theater, circus, dance, and street performance, while also highlighting outstanding artists and companies from Chicago.

Last Night, I was lucky to catch COMPAÑIA DE TEATRO’S (The Physical Theater Company) LOS REGALOS (The Gifts). The company is from Peru, where it was founded in 2014 with the goal to create stage works using languages that speak from the body and for the body.

LOS REGALOS tells the story of a family. A single father and his two sons grow up, grow apart, and grow old together. All the performers wore masks reminiscent of Commedia del arte or Japanese Noh, leaving them to emote, express and communicate only through their bodies. It’s a powerful, visceral experience, to follow a story filled with passion in which no one has a face.

It is a cast of three: Miquel De La Rocha plays the Father with an easy grace. His thoughts play out over his body so expressively, I soon forgot his mask. Diego Sakuray plays the Youngest Son with an explosive, physically stunning performance including pratfalls so realistic, I found myself wondering how they were achieved without special affects (virtuosity is the answer). Sakuray whips seamlessly from frantic child, to toddling babe, to family dog with an effortlessness that must be seen to be believed. Eduardo Cardozo, one of the founders of the company along with Diego Sakuray and Director Fernando Castro, plays the Oldest Son. Cardozo’s Son is a frustrated, solid sort. You get the impression that he is always straining for attention, meaning, and love.

A special mention must also be made of the beautiful set and media component of the experience. The stage is draped in huge, linen swaths; props are carried on and off by the actors. Chalk-like line drawings build and change behind them, reflecting their home, their hearth, or telling part of their story. The drawings are as minimalistic and expressive as the actors are in their simple, beige linen. The muted color and soft, yellow light create an atmosphere of emotional expression that is wholly engrossing and carried the audience with them on their journey through life.

The summary of the show in English is:

“A father and his two sons live in a house. The most routine tasks, such as preparing breakfast, bathing or housework t urn into real adventures when tackled by three inexperienced men and their fear of not knowing what they are doing. The journey that. The elder brothers needs to make in order to leave home, and the fear of saying goodbye to the ones we love, will be the starting point of our story.” The Spanish description suggests that when the elder brother prepares to leave home, his younger brother and father need to learn to communicate.

Neither summary reflects the performance I attended. This is the story of a family over time, told in tight little chapters that jump through time. In each vignette, they argue, play, battle and come to solutions. Circumstances change, sometimes, they even flip completely, as each individual takes a turn as a caregiver, protector, antagonizer or ally. They are always communicating with their bodies, both to each other and to the audience. This performance is wholly in keeping with the goal of the theater festival. It tells a story, through live theater, in a way that is unique, compelling and powerful. Be sure to check it out.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Alina C. Hevia

LOS REGALOS is at The Dance Center at Columbia College Friday, June 5 at 8:00pm, and Saturday, June 6 at 2:00pm and 6:00pm. Run time is 60 minutes. Tickets for LOS REGALOS and the rest of the Physical Theater Festival can be found at: https://www.theaterwit.org/tickets/productions/box_office

To learn more about Physical Theater Festival Chicago, click here: https://www.physicalfestival.com/about

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.

Tuta Theatre’s Crime and Punishment seeks resurrection from the dirt.

TUTA Theatre, ever fearless and resourceful, went with a particularly topical play this summer: an adaptation of Dostoevsky’s CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus. This adaptation premiered at Writers Theater in 2003 and has enjoyed over 100 productions across the country and internationally from Europe to Australia and Indonesia.

You may be asking yourself why a 160+ year old story of impoverished student Raskolnikov and his twisted, grandiose theories of life and morality could still be so compelling to so many audiences around the world. The answer is, as with all the classics, the questions Raskolnikov is asking and trying to answer, are still being asked and answered today. Even more chilling, Imperialist Russia does not seem so different from 2026 America – rising prices, a poor job market and unsustainable rents sound familiar?

Raskolnikov is an intelligent, sensitive, down on his luck student. He came to the capital riding on the hopes and dreams of his family to make something of himself, but soon found law school unaffordable, and has since been sinking ever deeper into poverty and debt, paralyzed and horrified at the thought of admitting his failures. He’s also the sort of kid who is often the smartest in the room, and, after one too many days alone with his own thoughts, has developed a theory that humans can be categorized into two types: the ordinary and the extraordinary. If someone is extraordinary, then the usual things like law and order, or morality, don’t apply to them. It’s no surprise really, that he finds himself to be in that second group. After talking himself up, and skipping one too many meals, Raskolnikov decides to put his theory to the test, you know, to help mankind by removing an “obstacle” (in the form of a nasty old lady). The reality of his actions quickly leaves him horrified, and he is ushered along his desperate descent into misery by Inspector Porfiry, who decides to play a little with him, to see if he can get a confession.

The cast is made up of three actors: Associated Company Members Clifton Frei as Raskolnikov and Felix as Sonia, and Company Member Huy Nguyen as Porfiry. Frei spends the majority of the play front and center, unravelling in the literal muck as the minutes tick by. Nguyen and Felix weave in and out of his misery, sometimes playing other, minor characters. All of the actors are admirably focused and present, given the tiny theater and minimalist staging. Frei is appropriately haunted, leaning into Raskolnikov’s desperation and misery with all he has. Nguyen, as a deceptively friendly Porfiry gives the impression of a spider encircling its prey, and as Sonia’s drunken father, a broken hearted, beaten man. Felix plays all the female characters, each markedly different. Her turn as Sonia strikes a cool note every time she comes onstage, with an otherworldly, soft voice that changes the atmosphere the minute she opens her mouth.

TUTA Co-Artistic Director, and Director of this production, Jacqueline Stone, made the wise choice to strip the atmosphere as efficiently and powerfully as the adaptors did the novel. The staging itself, is in fact, one of the most powerful aspects of this production. The production team of Set Designers Tatiana Kahvegian and Keith Parham (who also doubles on light design) and Sound Designer Stefanie Senior have created a set that seems to be an outward expression of a devolving mind. The stage is a raised bed of dirt, the walls around it draped in plastic sheeting with the occasional violent looking slit, that fades off into a hallway. Frei spends the brisk, 90 minutes barefoot, groveling in the dirt and growing increasingly filthy, while Nguyen and Felix walk gently across it, supporting, supplicating or goading Raskolnikov as their characters demand. The sound does a lot of the heavy lifting too, taking the audience in and out of rooms and conversations, while the stage never changes – and Raskolnikov never escapes it, one cannot escape one’s own mind, after all.

Most unsettling of all was the creeping sensation, as the story unfolds, that nearly everything the audience witnesses could happen, even is happening, today. Unfortunately for most of us, the types who are currently acting on their ideas of superiority have significantly more resources and power than poor Raskolnikov. Ultimately though, the story of Crime and Punishment is one of the inevitability of morality. No matter how hard we may try to talk ourselves out of our basic humanity, this production seems to say, it never leaves us. It can be a thorn in our sides, causing pain till it is recognized, or in the case of Sonia, a solid foundation that keeps us grounded in the nuanced reality of existence, and in the belief that we are all capable of change, remorse and even resurrection.

Recommended

Reviewed by Alina C. Hevia

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT is at Tuta Theatre, 4670 N Manor Ave in Chicago. May 11 – June 28, 2026 Thursdays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, and Sundays at 3:00 pm

Pay-what-you-choose reservations available for $20, $45, $60, $100, available at

https://www.tutatheatre.org/crime-punishment-reservations Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.