Second Chances

Burning Bluebeard – The Ruffians and The Neo-Futurists

On December 30, 1903, the newly built Iroquois Theatre in downtown Chicago caught fire during a matinee performance of Mr. Blue Beard, a pantomime fairy tale. Over six hundred people were killed. In addition to the fire itself, many people were killed as panicked crowds stampeded the doors, to find them either locked or only able to open in and thus pinned shut by the crowd trying to flee. Originally premiering in 2011 and now remounted each Christmas season, Burning Bluebeard sees the ghosts of the performers trying to finish their doomed show.

The conceit of the ‘show within a show’ has been around pretty much as long as there have been shows. If there’s one thing that theater people like to talk about, and I say this as someone who loves theater people to bits, it’s the theater. When done well, getting to see how the show gets put together allows you to connect to the actor and the character they portray. Done poorly, it just ends up being pretentious and gets in the way of telling any story at all. Happily here, the conceit provides the way in for the audience to appreciate a form of entertainment a hundred years out of date. Pantomime shows of this era are a vaudeville mix of singing, dancing, and acrobatics combined with slapstick humor and a happy ending. The pantomime in the 1900s used then-contemporary music for its songs, so Burning Bluebeard does the same. Instead of using songs from the turn of the 20th century, this show uses music from the turn of the 21st. I’d never seen a fairy tale set to Scandanavian dance music or 80s rock, but I have to tell you, it worked. The play within a play also helps the actors connect the audience to the Bluebeard story, which would be impenetrably out of date without the actors there to agree with us that a fairy tale centered on an offensive Middle Eastern stereotype of a monarch murdering a succession of wives for failure to follow his opaque directives is pretty absurd as a story aimed at children.

The troupe of six actors are also amazing. I hesitate to get into specifics since part of the joy of the show was watching the multilayered characters they portray take shape. Crosby Sandoval plays The Faerie Queen whose role in the original show is to produce the happy ending with the wave of a wand, and the actors look to the Queen to do so for them as well. Sandoval brings a quirky and acrobatic charm to the nearly silent role. Pamela Chermansky was another highlight for me. She plays a sort ring-leading clown whose darker humor leavens her costars’ earnestness. Her repeated desire for a show that history will remember takes on a sinister hue the closer the show gets to the fateful second act.

As a native Chicagoan, I have heard about the Iroquois Theatre fire since I was a child. It’s the reason that doors in public buildings all open out, and it lead to the development of the panic bar, the push bar that allows doors to be opened quickly and easily from the inside. To this day, on the rare occasion I find a door to a public building that only opens in, I recall the story of the Iroquois. I bring this up because these were the thoughts running through my head when I sat down to watch this show, and part of the success of this show is that the show knows this. It is the story of an audience that died in a fire in a theater being told to the audience in a theater. Coupled with the fact that the actors directly address and interact with the audience, by the time the show reaches its climax, a kind of intense identification with that audience has been carefully built. I won’t spoil what they do or how they do it, but in the moment, it was intense, and the sense of relief that follows in a sweet and simple ending sequence was extremely effective.

At the performance, they announced that the entire run of the show has been sold out, but that there is a waiting list. I encourage you to put yourself on it, or keep an eye out when they hopefully do it again next year. The cast has remained largely intact since the show premiered, and they have honed a truly unique show whose mix of macabre humor and genuine love of storytelling make for a wonderful evening.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented December 27-31 by The Ruffians and The Neo-Futurists at the Neo-Futurist Theater at 5153 N. Ashland, Chicago.

Tickets are available in person at the box office, by calling (773) 878-4557
or by visiting neofuturists.org.

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