You’re Invited

Southern Gothic – Windy City Playhouse

I went to the worst party I’ve ever attended last night. The caterer got in an accident, so we were left with Spam and crackers for food. Absent food, everyone hit the bar a little earlier and a little harder than they probably should have. And, of course, the night spawned more than one screaming argument.

I had a ball.

Windy City Playhouse’s long-running immersive theater experience, Southern Gothic has been playing at their Irving Park theater for a year, and has now moved to their new space in the South Loop with a new set and some new cast members. The audience provides additional guests for the 40th birthday party of Suzanne Wellington, being thrown by her sister-in-law, Ellie at Ellie’s home in Ashford, Georgia.

The audience, limited to 30 per showing, watches the action from inside the house. Not merely a proscenium, the set is a fully-realized house – dining room, kitchen, living room, backyard. Audience members are free to (quietly) move about the house to see different parts of the unfolding drama. It’s impossible to watch everything and that’s part of the fun. Do you follow someone when they storm out of the room, or do you stay with the other guests and watch the fallout? Is the juiciest part of the conflict the screaming match going on in the living room or the hushed conversation in the kitchen?

My concern going in was that the format would feel like a gimmick that, at best, would run out of steam, or at worst muddle the story to the point of incoherence. Happily, the opposite is true. Being required to make choices forces the spectator to engage with the story actively rather than passively. It’s important to keep one ear open to try to catch snippets of what else is happening. To complete the sensation of being in someone’s home, the light cocktails and snacks offered for the guests by the cast are also free for the audience to eat. Nothing makes you feel at home quite like discreetly snagging a chip while watching your hosts have a fight.

Normally in writing a review, I have to work to avoid giving away too much of the plot. That’s less of a concern here. It’s a play set in the 1960s South about a woman just trying to throw a party. I don’t think I’m going to shock anyone when I say everyone will have too much to drink, and everyone resents everyone else collectively and individually for Reasons that are Secret, but will not remain so by the end of the show. That’s not a criticism. The plot conflicts here don’t reinvent the wheel, but given that you occasionally have to literally chase the story, an overly complex tale would be impossible to follow.

After a few minutes inside the fully-realized house (and maybe a complimentary cocktail), it becomes very easy to slide into the permissive voyeurism of the show. In polite society, you have to at least pretend not to listen to every word when your hosts quietly have a fight in a different room. Here, you can practically stick your head through a window to keep following along. It’s not often you’re allowed to gawk without consequence, and the resulting experience is unique and a lot of fun.

The cast deserves particular praise for managing a very complicated feat of acting. There are basically three to four scenes going on at any given moment, and not only do they have to act their own scene, they have to stay in sync with the other scenes, or the entire evening gets thrown off, all while effortlessly ignoring the thirty people milling about. Anchoring the ill-fated soiree as hostess Ellie, Sarah Grant does a great job careening from angry to controlled and back again that the show demands.

I highly recommend going with a friend, if only for the increased opportunity to compare notes after the show. Other than that, pour yourself a drink and enjoy the worst party you’ll ever attend.

Highly Recommend

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented through March 31 at Windy City Playhouse, 2229 S. Michigan, Chicago.

Tickets are available in person at the box office, by calling 773-891-8985 or by visiting windycityplayhouse.com.

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