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.

Fuente Ovejuna

Fuente Ovejuna – City Lit Theater

In 1476, in the Spanish village of Fuente Ovejuna, the villagers rebelled and killed the military commander using the village as his base. Don’t worry; he really, really had it coming. He harassed, kidnapped, and assaulted the women in the village, treating them as little more than livestock. If someone tried to stop him, he had them tortured. When the King sent an investigator to find out who murdered an official, the townspeople, even under torture, would only say that “Fuente Ovejuna did it.” With no one person he could prove a case against, the king pardoned the town. The play recounting these historical events was written by Lope de Vega in 1612, and this week, an adaptation of that play gets its premiere at City Lit.

All Flash, No Substance

The Lightning Thief – Broadway in Chicago

The Lightning Thief, based on the young-adult Percy Jackson novels, premiered in a musical adaptation this week at the Oriental Theatre. The story focuses on young Percy Jackson, who discovers that the pantheon of Greek gods is not only real but his father is really Poseidon, the god of the sea. It follows that, as so many teenagers with secret powers have done before him, he and his friends must go on an arduous quest. He must save the life of his mortal mother and get back Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt before it is used to start a war between the gods. So, you know, regular teenager stuff…

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.

Ni Una Más

La Ruta – Steppenwolf Theatre

I’ve started and discarded at least three drafts of this review. I can’t figure out how to introduce the reader smoothly to my point. So I’m giving up, and I’m just diving in: I’m angry. Outraged. The kind of directionless rage that makes your stomach knot and your face feel hot. And after you see Steppenwolf’s world premiere, La Ruta, which I am telling you now you absolutely must, you will be too.

Liberté. Égalité. Sororité?

The Revolutionists – Strawdog Theatre

The Revolutionists is a fictionalized account of four women from the French Revolution: Olympe de Gouges, a real playwright, Charlotte Corday, the woman famous for assassinating Jean-Paul Marat, Marianne Angelle, a fictional amalgamation of the women who fought for freedom in Haiti against the hypocrisy of the French Revolution (which claimed freedom for all men… except the ones who maintained the lucrative sugar plantations) and, of course, Marie Antoinette, the ill-fated former Queen of France. The play imagines de Gouges facing a wicked case of writer’s block as the other three come to her for help with their stories. Madame de Gouges wants the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen to include women. Corday wants to stop the bloody pen of Marat and is looking for the final words she will speak as she faces the guillotine for her forthcoming crime. Angelle wants help spreading the story of the injustice crushing her people in Haiti. Marie Antoinette just wants to be the center of attention for as long as possible. The four women’s stories intersect and overlap as they all attempt to survive the revolution while pushing it where they want it to go.

Letters from Home

The Holiday Radio Show of 1943 – Three Cat Productions

Holiday shows have a more difficult job than you might think. They have to appeal to everyone at once and find a way to present songs and stories most people know even if they don’t know they know them. The Holiday Radio Show of 1943, performed in the cozy confines of the Berger Park Coach House, finds a charming way to do that.