Author: Colin Douglas
When We Need Help From Others
The Luckiest – Raven Theatre
We’ve all received advice from our friends telling us that the future is uncertain, so we should eat our dessert first. In other words, people should live their lives to its fullest. We never know what tomorrow, or even the next moment, will bring. This advice becomes the theme of Melissa Ross’s comic drama, developed three years ago at the La Jolla Playhouse. Although not quite the serious malady faced by the heroine of her play, Ms Ross based “The Luckiest” upon a particularly dark time in her own life.
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Time After Time
The Pavilion – The Artistic Home
As the Narrator takes the audience on a cosmic journey through his poetic description of how the world was created, we’re struck by the simplicity and beauty of each carefully chosen word and phrase. It’s as if this play was forged from the best moments from Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” and the Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones musical, “The Fantasticks.” In addition to being a PBS kind of moderator for a documentary about the span of time, the role of the Narrator also offers a talented actor the opportunity to create an impressive dramatic achievement.
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Grieving Through Observation and Analysis
The Year of Magical Thinking – Remy Bumppo Theatre Company
Anytime the extraordinary Chicago actress Annabel Armour takes the stage, audiences know they’re in for an evening of profound enjoyment and absolute emotional connection. It’s no different in this, her current theatrical performance. In a production that’s the theatrical equivalent of running a 26 mile marathon, Ms Armour emerges as a blue ribbon champion. During the hour and forty-five minutes that passes during this intellectually stimulating, yet poignantly affecting one-woman presentation, Ms Armour completely engages her audience in a slow, methodical chase toward the author’s understanding. It’s one woman’s objective means of grieving through observation and analysis.
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A Scientist and an Artist Walk Into a Bar…
Picasso At the Lapin Agile – Citadel Theatre
One evening in 1904 a young Albert Einstein, a youthful Pablo Picasso and a mysterious Visitor from the Future meet by chance at the Lapin Agile (the Nimble Rabbit) a small bar in bohemian Montmartre, Paris. There they exchange views about science, art and sex. Filled with a mixture of funny, unexpected one-liners, Steve Martin’s surrealistic 1993 one-act comedy, which had its premiere at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, went on to play in Los Angeles and New York. It’s a mixture of comedy, insightful theories, bawdy humor, quirky characters and a contemplation of the relationship between art and science.
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Band On the Run
Last Hermanos – A Red Orchid Theatre
Miguel and Julio are two estranged brothers who’ve been reunited while on the run, trying to reach the Mexican border. This is America, set in the distant future, and there’s an ongoing war raging on between Caucasians and the Latinx population. Danger and terror are everywhere and it especially lurks in the darkness and between the shadows. Trust is a fragile commodity, even between family members, and most definitely between members of the two cultures.
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No Fairy Tale Romance
All’s Well That Ends Well – Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
Helen, for some inexplicable reason, is in love with Bertram. For over two hours he calls her names, spurns her affection and even goes so far as to tell Helen she’s inferior and far below him. Then Bertram runs off to France where he’ll be under the tutelage of the French King and become an officer in their army. Helen’s determined to have her fairy tale happily-ever-after ending, so she confesses her love to Bertram’s mother, the Countess of Rossillion, and begs her to give Helen her blessing and send her off to France, as well.
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The Word of Your Body
Spring Awakening – Porchlight Music Theatre
In late 19th century Germany adults ruled their children with an iron hand while turning their backs on how teenagers coped with the puzzlement of puberty. Victorian society repressed their sexuality and, in particular, ignored the physical and emotional changes taking place within their kids. But questions about where babies come from, the strange changes occurring in their bodies and the unfamiliar feelings and desires surging through their minds continue to preoccupy the adolescents, even today. The characters in this musical simply explode, bursting with angst and yearning. Their songs are plaintive and mournful, or filled with fury and frustration, and danced with turbulent energy to a contemporary, folk-rock score that contrasts significantly with the the composed and cool turn-of-the-century book scenes.
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An Episodic and Doomed Voyage
Middle Passage – Lifeline Theatre
Returning to the Lifeline Theatre for its 39th season, after the pandemic shut down the world, is like coming home again to old friends. This is a special place where adaptations of great literature for both young and old comes alive. For Lifeline’s reopening we resume our 2020 voyage on their much-acclaimed production about a dark chapter in American history. Winning the 1990 National Book Award for Fiction, Dr. Charles R. Johnson’s novel is a sprawling, two-and-a-half hour dramatic saga about a young man, a freed African-American, who comes to understand firsthand the horrors of the slave trade. Co-adapted for Lifeline Theatre by Ilesa Duncan and David Barr III, this maritime adventure is a tale of self-discovery and growth, detailing a young African-American’s journey toward maturity.
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A Finely Stitched Production
Intimate Apparel – Northlight Theatre
It’s 1905 in Lower Manhattan, and a shy African-American woman named Esther is busy working at her sewing machine. In the background we hear the muted strains of ragtime coming from downstairs, where a party is in progress. But Esther doesn’t have time for parties or an interest in dancing the cakewalk. She’s a plain, hardworking, lonely, middle-age woman, who’s been living the past 18 years in Mrs. Dickson’s boarding house for women. Barely making ends meet, Esther designs and creates exquisite, finely stitched undergarments for ladies of all races and social standings. The corsets and camisoles are made from the delicate silks and satins that Esther purchases from kindly Mr. Marks, an Hasidic fabric merchant, with whom she has a close business relation and friendship.
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Marriage, Meal, Mirth and Murder
My Big Fat Italian Wedding Murder
Have you ever attended a wedding and the reception that followed and desperately wished for something a little more—shall we say, exciting—to happen? Well, wish no more. In this immersive, audience-participatory, broadly comic production, the audience members are the wedding guests, cast as friends and relatives of the newlyweds. It’s a humdinger of an event that offers a marriage, a meal, mirth and a murder—all in one festive, fun-filled evening.
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