Author: Colin Douglas
The Return of a Holiday Fairy Tale
The Steadfast Tin Soldier – Lookingglass Theatre
For two seasons, Chicago’s highly-respected Lookingglass Theatre has presented Mary Zimmerman’s creative adaptation this charming, yet sad, holiday story, based upon the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. This year, however, because of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, a previously filmed, live streamed presentation is available for the month of December, to enjoy in the safety and comfort of our homes. Here’s a true theatrical treasure that’s perfect for the whole family, and a Christmas story that shouldn’t be missed.
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The Queen of Cabrini Green
Her Honor Jane Byrne – Lookingglass Theatre
Jane Byrne, the 50th Mayor of Chicago, left behind a large, impressive legacy of accomplishments. Despite her mayoral predecessor, Michael Bilandic, proclaiming in a memorandum that she was “a shrill, charging, vindictive person,” Jane Byrne won the Democratic bid to become the first female to hold that office. The Chicago Blizzard of 1979 that paralyzed the city only fueled the fire that Bilandic was an ineffective leader and helped elect Byrne. Labeling herself as a reformer, Jane Byrne became Mayor with 82% of the vote, the largest margin in Chicago history.
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Confessional Catharsis
Five Encounters on a Site Called Craigslist – Pride Films & Plays
Whenever theatergoers attend a production they know, deep down inside, that what they’re about to see is make-believe. The drama is made-up, the characters aren’t real but are being portrayed by actors who’ve memorized dialogue that a playwright has written. The story takes place in an mock setting that another theatre artist has designed and built, and it’s lit with artificial, colored stage lighting, created by yet another designer. Even the clothes that the characters wear have been carefully chosen or designed and built by another artist.
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Filled With Good Vibrations
In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) – Idle Muse Theatre Company
Utilizing Edison’s 1880 discovery of electricity, Dr. Givings has created a machine to treat women’s “hysteria.” Relegated to the sitting room, to care for their new baby and answer the door, his young, lonely, inquisitive wife Catherine is understandably restless. She’s especially curious about what goes on in the next room, her husband’s operating theatre. The distracted doctor thinks that since he’s given his wife a comfortable home and a child, she has plenty to keep her busy and from meddling in his “dry, boring science.” But Dr. Givings is mistaken.
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Spicy, Homespun Humor
Steel Magnolias – BrightSide Theatre
In 1985, New York actor Robert Harling was devastated to learn of the sudden death of his beloved younger sister to kidney failure. Because of her Type 1 diabetes, Susan had been warned that having a child would likely be dangerous to her health. However, she ignored her physician’s advice, gave birth and died before her son reached school age.
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A Civil Rights Movement Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
The Healing – Black Ensemble Theater
Jackie Taylor, the amiable creative heart and soul of Chicago’s beloved Black Ensemble Theater, has declared 2020 as the company’s Season of Change. She opens with this original, ambitious musical battle cry, a movement against the injustice and bigotry that’s overtaking our country today, thanks to an administration that has set our country back 200 years. And this is just the beginning of Ms. Taylor’s aggressive theatrical approach in trying to helping combat the racism that’s reared its ugly head in America since the Orange Menace was elected.
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You Gotta Have Friends
Middletown – Apollo Theatre
Dan Clancy’s sweet, sometimes piquant drama is a 90-minute, readers theater production that’s guaranteed to touch the hearts of every audience member. It’s a particularly meaningful story for that large, growing group of theatergoers called Baby Boomers, patrons who are contemplating or already enjoying their retirement years. Because it’s so mysterious: one minute you’re 20, in the 70’s; the next moment, it seems, you’re 70, in the 20’s! This is a gentle story that deals beautifully with all the joys and sorrows of life. It tells the tale of two married couples, both of whom love their partners deeply, and who’ve been close companions for several decades. In the end, this emotionally compassionate production reminds us that, in order to get through the ups and downs of living, you gotta have friends.
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More Brecht Than Ibsen
Hedda Gabler: A Play with Live Music – TUTA Theatre
It’s always interesting and kind of fun to shake things up a bit, especially with a play. When a time-honored play has been adapted and produced in a fresh, starkly different style, it earns some attention. But when the drama is a groundbreaking classic that’s stood the test of time, a new interpretation becomes a little risky. If the writer can offer some new insight into the original work by updating it, then it makes sense to craft a new adaptation. Otherwise, it’s simply merely showing off.
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Happiness is a Warm Puppy
Dex & Abby – Pride Films & Plays
People who don’t understand their canine companions may say that dogs can’t talk. However, someone once wisely mused that dogs do speak; but only to those who know how to listen. In playwright Allan Baker’s heartwarming play, his two human characters, Sean and Corey, do indeed hear the voices of their beloved canine companions and usually pay close attention to what they have to say. And Dex and Abby have a lot to say about an array of topics. In honoring the memory of his own dearly departed pup, who has sadly crossed the Rainbow Bridge some years ago, Baker creates this warm, comic drama in which theatergoers are able hear the thoughts and feelings of both of the irresistible dogs in this play.
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Haunting the Shadows
Mlima’s Tale – Griffin Theatre
Premiering two years ago at New York’s famed Off-Broadway venue, the Public Theater, Lynn Nottage’s 90-minute one-act cautionary drama is a departure from her other, better-known plays. Ms. Nottage holds the distinction of being the only female playwright to twice win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Her dramas “Ruined” and “Sweat” earned her this highly-respected accolade, while her other plays, which often focus on the world’s most marginalized individuals, include such titles as “Intimate Apparel,” “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark” and “Crumbs From the Table of Joy.”
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