Reviews Category
Examine, Enjoy and Empathize
The Chinese Lady – TimeLine Theatre
Imagine what it was like for a young, innocent, Chinese girl to be sold by her parents to a pair of American merchants, and then brought to America to be put on exhibit in a museum. Most of us would agree that this experience is simply incomprehensible, but Lloyd Suh’s remarkable one-act, brilliantly directed by Helen Young, is a theatrical experience that’s based upon an historical truth. It allows audiences to learn about and empathize with this sadly exploited young woman.
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Art to Ponder and Enjoy
Nick Cave: Forothermore – The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Wow! Dazzling. Thought-provoking. I was immediately immersed in this spectacular exhibit of beautiful colors and optical “illusions.” I say illusions because Nick Cave’s “Forothermore” is so much more than dazzling colorful eye candy. Upon closer inspection, you really see what he’s trying to tell us and it is often not pretty. It is moving and inspiring, beautiful and heartbreaking, showing us how life has a way of fooling us into believing there is equal opportunity for all, but that it’s a misconception.
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Curiouser and Curiouser
Lookingglass Alice – Lookingglass Theatre Company
Known for original, story-centered productions developed by their multitalented ensemble members through physical and improvisational rehearsals, Lookingglass Theatre brings back their highly popular mashup of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass for a return visit. It’s been more than ten years since “Lookingglass Alice” was first presented by this inventive theatre company, to wild, popular and critical acclaim. The production is created in association with the Actors Gymnasium, a northside theatrical school devoted to instructing circus arts and physical performance of all kinds. The company likes to boast that it teaches its participants how to fly–both physically, emotionally and creatively. In “Lookingglass Alice” this is precisely what the actors and the audience experience together.
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Sparring to Fit in and Stand Out
Athena – Writers Theatre
Two 17-year-old young women meet each other in an after-school fencing program. At first reluctant, the girls finally agree, after much verbal sparring, to train together. Initially strangers, but both strong, equally-gifted athletic competitors, the teenagers eventually become close friends. Together they decide how to balance their camaraderie and competition. They argue whether practice needs to be painful, if the rules of the sport can be tweaked a bit, and how to parry, both in their fencing and in their lives.
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In Mourning for My Life
Seagull – Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Possibly the most famous two lines of any Chekov play opens this production, a play that’s been translated, adapted and directed by ensemble member Yasen Peyankov. The end result is a beautiful, rich and completely enthralling presentation. Masha is asked, “Why do you always wear black?” Her dour response is, “I’m in mourning for my life. I’m unhappy.” This opening conversation sets the tone for the entire play, and prompts the first laugh of the evening. It could’ve, however, been uttered by almost any of the other characters in this play. No one in this comedy seems particularly happy with his or her existence, and in their melancholia we find humor. However, there’s also plenty of promise in the air, which fills the play with possibilities of love.
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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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Unearthing the Past
Digging Up Dessa – Theatre Above the Law
Dessa is a budding paleontologist. Following a school trip to the natural history museum, is outraged to learn that a wall of photos to the fathers of paleontology is missing one of its founding mothers, Mary Anning, who made several major discoveries, but is more remembered for being the inspiration for the rhyme “She Sells Seashells by the Seashore.” She shares a special connection to her because she is the one female paleontologist in a book she received from her father, who recently passed away. The play unfolds watching Dessa deal with both her loss and the struggle with how the world will see her and other women.
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Attend the Tale
Sweeney Todd – North Riverside Players
In what is becoming a familiar, but happy, refrain in my reviews, another show cut short in 2020 by the pandemic is finally getting its time on the stage. This time, North Riverside Players prove both resilient and ambitious in mounting Stephen Sondheim’s classic Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. A London barber, falsely convicted and imprisoned in Australia has returned in secret to find his family and revenge himself on the corrupt judge who sent him there. Returning to his home, he finds his neighbor, Mrs. Lovett running a failing pie shop. Together they will find a novel, if nauseating, solution to both their problems.
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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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