Sunday, June 29, 2014
A MAIDENLY DEATH Victory Gardens Theater’s Death and the Maiden is one of the most highly anticipated Chicago productions this year: Ariel Dorfman’s well-known play (made famous by Roman…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:40PMWednesday, June 25, 2014
COME ON AND SHOOT A PRESIDENT Assassins ushers together the horde of maniacs who have made attempts on the lives of US Presidents, seeking to examine their varying degrees of sanity, as well…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:32PMSunday, June 15, 2014
EVOLUTION OF REVOLUTION IN THIS JUST-SO STORY Trap Door’s Regarding the Just shakes the dust off of Camus’ 1949 play, Les Justes, about Russian socialists who assassinate a Grand Duke a…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:02PMFriday, September 13, 2013
AN UNFOCUSED VIEW FROM THE BALCONY In Jean Genet’s The Balcony, authority, sexual desire, and violence are so intricately intertwined that they’re nearly indistinguishable. Outside Madam…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:18PMThursday, August 1, 2013
A HIGHLY ENGAGING SLOWGIRL After a traumatic accident, millennial teenager Becky (Rae Gray) visits her uncle Sterling (William Petersen) in Costa Rica, where her constant chattering disrupts…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:22PMThursday, July 25, 2013
BORDERING ON TRAGEDY There is a lot to like about Chay Yew and playwright Luis Alfaro’s Mojada, a modern retelling of Medea, which sets the main character as an undocumented immigrant and …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58AMTuesday, July 16, 2013
A GREAT PLAY (BASED ON SOMETHING) Though little happens and nothing is resolved in the Pulitzer-nominated Thom Pain (based on nothing), the play is oddly and intensely captivating. Will Eno�…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:25AMMonday, July 8, 2013
HOUSE THEATRE PULLS A RABBIT OUT OF ITS HAT The House Theatre has, once again, remounted its wildly successful Death and Harry Houdini at the Chopin Theatre – and why not? It’s still as …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:55PMWednesday, July 3, 2013
THE BURDEN OF NOT HAVING A GOOD SCRIPT Having now seen Sideshow Theatre’s The Burden of Not Having a Tail, I can report that, despite its billing, it did little to prepare me for the apoca…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:46PMWednesday, May 22, 2013
SOMETHING WICKED THAT WAY GOES In a rare clash of film noir, an awesome murder mystery party, and Shakespeare, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More is the ultimate voyeuristic thrill. Audience membe…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:19PMTuesday, May 14, 2013
THE MOTHER OF CHICAGO THEATER Workers and theatergoers of Chicago unite! Oracle Theatre is mounting a rousing defense of Karl Marx and the Bolsheviks, and demands your undivided attention. T…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:56PMSunday, February 3, 2013
SOMEWHAT SOUTH OF WHERE IT NEEDS TO BE Chicago Dramatists’ world premiere is a tale of murder, spirituality, and heartbreak: A black man named Stranger, after being accused of the murder o…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:13PMSunday, January 20, 2013
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF A PLAY Anarchy is not chaos. The former means “without law,” and the latter means “without form.” This is an important distinction to consider in a play that inte…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58PMThursday, December 27, 2012
HAVEL UNVEILED AT TRAP DOOR THEATRE While most probably know Václav Havel as the Czech Republic’s first president, he has gained notoriety in the avant garde world for his absurdist plays…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:19PMSunday, November 25, 2012
NUNBEARABLE If there’s one thing I hate, it’s to see a classic movie adapted for the stage for no apparent reason. Instead of transferring the heart and sassiness that made the movie Sis…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:18PMWednesday, October 17, 2012
OXYGEN? YES. FUEL? YES. HEAT? NO. There are arsonists who want to burn down a town, and they want the citizens to help. In Max Frisch’s absurdist play, a city has whipped itself into a…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:43AMSaturday, October 13, 2012
YOU THOUGHT THAT YOU HAD ISSUES? Your favorite Euripidean diva has some serious beef with just about everything. In Emilio Williams’ new one woman show, Medea’s Got Some Issues, she’…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:40AMSaturday, September 8, 2012
NOT REALLY, NOT REALLY! The most pressing question I had walking out of Athenaeum Theatre’s Blagojevich, Blagojevich! was “Was that really necessary?” We’re already familiar with t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:41PMWednesday, August 29, 2012
IF THERE’S NO WATER, WHY IS THIS SCRIPT DROWNING IN PRETENTION? A group of bad artists resent their (dare I say) “frenemy” because she is a more successful artist than they are, an…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:09PMTuesday, August 28, 2012
HIP POE HYPOCRITES Regretfully, I must admit I’m not familiar with the theatre company The Hypocrites, but have heard that they often use the basement of the Chopin Theatre for their perfo…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:00AMWednesday, August 15, 2012
SOME FRAGILE PERFORMANCES CAN’T BREAK MENAGERIE’S SPELL The Glass Menagerie is getting lots of airtime this summer. Having just been produced in the Steppenwolf Garage, Redtwis…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:26PMTuesday, August 14, 2012
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN PERFORMANCE ART AND DRAMA Without ever denigrating the work of Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick, I have to say I never quite got part three of his trilogy of play/art-show/p…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:48PMMonday, August 6, 2012
THE ARTISTIC HOME PROVIDES GOOD DRAMA, BUT CAN’T FIX A TROUBLED PLAY Apparently in The American Plan, the name of the game is deception, but no one seems to think they’re playing. In…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:09PMThursday, July 26, 2012
DEAD WRITER’S PRODUCES DEAD THEATRE I’ll admit, I was skeptical from the start walking into the Greenhouse Theatre’s production of Noel Coward’s The Vortex, the inaugural production …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:23PMIT’S ABSURD HOW AMAZING TRAP DOOR THEATRE IS…OR IS IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND? For those of you skeptical of avant-garde theatre, I’d like to kindly direct your attention over to…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:45PMSunday, July 22, 2012
GREEK TRAGEDY IN THE ‘HOOD Luis Alfaro’s slant on the Oedipus myth is at no point more transparent than the opening of his play, when several Latinos in orange jumpsuits sit behind bars,…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:05PMSunday, July 15, 2012
STEADY AS IT GOES A Steady Rain, Chicago Dramatists’ prodigal son, has finally come home, giving audiences a chance to sit down again with Denny and Joey, the two cops that disturbed the h…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:28PMSaturday, July 14, 2012
IF YOU LET IT, FERVENCY AND JOY COMPENSATE FOR TROUBLING SCRIPT A joyful noise is rising out of the Goodman Theatre this summer. With hearty vibrato and a religious fervor rivaled only by te…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:41PMTuesday, July 10, 2012
WATKINS HAS US IN THE PALM OF HIS HANDS I had one reservation headed into The House Theatre of Chicago’s The Magic Parlour: almost every magic show I had ever been to has been obnoxiously …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:17AMMonday, July 2, 2012
A LUKEWARM PRODUCTION OF A HOT SCRIPT This July, Pastime Theatre is ripping off their clothes and inviting audiences to join in on the fun. “Naked July: Art Stripped Down” is a theatre f…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:58PMTHE YODELING ROCKS, THE SHOW DOES NOT Before Adam Guettel was declared the next Sondheim by many for his beautiful, swelling Light in the Piazza score, he drew on the rich folk sounds of Ken…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:28AM 
