125 stories by "Mary Wisniewski"
"The Blood Countess" reveals the story of Erzsébet Bathóry, a Hungarian countess who was tried and convicted for allegedly killing hundreds of young girls.
The top-shelf production is tightly directed and beautiful, but leaves too much space unexplored.
Goodman's new play, crammed with Chicago details, stars Jenna Fischer and Francis Guinan.
It's hard to imagine now that a tan suit was seen as a presidential scandal.
"Ashland Avenue," the story of a Chicago television salesman, will lead off the Goodman's centennial season. The play's world premiere stars Chicago theater favorite Francis Guinan and Jenna…
APT's new and marvelous production directed by Shana Cooper, "The Winter's Tale," shows how time and grace can heal what seems irreparable.
A terrific night of theater"full of humor, history, strong emotion and magnificent music.
When Gavin Dillon Lawrence was visiting his hometown of Washington, D.C. more than ten years ago, he took a photo of his oldest son as he got a haircut at a Black-owned barbershop. When Lawr…
We don't know why the U.S. State Department decided that female Ethiopian acrobats were a threat to national security.
If you have never seen "A Midsummer Night's Dream" or haven't seen it for a while, this is the one to see. And if you feel like you've seen it too many times"try again. APT's production is f…
This summer Oak Park Festival Theatre is marking its fiftieth anniversary with "Twelfth Night." Peter Andersen says that Shakespeare in the park as "American as apple pie."
"Pippin" was a Broadway hit in 1972. Bob Fosse was the original Broadway director and choreographer. Being a seventies musical, "Pippin" is edgier and darker than the big 1940s musicals like…
"Iraq, But Funny" will join "The Arabian Nights" and "Metamorphoses" at the top of the Lookingglass canon. It is not to be missed.
"Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues" is a warmhearted and funny play that celebrates both vaudeville and the possibility of friendship across cultural and generational divides.
Lifeline's production takes on misinformation, a clueless media and the rejection of science"all worthy targets. But the death rays don't always land.
Why American Players Theatre has managed to survive for forty-six seasons in the Wisconsin woods while fancier, more centrally located, and less mosquito-y venues have closed.
"The Antiquities" is a play of big ideas about the meaning of life. It reminds us that even if humans are just a blip on the universal timeline, we had some things worth remembering. Get it …
When audience members enter the Trap Door Theatre for Bertolt Brecht's "Galileo," they see a nearly naked man, sitting on a chair with his face to the wall. They learn that the man is the sc…
Any play that takes on Berlin during the Weimar Republic era must operate in "Cabaret'"s long shadow. "Berlin," now in its world premiere at the Court Theatre, tells stories from the same pe…
This isn't a feel-good or a perfect play, but it is a powerful one.
How did one group, formed by often-feuding brothers from working-class North London, have this much depth and scope? "Sunny Afternoon," a musical playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, trie…
Depending on your mood and disposition, the magical ending of this play might make you roll your eyes. But I always find it moving, and more so now in a time of so much anger and bitterness.
Here's some advice: Go see "Titus Andronicus" at Redtwist Theatre. It's a shocking, energetic and muscular version of Shakespeare's earliest tragedy, filled with gore, excellent stage violen…
The Oscar-winning actor stars in the marital drama opposite Ian Barford and Robert Sean Leonard at the Goodman Theatre.
Sadieh Rifai is a playwright to watch and this is a play worth seeing. A little trimming and shaping would make it better.
