Tom Irwin and Kate Arrington/Photo: Michael Brosilow

RECOMMENDED

In Bruce Norris’ latest, Bee (Kate Arrington) confronts her blunt future self (Marylouise Burke) and explores her less-than-ideal soon-to-come. Her blowhard boyfriend (Tom Irwin) copes with Bee’s futuristic tales, even as we discover she may not be the most reliable witness.

Arrington appeals as she tries to make the most of a fate she can’t change; Burke’s no-nonsense riffing is pragmatic fun. The standout here is Irwin; he makes us feel for his self-centered sumbitch who thinks he has found love with a younger woman, only to watch her spin out.

Anna Shapiro’s driving direction keeps the timing sharp and the humor crisp. Todd Rosenthal’s airy, geometric set hints at  future possibilities. It’s a bit annoying that Norris asks us to suspend disbelief and accept the sci-fi/fantasy format only to cavalierly derail it, but the trip is worth the detour. (Lisa Buscani)

Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 North Halsted, (312)335-1650, through August 29.

Let me first disclose that I have only seen this middle part of Chelsea M. Marcantel’s self-produced “(a)Symmetry Cycle,” and so do not intend to deliver any sort of commentary on the trilogy as a whole. But in her series of plays focusing on the nature of human relationships through the lens and language of chemistry, Marcantel poses potentially interesting scenarios that alternately make you want to run home to your tenth-grade chemistry textbook or lean in with wonder and bafflement. “Dumbspeak: The Chemistry of Falling Apart” finds Isaac returning after seven years away to reclaim the love of Alice, who had been seeing Peter. Introduce a younger brother and a lesbian couple, all vying for each other’s affections, and you have the stage version of a Chem 101 experiment. The metaphors are convoluted, the words multisyllabic, and the cast, though game, simply too young for their characters’ lab coats. Marcantel cites entropy—which states that heat will not decrease inside of a system, unless it is not isolated—as a central theme to “Dumbspeak,” and in this case heat dissipates along with interest. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

(a)Symmetry Cycle at the Viaduct Theater, 3111 N. Western, (773)296-6024, through July 25.

RECOMMENDED

“After such a fall as this I shall think nothing of falling down stairs.” So says the precocious Alice (a captivating Lauren Hirte) after an acrobatic representation of falling down the rabbit hole. And after such an Alice as “Lookingglass Alice” I have a feeling I shall think nothing of other Lewis Carroll adaptations.

The deceptively simple opening few minutes quickly explodes into a meta-production that encompasses much of Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass”—with young Alice encountering a sort of adapted chess game in which she slowly advances towards her goal of becoming a queen. Along the way she meets a familiar cast of characters, remarkably played by only four other actors. The performers are given ample opportunity to display their well-developed acting (and movement) skills. Samuel Taylor’s manic White Knight, Molly Brennan’s psychotic Red Queen, Anthony Fleming III’s wild-eyed March Hare and Doug Hara’s contemplative Humpty Dumpty make the most lasting impression. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are the details from a Lyric Opera press release issued earlier today:

William “Bill” Mason, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s general director since 1997, announced today that he will retire when his contract expires at the conclusion of the company’s 2011-12 season.

Mason, 68, has led the world-renowned Chicago-based opera company since 1997 and has been with Lyric Opera for more than four decades.

“I think two years from now will be the right time to turn the reins over to a new general director,” says Mason, “and I look forward to working with the Board on finding a successor to lead this great company. Read the rest of this entry »

Demian Krentz

Admit it. When the Civil War comes to mind, you immediately think, “big laughs.” No? Well the creative minds behind “Shoot Faster, Dear Brother, I’m Dying! (a Civil War Comedy),” which takes the stage this week at the Apollo Studio Theater, 2540 North Lincoln, aim to change that.

This idea to write a comedy based on the time of The War Between the States came from an unprovoked email exchange between writer-performer Demian Krentz and writer-performer Joe Anderson. “At the time I was living in Lansing, Michigan. Joe and I had worked on a couple of plays in Michigan and I just decided to write him an email as if I was talking to my brother in a field in a war,” Krentz says. “He wrote me back in the same form and we realized it was turning into a funny idea.”

Krentz explains that the play, about two brothers who live in Virginia while one of them is fighting in the war and its aftermath, is a condensed version of a book they were going to write until they both agreed it would be better acted out. “It’s a ridiculous take on life back then,” Krentz says. “I’m a history nerd; it’s always great to imagine what people who lived before us did.” If you, too, would like to explore the funny side of The Late Unpleasantness, visit shootfaster.com or call (773)935-6100. (Ashley Abramowicz)

"La Vista de la Vieja Dama"

By Monica Westin

The fifth biennial Latino Theatre Festival at the Goodman, is centerpieced by “The Sins of Sor Juana,” which has been getting mixed reviews, but the real surprises of the festival’s lineup are two performances by Teatro Buendía. The theater company, one of the most highly regarded in Cuba, has never performed in the US before this month. Newcity spoke with Goodman Artistic Associate Henry Godinez, festival curator, about Teatro Buendía’s style, getting the theater into the country, and revolution.

How did you first become familiar with Teatro Buendía?

The company has played all over the world—Africa, Europe, Australia, obviously Central and South America, even the Globe in London. I first saw them in Cuba in 2003, and I had hoped to bring them to the festival back then, but it was just impossible to bring artists from Cuba under the last political administration. This year, with Obama in the White House, we thought we’d try again and we succeeded… they have their visas, and they fly in tomorrow. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Even amidst total ruination, sometimes there are still more important things at hand. In Daniel Caffrey’s new play “Extinction Fantasies” for his Tympanic Theatre Company, three pairs of characters from a small town struggle to survive after a deadly plague has wiped out the local population, and the only way out, an old bridge, has been demolished. What emerges is a series of intimate moments between people who have nothing else to lose, yet therefore everything to gain. In “Dark Horse,” two high-school students, both of whose parents are dead, find in each other the strength they need to keep surviving. In “The Deer Callers,” a married couple fights to resolve fidelity issues that haunted their pre-plague life. And in “Fevers” and “Fever Dreams,” a father and daughter share stories as the father draws painfully closer to death. The actors all find plenty of emotional action to play in scenes that are largely conversational, and humor, presumably a necessary ingredient of post-apocalyptic survival, keeps afloat with levity a thoughtful, meandering play. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

Tympanic Theatre Company at The Side Project, 1439 W. Jarvis, (773)442-2882, through July 18.