Edgar Miguel Sanchez and Mouzam Makkar/Photo: Saverio Truglia

This isn’t just a smart production—it’s a brilliant postmodern adaptation of the “Arabian Nights,” where Scheherazade’s famous interlocking stories, with the cliffhanger endings that kept King Shahriyar so enraptured in ancient Persia, are interwoven with a contemporary story of an Arab-Jewish interracial relationship against a backdrop of a post-apocalyptic Manhattan saturated with anti-Arab paranoia. It’s almost impossible to overstate the wit, fluidity and complexity with which writer Jason Grote and director Seth Bockley send the commanding, hyper-articulate cast through a labyrinth of character quick-changes, transitions from slapstick comedy to sincere political messages, and appearances from Osama bin Laden performing “Thriller” to Flaubert describing Egyptian courtesans. It’s also an incredibly hip production, with deconstructive metatheater, a strong Hitchcock influence, and striking stage pictures (including a Beckett-esque genie in a shopping cart and the most creative use of a strobe light I’ve seen in theater). Read the rest of this entry »

Doug MacKechnie and Kirsten D'Aurelio/Photo: James F. Quinn

RECOMMENDED

Ollie, the main character of Robert Koon’s new play “Menorca,” begins by telling us that in the world of archeology, time is thought of not as a line, but as a cake, comprised of layers. On an archeological dig on the island of Menorca in Spain, one of Ollie and James’ students discovers the bones of a dead body. Sending the university-funded project into disarray, the discovery reminds Ollie of the time she went on a ride-along with George, a Mexican-American border patrolman, and found a dead body near the California-Mexico border.

Koon uses both events, each recalling the other throughout the play, as fertile ground for the discussion of a myriad of topics, including identity, race, nationality, immigration, place and history. Although Ollie’s interactions with James, George and her students verge on being repetitive and threaten to stall the action, the play never feels didactic. As Basque-born Ollie, Kirsten D’Aurelio is captivating and though it seems to end with little circumstance, “Menorca”’s philosophical rigor is stunning. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

16th Street Theater at the Berwyn Cultural Center, 6420 16th Street, Berwyn,(708)795-6704. Through October 16.

Andrew Mueller and Brian-Alwyn Newland/Photo: Brandon Dahlquist

RECOMMENDED

It’s hard not to cringe at Mark Twain’s honest depictions of antebellum slavery; it’s harder still to strike up a catchy tune about it. But “Big River” delivers; capturing life under painful hypocrisy that still manages to be heartfelt fun.

Roger Miller’s tunes underscore Twain’s picaresque tale of Huck Finn (Andrew Mueller), who accompanies runaway slave Jim (Brian-Alwyn Newland) to freedom. Mueller makes a fine, multi-talented ingénue; his Disney-prince voice blends with Newland’s soaring vocals for show-stopping duets. Rashada Dawan captures the soul of the conflict in a couple of aching numbers. The show’s capable, multi-cast band pitches in as well; musical director Nick Davio and fiddler Hilary Holbrook see more action than a utility infielder. Ericka Mac’s choreography keeps things lively; Peter Marston Sullivan’s direction seamlessly integrates the musical elements, comedy and social commentary without ever losing the charm. It’s an entertaining look at a painful time. (Lisa Buscani)

The BoHo Theatre Ensemble at the Theatre Wit, 1229 West Belmont, (773)791-2393. Through October 10.

Austin Talley, Sarah Brooks and Jake Perry

If only closure were as quickly and easily accomplished as it is in this new play by Jake Perry. Taking place over a night and day in a remote cabin in the woods, “Closure” somehow layers easy-breezy dialogue on top of a life-or-death situation resting on the foundation of a life-affirming theme of reconciliation.

Dennis and Catherine have come to Matt’s vacation cabin to confront him with news of Maria’s recent death. All old yet estranged friends, Matt and Catherine were once lovers, as were Dennis and Maria. When Catherine intimates to Matt that she suspects that Dennis killed Maria out of jealousy, the old flame begins to flicker again, and the potential murder mystery gives way to epic wound-licking.

First-play pitfalls aside, such as an actor-writer main character (portrayed well enough by playwright Perry), “Closure”’s emotional maturity can’t be doubted. Yet lengthy backstories and arguments at gunpoint do not a play make. Next to Perry and the charming Austin Talley, Sarah Brook makes no attempts to develop her character beyond two dimensions. The functional set seems lit by floodlight, betraying perhaps an overall lack of nuance. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

Fringeelement Entertainment at the Viaduct Theater, 3111 North Western, (773)296-6024. Through September 26.

Meghan M. Martinez and Rich Logan

Love and politics never seem to mix well. And so, Dustin Spence’s new play, after nearly a year of in-house development, manages to muddle, not illuminate, the intricate paths human relationships take when love and war get in the way of each other.

Sasha and Nikolai were once passionate young revolutionaries in Russian-occupied Belarus. Now after the fall, Sasha is a violinist living in Prague, married to American architect Zoe, and Nikolai is a bloated, corrupt government minister who takes ruthless pity on Natalia, a strung-out prostitute.

A series of duets, “The Sound of a Yellow Flower” never seems to transcend its playwriting exercise origins. The play progresses as characters trade partners and trade again. Yet the full weight of each interaction fails to add momentum to a narrative lost beneath a complicated yet unclear political situation. The utilitarian set reveals some nice surprises, and the cast deserves credit for hitting the script’s few grace notes. But, to hammer home my music analogy, this is an etude, not a symphony. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

Strangeloop Theatre at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 West Cortland, (773)276-0458. Through October 3.

RECOMMENDED

We can get used to anything, it seems; even the ability to end worlds with mind-boggling weaponry. A Red Orchid’s latest is a cautionary tale about man’s hubris and its terrible cost.

Louis Slotin (Steve Schine) is ready to pack it in at Los Alamos and study life science at the University of Chicago when a lab accident derails his plans forever. The rest of the piece explores his decline in time-warping detail and probes the hypocrisy of nuclear deterrence.

Paul Mullin’s script goes off on a few tangents, but the emotional core is there; Slotin’s could-have-been relationship with his nurse (Anita Deeley) is painful, and his last moments with his beloved father (William Norris) are heartbreaking. The rest of the sharp, multi-cast ensemble supports the story with game flexibility; Guy Massey captures the agony of Slotin’s colleagues as they chart his death and the growing threat to our future. (Lisa Buscani)

A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 North Wells, (312)943-8722, through October 24.

Photo: Chris Callis

Few choreographers have had as much success drawing crowds as Lar Lubovitch. The Chicago native has spent his forty-plus year career bringing lush, romantic dances to audiences via stage (e.g. his New York-based company, his stagings of Broadway musicals), screen (he choreographed the sexy, urbane duet that proved Neve Campbell’s chops in Robert Altman’s “The Company”) and TV (he recently won an Emmy for a PBS Great Performances presentation of his “Othello). Despite spending the bulk of his professional career in New York, Lubovitch keeps firm ties in Chicago, actively wooing Midwest dance audiences, most notably with the inception of the Chicago Dancing Festival—a weekend of free performances by the most famous modern and ballet companies from across the U.S. Next week, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company performs two programs featuring works that bookend the choreographer’s career, from his mid-seventies pieces set to Steve Reich and Philip Glass, to his more recent narrative, multimedia works. Mr. Lubovitch spoke with me over the phone about the program and the ongoing influence of his hometown.

The programs at the Harris present very different phases in your career. How would you describe the current trajectory of your work?

My pieces are always about dancing first and foremost. Each different piece of music elicits a different physical response and therefore a different type of dancing. From the time I began forty-three years ago to now, that has not altered. However, over decades different techniques, vocabulary, language, all that accumulates to add hopefully to the depth of what can be expressed about the music. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a brilliant sort of “Eureka!” moment revealed early in the staging of “The Astronaut’s Birthday,” Redmoon’s spectacle produced in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art, and that is the realization that the array of symmetrical windows composing the facade of the museum’s Josef Paul Kleihues building make a perfect set of panels for a comic book. Once witnessed, you’ll be unlikely to ever look at the MCA without picturing some graphic narrative unfolding within its panes. Created and directed by Redmoon artistic director Frank Maugeri, with a co-creation credit to the company’s co-founder, Jim Lasko, “The Astronaut’s Birthday” is a compelling story, with nice artwork from Donovan Foote and others that pays homage at times to the likes of Jack Kirby (although it retains a circa-seventies superheroes-generic style most of the time) and that purports to draw from the Golden Age of comics and the 1950s sci-fi movies in telling the tale of an innocent bystander drawn, along with his family, into events of cosmic significance. Comic-book nerds like me are more likely to suss out references to the Silver Age from the sixties and seventies, especially in the plot structure and “lessons” learned by the characters. Nevertheless, the whole thing works pretty well as advertised, with some especially nice visual moments when all the panels are brought together to create a single dramatic image. Read the rest of this entry »

Elizabeth Bagby & Kevin Crispin/Photo: Lucas Gerard

The Halloween custom of trick-or-treating has a lot in common with improvised theater: two parties, essentially strangers, have a brief interaction across a threshold. One party is seeking candy through dressing up in a way that at least theoretically is different from what would be worn the rest of the year; the other party is seeking entertainment or engagement—those who aren’t, leave home on Halloween, or do not bother to answer the door—without so much as stepping outside a domestic sanctuary. It is a win-win situation for people who want a brief, late-fall theatrical experience without stepping into a theater, for the mere cost of imagination for the trick-or-treater and a mere bit of candy for the temporary Halloween “host.”

That theatricality is exploited in Ron Riekki’s new play “All Saints’ Day: aka 44 Poems About Jeffrey Jones,” receiving its world premiere by The Ruckus with the California playwright in attendance at the opening. The first “trick” of the play is the title itself, a homage to, as Riekki puts it in his program notes, “Jeffrey Jones the playwright, not ‘Ferris Bueller’ sex offender,” who is usually listed as Jeffrey M. Jones. Playwright Jones wrote a play called “70 Scenes of Halloween,” the point of departure for Riekki. Reviews of that play—which I have not seen—would suggest it had a darker intention and more narrative flow than this lighter take on the theme which literally is a series of Halloween vignettes one after the other: doorbell rings, “trick or treat?” interaction, doorbell rings again, and so it goes. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Depending on the way the five acts of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” are cut, after a first half dominated by light verbal snipings and high spirits, audiences typically return from intermission to a surprisingly dark sequel. Though Chicago dell’Arte’s production is no exception, director Nick Freed has found the comedy in even the darkest scenes—when Benedick quips “This looks not like a nuptial” during the distressing wedding scene, he spins it into a subtle reminder that despite some grim underpinnings, “Much Ado” falls squarely into the comedy genre.

With the simple set design in the compact space at RBP Rorschach and the intentional lack of props, the majority of the show’s success rides on the able shoulders of the strong cast, particularly the affable trio of Claudio (Aaron Kirby), Don Pedro (Jack Birdwell) and Benedick (Ned Record)—portrayed as a war photographer (a lover not a fighter, in other words). Though the show has a few hiccups—a photography theme distracts more than it adds and a gimmick with sock puppets falls flat—Chicago dell’Arte’s “Much Ado About Nothing” is refreshing and funny without glossing over the script’s inherent darkness. (Zach Freeman)

“Much Ado About Nothing” plays through September 25 at RBP Rorschach, 4001 North Ravenswood, (773)530-1040. $15.