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Nothing Special’s latest is Luigi Pirandello on anti-depressants. Characters jump out of their stories and change their destinies, but unlike Pirandello, everyone gets the happy ending they want. Or at least, the ending they deserve.

X (Brian Rohde) changes his character’s storyline, much to the chagrin of the Playwright (Volen Iliev). He changes jobs and swaps love interest Christine (Amanda Roeder) for Lily (Allie Kunkler) and gives a name and purpose to best buddy Max (robust  fratboy Cale Haupert). The evening is conducted by an omniscient but unsatisfied Stagehand (Celeste Burns).

Gwydion Suilebhan’s script ultimately runs out of steam; the joke doesn’t have seventy-five minutes in it. But the ensemble’s game; Robert Quinlan’s staging is fast-paced and seamless. On-the-cheap props add to the show’s scruffy humor. Burns’ grumpiness is a hoot; Rohde and Kunkler’s charming repartee forces the audience to root for their storyline. It’s setless, barebones meta with heart and smarts. (Lisa Buscani)

Nothing Special Productions at The Strawdog Theatre, 3829 North Broadway, brownpapertickets.com.    Through July 20.

Here’s the press release from Promethean Theatre Ensemble:

PROMETHEAN THEATRE ENSEMBLE ANNOUNCES THEIR SIXTH SEASON: DON NIGRO’S
SEASCAPE WITH SHARKS AND DANCER, SHAKESPEARE’S HENRY V

June 28, 2011- CHICAGO, IL: Promethean Theatre Ensemble will launch its sixth season with the
unconventional romance by Don Nigro, Seascape with Sharks and Dancer. Season six will finish with a reimagined take on William Shakespeare’s Henry V. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Eric Y. Exit

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Not long after Ted Fishman wrote the book “China, Inc.,” I accompanied him on a trip to Shanghai, where he was to deliver a series of talks to American business leaders eager to gain access to this mysterious land of unprecedented opportunity. Shortly after landing at Pudong International Airport, I found myself not only caught up in the exotic excitement inherent in cultural tourism, but also succumbing to the infectious fever of capitalism raging in what seemed to be its rawest native state here in the cradle of Communism. Before long I was conjuring up ways that I too might strike gold in this frontier of fortune. Not till I got back home did I come to my senses and realize, as intoxicating as it all was, that in spite of the trappings of American capitalism—the shiny skyscrapers, the epic billboards, the smoggy traffic jams—China is a country that plays by very different rules. Not only are the practices of law regarding rights, contracts and justice bent wildly out of our frame, but very basic social customs are irreconcilably foreign and not especially hospitable to outsiders seeking a piece of this economic miracle.

David Henry Hwang’s “Chinglish,” now in its world-premiere production at the Goodman Theatre, explores these nuances through the prism of communication. Chinglish is the mangled-in-translation Chinese version of English, most famously manifest in public signs, and Hwang’s play finds no shortage of uproarious humor in such; in fact, his American character Daniel Cavanaugh is a manufacturing executive from Cleveland hoping to restore his family’s fortune by making the signs for the city of Guiyang’s new cultural center. As the American child of a Chinese immigrant, Hwang has the benefit of dual insight; he knows that the jokes play on both sides, and through translated Mandarin, we see the idiotic things being articulated by Daniel as he tries to grab hold of a language where a word means very different things based on subtle variations of tonality in pronunciation. Though “lost in translation” is not an especially new idea—virtually any “foreign” culture is going to offer up its own peculiarities—it seems to offer up an endless supply of laughs here nonetheless. Read the rest of this entry »

Brenda Barrie and Michael Patrick Thornton/Photo: Michael Brosilow

Imagine if Friedrich Nietzsche had written Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” and you have a pretty good idea of what it’s like to spend an evening in Will Eno’s “Middletown.” It’s not that the play isn’t well-written or doesn’t have a myriad of interesting ideas. The problem is that there are so many interesting ideas and that its characters are always speaking in a self-conscious and existential manner that the play feels, well, groundless, sort of floating in air, like the astronaut from Middletown who is also portrayed floating in the air looking back at his hometown.

It struck me about a half an hour into this frustratingly episodic yet epic (as in overlong) play that this would likely be a far more interesting play to read than to watch. The language is carefully constructed and often has ironic, comic, poignant or even horrific overtones that are rarely in organic sync with what the characters are doing. After a prologue which spends more time delineating possible recipients of the play’s intentions than the play itself ever does delineating its own characters—the surgeon general warning label here seems to be “those who never tire of reading something into everything”—we see a quiet suburban street where a cop harasses “Mechanic,” a wheelchair-bound character, for littering and brutally chokes him with his nightstick for not thinking that their town is wonderful enough. That “Blue Velvet” moment suggests we’re heading into another kind of play altogether, but any other violence in Middletown is the normal course of life and death which, in this town, are gruesomely juxtaposed. Read the rest of this entry »

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Perhaps Lanford Wilson was ahead of his time. As New York finally ratifies gay marriage, it’s interesting to see the longstanding gay love affair in “Fifth of July” is the piece’s healthiest relationship.

It’s 1977 and Vietnam vet Ken (Stephen Dunn)  struggles with his wounds in his small hometown with lover Jed (Billy Fenderson) and the motley crew home for the holiday: acidic sister June (Whitney Hayes),  boheme-in-the-making  daughter Shirley (Glynis Gilio) and his college buddies, wheeler-dealer John (Josh Atkins) and uber-emotional Gwen (Erin Myers). The characters wrestle with the future and each other.

Edward Morgan’s direction keeps the verbal jousting lively. Dunn’s excellent at masking his quick-with-a-quip character’s pain; Gilio’s melodrama is adolescent fun. Roy Gonzalez’ stoner musician is slow and sweet; his scenes with spacey Aunt Sally (Joanna Riopelle) are worth admission. What an entertaining way to remember battles that got us where we are. (Lisa Buscani)

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre at the Raven Theatre, 6157 North Clark, (773)516-4528. Through July 10.

Nicolas Gamboa,Brenda Arellano/Photo: Brandon Dahlquist

RECOMMENDED

The Greek story of Icarus has often been told as a warning against the dangers of unchecked ambition. Fly too close to the Sun, and you’ll get burned. Edwin Sanchez’s hauntingly poetic play, partly inspired by the myth, instead suggests, if you don’t risk getting burned, how will you ever touch the Sun?

Nicolas Gamboa charms as Primitivo, a young, wheelchair-bound man whose goal is to be the first person to swim out to touch the Sun. His sister, disfigured Altagracia, played affectingly by Brenda Arellano, acts as his trainer, manager and cheerleader. They only have each other, until they meet Beau (Luke Daigle), a man who refuses to take off his ski mask, Mr. Ellis (Tom Chiola), a lonely man with a suitcase full of dreams, and the Gloria (a hilarious Heather Townsend), a sad, aging starlet.

P. Marston Sullivan’s direction gives the right dreamlike bent to this episodic, absurdist comedy. A play largely about disability, the show never exploits the potentially preachy moments. The design, especially Sally Weiss’ minimalistic beach-house set, provides a fitting backdrop for this lyrical production. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

Bohemian Theatre Ensemble at Theater Wit, 1229 West Belmont, (773)975-8150. Through July 24.

Whitney White and Brad Woodard/Photo: Kevin Viol

Muddled accents and a striking lack of chemistry take a lot of the zing out of this poignant and often hilarious exploration of class, culture and education by British playwright Willy Russell, in which Frank (Brad Woodard), a cynical, booze-addled professor is assigned to tutor Rita (Whitney White), an effusive hairdresser seeking to improve her life via higher education. Like any two-person script, “Educating Rita” relies heavily on the evolution of and the relationship between the characters. Over the course of the show, as Frank and Rita meet repeatedly in his shabby academic office (perfectly imagined by scenic designer Chelsea Warren) and the number of missed connections between the actors mounts, the two-hour-and-forty-minute running time begins to feel especially lengthy. The drawn-out scene changes don’t help. Tightening the pacing and injecting a healthy shot of urgency into the proceedings might bring out some of the excitement in the story. (Zach Freeman)

Shattered Globe Theatre at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 West Chicago, (773)236-0764. $28. Through August 14.

By Erin Kelsey

The first time Jay Torrence ever heard a man say he was gay was during a performance of The Neo-Futurists’ “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” (TML) when he was in college. “It was really affirming for me to hear personal stories from their lives about how it felt to be gay in the eighties.” he says. Torrence joined the Neo-Futurists ensemble in 2002, and has since contributed his own personal stories on LGBTQ issues. This year, Torrence and fellow ensemble member Megan Mercier were responsible for curating the yearly Pride themed TML, called “30 Queer Plays in 60 Straight Minutes,” which performs this weekend.

While to the audience member the Pride show may seem very similar to TML, creating the show is a very different experience for the Neo-Futurists. Typically, TML performances change from week to week as ensemble members add new two-minute pieces to the “menu” of those to be performed. For the Pride show, the curators tailor the menu to the audience. “We balance our topics and tones,” Torrence says. “We go through our archives and see what we have from that year, and sometimes go back even further.” While many pieces selected originally featured homosexual themes, the curators are willing to experiment. “Sometimes,” Torrence says, “we approach the menu and look for heterosexual topics and then gender-bend them.” This process—similar to how they create their touring shows—results in a menu of their strongest material. Read the rest of this entry »

A violent, graphic sex tape pops up in an affluent Catholic prep school and its administrators attempt to identify the participants. Ivy League-bound Brandon (Eric Casady ) is a possible suspect but denies involvement to his white-collar mom (Suzanne Nyhan ) and his best friend (Curtis Jackson).

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s script doesn’t dumb down the narrative; it explores all the gray areas of sexism, classicism and homophobia the tale incorporates. The younger cast displays sharp insight; Casady has the right demi-god swagger and Jackson‘s creamy moral center is spiked with painful sexual attraction.  Madison McLean as the tape’s exploited woman is a different kind of victim; she consents to the initial act and understands its sexual and economic ramifications. However, directors Scot Kokandy and Jeff Casey’s staging lacks oomph; the video presentation and audio design could be more compelling. It’s a smart story that needs better visuals to bring it across. (Lisa Buscani)

Towle Theater and Kokandy Productions at Theater Wit, 1229 West Belmont, (773)975-8150. Through July 9.

Here’s the press release from Luna Negra:

LUNA NEGRA DANCE THEATER
ANNOUNCES EXPANDED 2011-2012 SEASON,
INCLUDING A FALL CELEBRATION OF INFLUENTIAL LATINAS, THE WORLD PREMIERE OF A NEW ‘CARMEN,’ THE LAUNCH OF A NEW KIDS SERIES, AND A SHOWCASE OF RISING LATINO CHOREOGRAPHERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD Read the rest of this entry »