Teagle Bougere/Photo: Michael Brosilow

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There’s a certain advantage to adapting a masterpiece of literature to the stage: the story and the characters are proven entities, not likely to elicit complaints about plausibility or development. But there is an even bigger disadvantage: not only will audiences inevitably make comparisons, usually unfavorable, to the primary work, but the distillation of a novel the length of Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” into a three-hour stage play (including two intermissions) will necessitate vast edits that might threaten clarity even if, as is the case here, the dialogue is drawn strictly from Ellison’s text. Contrarily, the risk is equally great that careful adherence to the text will result in a work that, while unquestioned genius on the page, is plodding on the stage.

Fortunately, most of these potential problems have been avoided with Oren Jacoby’s world-premiere adaptation of “Invisible Man,” now playing at Court. Read the rest of this entry »

Kevin Lambert/Photo: Lucas Gerard

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“I do love the office at Christmastime,” exclaims the portly, oppressively exuberant Mr. Bahnson (Rob Grabowski), surveying his bleak cubicular kingdom. He is addressing his subordinate Martin (Kevin Lambert), a corporate Everynerd who manages his repressed anger and boredom by watching horror movies at his desk and secretly writing his own fantasy novel, with himself as swashbuckling hero. Tonight is Martin’s moment of truth, as he learns that he has been accepted into business school and must decide his future.

The Ruckus’ world-premiere presentation of Daniel Caffrey’s “Little Triggers” is a sharp, well-executed and provocative blend of comedy and horror. Combining equal parts Charles Dickens and Rod Serling, Caffrey captures the compartmentalized mentality of middle-class urbanites of a certain age. It is the point when the tug-of-war between dreams and economic realities, imagination and survival, can become so painful that the drab routines and paltry rewards of the day job make it seem like an ongoing Creature Feature. Read the rest of this entry »

Larry Grimm and Danny McCarthy/Photo: Michael Brosilow

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A nervous inventor (Larry Grimm) pitches his latest creation to a smarmy business executive (Danny McCarthy) in the confines of a metallic negotiation room that gives off the claustrophobic feeling of an inner chamber in a giant machine (scenic design by John Dalton).  It’s a creation he breathlessly claims will change not just the world, but our very perception of the EVERYDAY. Read the rest of this entry »

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I hate winter. Sure, no Chicagoan really loves the season, but I truly hate it. So any play that depicts winter in its worst light has a leg up with me—just a caveat.

Cities kind of hate winter, too. The blizzard of 1967 was the worst snowstorm in Chicago history, dumping twenty-three inches on the city, heaviest during rush hour and doing what Billy Sunday could not, that is shutting down the town. “Blizzard ’67,” the intriguing new play by Jon Steinhagen, depicts the impact of that fateful event on one carpool of four co-workers of varying rank and age at a faceless downtown corporation. The play’s framed in a faux-documentary fashion, with the actors occasionally narrating their own transitional voiceovers. Read the rest of this entry »

Jordan Stacey and Stacey Stoltz/Photo: Wayne Karl

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Ringo sang “I get by with a little help from my friends,” but the characters in Dierdre O’Connor’s new play aren’t so lucky. Anne (Stacy Stoltz) is a somewhat frumpy librarian still living with her mother, who bit her last home care provider. So she hires Levi (Jordan Stacey), a young former alcoholic, who is sorely underqualified but desperate for a job and a place to belong. Read the rest of this entry »

Ted Evans and Marsha Harman/Photo: Tom McGrath

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If ever there was a show in the right performance space, this is it. The domed ceiling, dangling chandelier and slightly dated grandeur of this room in the Lincoln Park Cultural Center fit the trappings of a small-town Nebraska funeral home to a T. Set designer Michelle Lilly seals the deal with an overabundance of flowers surrounding a white, open casket and a thrust seating arrangement. Read the rest of this entry »

In a nod to the technological gimmickry of Hollywood’s B-rated past, at one point in “Scott Janus” a crew member walks before the audience holding a stick with pine-scent air fresheners and spritzing them with water to enhance the smell. The idea was to give the coming scene the sense of a wooded area, but the trick, a live theater version of Smell-o-Vision, didn’t work. However, that was likely the point.

Comic book-loving Eddie Edderson suspects that his neighbor, Mr. Nosferatsenberger, might be a vampire who has occasioned a series of cryptic deaths. Read the rest of this entry »

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Most anyone is likely to be familiar with the story of Cyrano de Bergerac, even if they’ve never seen Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play. The Steve Martin adaptation “Roxanne” was a popular film, and the play’s balcony scene is rivaled only by the one from “Romeo and Juliet.” Ubiquity aside, however, Matt Hawkins’ new version strips the story down to its iconic bare essentials, making for a swashbuckling, irreverent evening of heroism and romance. Read the rest of this entry »

Maire Curiosity and Cinnamon Twist/Photo: Heather Moats

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Episode four of the now ubiquitous (at Gorilla Tango, at least) Geek Girl Burlesque series launches into the land of “Star Wars” by placing the infamous introductory words (“A long time ago…”, etc.) on the derrieres of the dancing cast. Of all the previous GGB showings, “A Nude Hope” sticks the closest to the script, lovingly satirizing “Star Wars: A New Hope” with less than subtle jabs at the story and plenty of partial nudity. The script by M.C. Curran isn’t necessarily funnier than past GGB shows, but the leads here help make it the funniest yet. Both Bottom Heavy Betty as the angsty Luke Skywalker and Cinnamon Twist as the arrogant but dashing Han Solo draw big laughs with their deliveries, but it’s veteran GGB performer Diva La Vida that steals the show as the aging Obi-Wan Kenobi, proving that even a bearded old man can be both sexy and hilarious. (Zach Freeman)

Geek Girl Burlesque at Gorilla Tango Theatre, 1919 North Milwaukee, (773)598-4549. Through October 29.

Photo: Eric Y. Exit

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Created specifically for Chicago by one step at a time like this, a group of Melbourne-based artists, “en route” is an intricate maze of an art piece/interactive theater event that combines elements of a scavenger hunt and “Mission: Impossible” to fully bring to life the immortal words of Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage.” Experiencers (“audience members” doesn’t sound right) are given a device with pre-recorded tracks of music/instructions and a phone number to call in case they become “geographically, technologically or even psychologically lost” and then sent out to explore. But this is more than a tour of Chicago’s landmarks; as you make your way through grimy alleyways and plush hotel lobbies you start to take in your surroundings in a surprising new light. Is that crushed beer can a prop? Is that girl with the cast on her leg following you? What happens next? “en route” isn’t a show that you “see,” it’s something you “do.” And I can’t say this emphatically enough: “Go do it!” (Zach Freeman)

Presented by Chicago Shakespeare Theater, (312)595-5600. $35. Through August 13.