Tim Curtis, Shannon Hoag/Photo: Chris Ocken

RECOMMENDED

Director Kimberly Senior knows Chekhov. Over the past five years, this veteran Chicago director has developed a profound affinity for the plays of the great chronicler of aristocratic angst at the turn of nineteenth-century Russia, and showcased some of her finest work through her intimate, ensemble-rich and emotionally-devastating renderings of “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard” (the former remains of the most perceptive versions of that play I have ever seen).  If her “Uncle Vanya,” now at at Strawdog Theatre, isn’t as moving as those other two productions, it is nevertheless a worthy contribution to Senior and Strawdog’s continuing exploration into the playwright’s canon, and confirms that a Chekhov play directed by Senior is still cause for celebration. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from the Goodman:

MARY ZIMMERMAN REIMAGINES BERNSTEIN’S CANDIDE IN A MAJOR FALL MUSICAL EVENT;
ROBERT FALLS RE-EXAMINES CHEKHOV’S THE SEAGULL; PLUS NEW WORKS BY SARAH RUHL,
REGINA TAYLOR AND THOMAS BRADSHAW HEADLINE GOODMAN THEATRE’S 2010/2011 SEASON

***THE GOODMAN CELEBRATES A DECADE OF ACHIEVEMENTS AS ANCHOR OF THE NORTH LOOP

THEATRE DISTRICT, STARTING WITH A SEPT. 27 EVENT AT THE ART INSTITUTE’S MODERN WING*** Read the rest of this entry »

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So, it’s Chekhov and people are “bored;” bored with their unfulfilled lives and their provincial neighbors. But thanks to some skilled performances, “Ivanov” isn’t boring; it’s a humorous tragedy about unrealized dreams.

Nikolai Ivanov (Jeremy Fisher) is a bankrupt landowner who wallows in his failed aspirations. His tubercular wife Anna (Cyd Blakewell) remains faithful to her husband, even when he abandons her nightly to seek brighter society at the Lyebedev home with their lovely daughter Alexandra (Sue Redman).

The first act is muddled by exposition, but the second is a hoot and the third a powder keg. Fisher captures Ivanov’s desolation; his pain is genuine and heartfelt. Blakewell’s Anna is heartbreaking; she allows her blind belief in her husband to be her undoing. Redman’s attempts to spark life into her prospective lover are amusing and frustrating. Thanks to Sheldon Patinkin’s astute direction, the ensemble handles Chekhov’s abrupt mood swings with aplomb. (Lisa Buscani)

“Ivanov,” SiNNERMAN Ensemble, 3111 N. Western, (773)296-6024, through November 7.

Mary O’Dowd and Jared Fernley/Photo: Craig Choma

I was entertained by playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s “The Night Season,” a British play now receiving its Chicago premiere at Vitalist Theatre. But, to be honest, the tale of three sisters living, loving and longing through life’s vicissitudes moved me more when it was told by Chekhov and called “The Three Sisters.”  I certainly laughed much more when the comedic clash between rural small-town Irish folks and Hollywood moviemakers was explored by playwright Marie Jones and her “Stones in his Pockets.” And I definitely felt an emotional connection for a beleaguered clan of Irish romantics haunted by bittersweet memories when those characters inhabited a play called “Dancing at Lughnasa” and their author was Brian Friel.

Comparisons between a playwright’s sophomore effort (“The Night Season” was Lenkiewicz’s second major play produced in London) and Chekhov may indeed be odious, as they say, but Lenkiewicz seems to have done everything to encourage it. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Saint Sebastian Players:

“A COLLECTION OF COLLECTIONS”

SAINT SEBASTIAN PLAYERS ANNOUNCE 29TH SEASON

CHICAGO—A collection of monologues, a collection of Chekhov short plays and a collection of nuns make up the Saint Sebastian Players’ 29th season, as well as the company’s annual Monologue Matchup Competition fundraiser. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Strawdog: (Updated August 4, 2009)

STRAWDOG THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES
22ND ANNIVERSARY SEASON THEMED “Why We Fight”

Strawdog Theatre Company of Chicago announces their 22nd anniversary season of presenting “the whole wide world in a little black box,” with the three mainstage plays focusing on the theme of “why we fight”:  the Midwest premiere of Matt Pepper’s St. Crispin’s Day, Curt Columbus’ translation of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and David Harrower’s translation of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Soul of Szechuan. The productions run Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 4 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 7 p.m.

These productions, plus ongoing late night offerings, are presented at Strawdog’s space in the heart of Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood at 3829 N. Broadway Street. Adult single ticket prices are $20 (single gala night tickets are $40 each, closing night tickets are $30 each); preview tickets are $10, student and senior tickets are $15 (with ID); and $15 tickets are available for groups of ten or more.  Season flex-passes are $50 for three admissions and $100 for six admissions, benefit performances count as two admissions. (All benefit performances include post-show reception with refreshments). Admission for Strawdog Late Night programming starts at $5 and varies for visiting artists. Tickets are available at 773.528.9696 and www.strawdog.org Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Galati (center) and the cast of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s production of The Tempest/Photo: Michael Brosilow

By Dennis Polkow

No.  Shakespeare. Ever.  Despite Steppenwolf being the oldest ensemble theater in Chicago, there has curiously been no Shakespeare performed by the company across its nearly thirty-five-year existence.  Until now, that is, with the staging of the Bard’s last play, “The Tempest.”  Why the long drought in the first place, and why end it now?

“Ever since I’ve been in the ensemble,” says Tina Landau, Steppenwolf ensemble member since 1997, who is directing “The Tempest” and is upstairs during a company dinner break two hours before the first preview of the show, “many ensemble members have been longing to do Shakespeare.  Five years ago, I pitched ‘The Tempest’ as one of three plays that I most wanted to do and through a confluence of the right timing and the right season—particularly with this year’s overall theme of the imagination—it finally all came together.” Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the release from Chicago Shakespeare Theater:

Chicago Shakespeare Theater Announces
A Season of Ruthless Love and Undying Ambition
Charming Villains and Feuding Lovers Fill the Stage
Affordable Access a Hallmark of the Season

Chicago—March 30, 2009—Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) Artistic Director Barbara Gaines and
Executive Director Criss Henderson announced today the series lineup of productions, with new affordable access opportunities, for the 2009/10 Season. “Villains and lovers make for compelling storytelling, and this year–from Shakespeare’s beguiling hunchback and fiery fiancées, to Chekhov’s restless lovers and Coward’s dueling divorcées–they’re out in force,” said Barbara Gaines. “These great characters of dramatic literature will tread the boards with tales of human endeavor and folly, provoking thought and laughter in equal measure.” A three-play subscription series of classics, renowned artists from around the world and productions for the entire family set the stage for Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s tenth season on Navy Pier.  Read the rest of this entry »

John Earl Jelks/Photo: Liz Lauren

RECOMMENDED

What might it be like if August Wilson took a stab at “The Cherry Orchard?”  That is more or less the milieu of the world premiere of Regina Taylor’s “Magnolia” which seeks to give deeper resonance to the divide of black and white that had long been implicit in Atlanta, but became explicit in 1963 by civil rights gains that so threatened the status quo of segregation that a wall was temporarily constructed across the city a la the Berlin Wall, built only three years earlier by the Soviets.  The play gets off to a slow start, alternating as it does between the worlds of black and white, each represented by a restaurant for each, as we get to know the diverse attitudes of both worlds, both having proponents that are pleased to see what they feel is an instinctive divide be made clear-cut. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

The first thing one notices are the cherry trees. Yes, I know it’s called “Cherry Orchard” but not every production of Chekhov’s final play will choose to visually illustrate the one thing that is keeping a gentrified family in fin de siècle Russia up all night, the reason why spendthrift matriarch Madame Ranevskaya, behind on her interest payments and in danger of foreclosure, refuses to cut her losses. Topical, anyone?

In director Kimberly Senior’s revival for Strawdog Theatre, the cherry trees line the back walls of the theater, cluster in the middle of the playing area and sport branches that encroach upon the performers who must gently navigate around them—sometimes at the expense of a fluid entrance or graceful exit. This can only be intentional, Senior having found in Anders Jacobsen’s cramped scenic design a visual metaphor for Chekhov’s inevitable finale in which the old guard, clinging on to their privileged lifestyles, are being forced out by social change. Topical, anyone?

It’s a respectable and intelligent read on the play, yet one I’m afraid that makes these self-centered characters more prone to laughter than love. After all, if there’s little sense of the beauty and inspiration that the cherry orchard imparts on these sentimental fools who refuse to leave it, they run the risk of coming across as just fools and not the flawed human beings deserving of our sympathies. It’s a challenge any director and designer would face staging this particular Chekhov in such an unforgiving and claustrophobic space like Strawdog’s, where bad sightlines even prevent key “what’s at stake” moments from fully registering (the first time Ranevskaya takes in the cherry orchard; her reaction to Trofimov’s entrance). As well, given that the trees never lose their visual predominance, there’s little distinction between the cluttered state of the estate in Act I, and Act IV, when everything has been lost and the family is surrounded by emptiness. An emotional element goes missing.

Alas, I’m cherry-picking my quibbles in a production that offers so much more, like great actors, Senior’s trademark emphasis on ensemble and a brisk pace that sees this “Cherry Orchard” clock in at around two hours with intermission. As Ranevskaya, Jennifer Avery, whose Natasha in “Three Sisters” remains for me one of two definitive interpreters of that role, drops hints of knowing awareness even as she builds a fragile façade of smiley-faced indifference. She’s still much too young for the role, but by the end appeared to have aged right before my eyes. As her sometime nemesis/admirer Lopakin, Jamie Vann’s obsequious turn makes you realize this onetime son of a peasant never lost his servant mentality and desire to fit in, but he needs to hint more at the conniving social climber within to pull off his third act coup of class revenge. Curt Columbus’ translation—colloquial and comic—emphasizes the laughs and appropriately suits Senior’s light and comic touch. But I missed the perfect balance of tragedy and comedy that characterized her sublime “Three Sisters” three years ago. Let’s hope it’s not another three before her next visit to the doctor. (Fabrizio O. Almeida)

At Strawdog Theatre,  3829 North Broadway, (773)528-9696.  Fri-Sat 8pm/Sun 7pm.  $15-$20.  Through March 28.