Merrie Greenfield
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Nine thoughts I had before, during and after the nine-act, five-and-a-half-hour Neo-Futurist production of “Strange Interlude” that concludes the Goodman’s astonishing “A Global Exploration: Eugene O’Neill in the 21st Century” this weekend.
1. At the first of three intermission breaks, a man in the audience began yelling at the theater company: “Why are you butchering this play? Read the rest of this entry »
RECOMMENDED
Greg Allen, founder of The Neo-Futurists, brought us the “ever-changing attempt to perform 30 plays in 60 minutes,” known affectionately to Chicagoans as “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.” This weekend he will slow things down considerably as the director of one play over five and a half hours. “Strange Interlude” is the conclusion of Goodman Theatre’s twenty-first-century Exploration of Eugene O’Neill. This 1928 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama is the story of a woman’s efforts to keep three lovers in her life and under her control. In 1929, the play was banned in Boston for being “a plea for the murder of unborn children, a breeding ground for atheism and domestic infidelity, and a disgusting spectacle of immorality.” If the ballsy subject matter doesn’t cry out for a little touch of Neo, the structure certainly does. As the plot unfolds, characters explore their inner thoughts through extensive asides to the audience. This kind of direct interaction with the viewer should feel right in the comfort zone of Allen and lend itself to the truth-telling aesthetic of the Neo-Futurists. The nine-act play will include two intermissions and on Saturday and Sunday audiences will get a dinner break. If you have one of those inflatable donuts lying around, this is your lucky play. (William Scott)
At the Goodman Theatre, 170 N Dearborn, (312)443-3811. March 6-8.
By Fabrizio O. Almeida
Recently, I found myself defending foreign-language theater to a colleague who loves opera. We were discussing curator Robert Falls and The Goodman Theatre’s ambitious stage event “Global Exploration: Eugene O’Neill in the 21st Century,” and while he could share my enthusiasm for its controversial (Wooster Group’s “Emperor Jones”), community-boosting (Hypocrites’ “The Hairy Ape” and Neo-Futurists’ “Strange Interlude”) and classic programming (“Desire Under the Elms”), he could simply not understand why anyone would want to see O’Neill performed in Portuguese or Dutch. (The festival, now midway through its run, features theater companies from Brazil and the Netherlands performing the notoriously obscure “Sea Plays” and the rarely staged “Mourning Becomes Electra,” respectively). I can see his point. After all, experiencing some foreign-language theater—the kind staged in the playwright’s native tongue, for example—makes sense. It’s the operatic equivalent of hearing Puccini in Italian, or Wagner in German: the authentic cultural-aural experience. So why do I still think, having now sat through two of Brazilian Companhia Triptal’s three productions of “Homens Ao Mar” or “Sea Plays” (the final installment, “Cardiff,” completes the triptych this weekend) without understanding one peep of Portuguese, that it would be an absolute shame if any viewer missed out on this rare and once-in-a-lifetime experience afforded by the good folks at the Goodman?
I think for me it’s quite simply all about the language. It helps, of course, being a linguaphile and having under my belt a history of international theatergoing that includes not just plays rendered in their original spoken-languages (Chekhov in Russian by the Moscow Art Theatre; Strindberg in Swedish courtesy of The Royal Dramatic Theatre of Stockholm), but also straight plays and musicals originally performed in English but enjoyed in a half dozen other foreign languages. Nevertheless, even without this primer, any curious individual wishing to be provoked by a piece of exotic theater but wary of the potential for pomposity, can rest assured that there is nothing pretentious about or posed by Companhia Triptal that the average theatergoer can’t handle.
So you’re afraid you may not “get it” in another language? All you need to know about “Sea Plays” is that they are informed by a playwright whose early life experiences were spent at sea, and who must have had a love-hate relationship with this siren that tore individuals from—and reunited them with—their families. As well, O’Neill’s early plays were exercises—not always successful—in lacing realistic situations with symbolism and heightened theatricality. Even in English, these plays can come across as ambiguous. Companhia Triptal’s aggressively atmospheric and mood-enhancing staging puts you there and offers a visceral experience not dependent on narrative details.
So you hate the idea of supertitles? After all, why shell out $20 to “read” a play? Well then, don’t. The first installment of “Sea Plays,” whose original English-language text was projected back to the audience via supertitles, was a cumbersome experience if you sat too close to the stage: halfway through the performance I felt like a nodding dog with my head tilting up and down between the words across the sky and the action down on stage. It also seemed at times like the supertitle projector could either not keep up with the actors or vice versa, making for some ponderous pauses (I wondered if this is what it would be like to see Pinter in Portuguese). So for the second installment, armed with a quick scan of the synopsis only, I ignored the supertitles, took in the experience as if I were watching the show in its hometown of São Paulo and learned to appreciate a company of actors whose robust physicality, brandy-soaked vocal instruments and Latin temperament were the perfect interpreters of O’Neill’s motley crew of sailors and whores, as well as of the playwright’s famously demanding and persnickety stage directions. In fact, my relationship as audience member with these Brazilian actors was probably heightened precisely because we could not depend solely on words for communication.
So you know nothing about Brazilian culture? Well, maybe you’ll learn something. In my case, the “global” insights were unsurprising but nuanced and pronounced: a patriarchal culture whose dichotomous existence between beauty and violence—as might be experienced every day on the dangerous streets of Rio or São Paulo—echoed through the ebb and flow of O’Neill’s symbolic sea.
All good stuff, but for me secondary to the unique thrill of letting go, letting the experience wash over me and allowing a foreign language to caress my ear. Inherently disorienting at first, but that’s the way O’Neill’s rough-hewn dialogue—especially at this point in his early writing career—affects some in English. And in the case of the Portuguese, with its emphasis on elongated open vowels, a curious case of unintelligible aural beauty reminding me of this playwright’s later gift for the poetic vernacular. (Dutch’s guttural-heavy pronouncements for the upcoming “Mourning Becomes Electra” will most likely re-emphasize the jagged aspects of O’Neill’s language.)
You’ll be hard-pressed to see, let alone hear, something like this again for a long time to come. And what do you mean you think an Afghan “Anna Christie” sounds like fun?
“Global Exploration: Eugene O’Neill in the 21st Century” runs through March at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, goodmantheatre.org
What makes Chicago’s theater world special? We picked up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly for clues. In the cover story, “CSI” star William Petersen explains his decision to leave his role as one of the top paid actors in television, earning a rumored $600,000 an episode, to move back to Chicago and Chicago theater: “It was too safe for me at this point. So I needed to try and break that, and the way to do that, for me, is the theater.” EW went on to credit Petersen for much of the show’s success, notably bringing a theatrical ensemble philosophy to play in its production. Or consider the runaway success of Steppenwolf’s “August: Osage County,” which transferred to Broadway, receiving critical acclaim and multiple Tony Awards, not by shaking it up with Broadway “names” but instead by virtually transferring the Steppenwolf production intact, with the addition of lead producer and fellow Chicagoan Steve Traxler. What makes Chicago theater—or for that matter, Chicago dance or any other form of performance practiced on our stages—special? We’d contend it’s the power of the ensemble, the spirit of collaboration that champions artistic risk-taking and subordinates the commercial. And so, in that spirit, the critical ensemble responsible for Newcity’s ongoing stage coverage presents our take on the most influential people on and offstage in Chicago. Read the rest of this entry »
Top 5 Shows
“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre
“A House with No Walls,” Timeline Theatre
“The Glass Menagerie,” Steppenwolf Theatre
“No Darkness Round My Stone,” Trap Door Theatre
“The Birthday Party,” Signal Theater
—Monica Westin
Top 5 Shows
“Jon,” Collaboraction
“A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant,” A Red Orchid
“Be More Chill,” Griffin Theatre
“Men of Tortuga,” Profiles
“Picked Up,” Neo-Futurists
—Nina Metz
Top 5 Theatrical Experiences
“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre
“Columnibus,” Raven Theatre
“As You Like It,” Writers’ Theatre
“The Comedy of Errors,” Chicago Shakespeare Theater
“Romeo y Julieta” (Staged Reading), Chicago Shakespeare Theater/Shakespeare in Español
—Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Guilty Pleasures
“Jarred: A Hoodoo Comedy” by Tanya Saracho, Teatro Luna
“Speech and Debate” by Stephen Karam, ATC
“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” by Sarah Ruhl, Steppenwolf
“The Little Dog Laughed” by Douglas Carter Beane, About Face Theatre
“After Ashley” by Gina Gionfriddo, Stage Left Theatre
—Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 New Plays
“Kita y Fernanda” by Tanya Saracho, 16th Street Theater
“The U.N. Inspector” by David Farr and James Sherman, Next Theatre
“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” by Sarah Ruhl, Steppenwolf Theatre
“Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat” by Yussef El Guindi, Silk Road Theatre Project
“Superior Donuts” by Tracy Letts, Steppenwolf Theatre
—Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Revivals
“The Maids,” Writers’ Theatre
“The Lion in Winter,” Writers’ Theatre
“Requiem for a Heavyweight,” Shattered Globe
“Plaza Suite,” Eclipse Theatre Company
“The Birthday Party,” Signal Ensemble Theatre
—Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Play Revivals
“Our Town,” Hypocrites
“The Lion in Winter,” Writers Theatre
“Requiem for a Heavyweight,” Shattered Globe
“Journey’s End,” Griffin
“M Butterfly,” BoHo
—Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Memorable Productions by a Smaller Theatre Troupe
“Multi-Purpose Doom,” Sandbox Theatre Project
“The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler,” Dog & Pony
“Termen Vox Machina,” Oracle Productions
“On My Parents’ 100th Wedding Anniversary,” Side Project
“The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” (original mounting), Gift Theatre
—Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Directors
Ann Filmer for “Kita y Fernanda,” 16th Street Theater
Charles Newell for “Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre
Sean Graney for “Edward II,” Chicago Shakespeare Theater
William Brown for “As You Like It,” Writers’ Theatre
Greg Kolack for “Columbinus,” Raven Theatre
—Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Musicals
“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre
“Grey Gardens,” Northlight Theatre
“Tell Me On A Sunday,” Bailiwick Theater
“The Full Monty,” Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre
“All Shook Up,” Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre
—Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 New Musicals
“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre
“Grey Gardens,” Northlight Theatre
“Songs for a New World,” Porchlight
“The Ballad of Emmett Till,” Goodman Theatre
“I Am Who I Am: The Story of Teddy Pendergrass,” Black Ensemble Theater
—Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Musical Revivals
“Tell Me on a Sunday,” Bailiwick Theater
“Sweet Charity,” Drury Lane Oakbrook
“1776,” Signal Ensemble
“Jacques Brel’s Lonesome Lovers of the Night,” Theo Ubique
“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” Circle Theatre
—Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Worst Musicals
“Shout! The Mod Musical,” Drury Lane Water Tower
“Avenue Q,” Broadway in Chicago
“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago
“Russian on the Side,” Royal George Theater
“Gutenberg! The Musical,” Royal George Theater
—Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Worst Musicals
“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago
“The Kid from Brooklyn,” Mercury Theater
“Gutenberg! The Musical!,” Royal George Theatre
“Jekyll & Hyde—The Musical,” Bohemian Theatre Ensemble
“Sweeney Todd,” Broadway in Chicago
—Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Operas
“Manon,” Lyric Opera
“The Abduction From the Seraglio,” Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia
“Lulu,” Lyric Opera
“Porgy and Bess,” Lyric Opera (second cast)
“Don Giovanni,” Chicago Opera Theater
—Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Productions of Shakespeare
“As You Like It,” Writers Theatre
“Comedy of Errors,” Chicago Shakespeare
“Much Ado About Nothing,” First Folio
“Merchant of Venice,” Boho
“Twelfth Night,” City Lit
—Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Touring Shows
“Saint Joan,” Shaw Festival Canada, Chicago Shakespeare
“Cirque du Soleil: Kooza,” United Center
“The Drowsy Chaperone,” Broadway in Chicago
“My Fair Lady,” National Theatre London, Broadway in Chicago
“Jesus Christ Superstar,” Broadway in Chicago
—Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Holiday Shows
“The Christmas Schooner,” Bailiwick Theater
“A Dublin Carol,” Steppenwolf Theatre
“A Christmas Carol,” Writers Theatre
“Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular,” Rosemont Theatre
“The Seafarer,” Steppenwolf Theatre
—Dennis Polkow
Top 5 Comedy Shows
“Impress These Apes,” Blewt!
“Shatter,” Pat O’Brien’s solo show at Second City e.t.c.
“Steve and Jordan, Respectively” i.O. Theater
“Brother, Can You Spare Some Change?” Second City e.t.c.
“PennyBear: A Collection of Miniature Plays and Curious Diversions,” Apollo Theater Studio
—Nina Metz
Top 5 Female Performances
Janet Ulrich Brooks, “Golda’s Balcony,” Pegasus Players
Christina Anthony, “Brother, Can You Spare Some Change?” Second City e.t.c.
Erin Barlow, “Red Angel,” LiveWire
Sarah Goeden, “13 Dead Husbands,” Sansculottes Theater
Rachel Quinn, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” Circle Theatre
—Nina Metz
Top 5 Male Performances
David Cromer, “Our Town,” The Hypocrites
Usman Ally, “Celebrity Row,” American Theater Company
Steve Wilson, “Red Angel,” LiveWire
Edward Thomas-Herrera, “The Last Days of Beast,” Live Bait’s Fillet of Solo Festival
Daniel Behrendt, “Beggars in the House of Plenty,” Mary-Arrchie
—Nina Metz
Top 5 Out-of-the-Box Performances
“Inner Space,” Joffrey Ballet’s American Moderns
“Walking Mad,” Hubbard Street Dance Winter Series
“The Young Ladies Of…,” About Face Theatre
“Dr. Egg and the Man With No Ear,” Redmoon Theater
“One on One,” Hubbard Street Dance Winter Series
—William Rogers
Top 5 Dance Shows by Chicago Companies
“The Sky Hangs Down Too Close,” Lucky Plush Productions
“Nuevo Folk,” Luna Negra Dance Theater
“De-Evolution of Mudwoman,” Breakbone DanceCo
“Vintage Modern,” Same Planet Different World Dance
“American Moderns,” Joffrey Ballet
—Sharon Hoyer
Top 5 Overrated Productions
“Dave DaVinci Saves the Universe,” House Theatre
“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago
“Shining City,” Goodman Theatre
“The Glass Menagerie,” Shattered Globe Theatre
“Scenes from the Big Picture,” Seanachai Theatre
—Fabrizio O. Almeida
Top 5 Theatrical Disappointments
“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago
“Les Miserables,” Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre
“Yohen,” Silk Road Theatre Project
“Richard III,” Strawdog Theatre
“Macbeth,” Greasy Joan & Co.
—Fabrizio O. Almeida
At Welles Park Swimming Pool, 2333 W. Sunnyside, (773)275-5255. Through September 19.
“It is like opening up a present you have no idea what is inside,” says Hallie Gordon, artistic director of Theater on the Lake. “It is a surprise and sometimes you can absolutely love it.”
The Chicago Park District is currently producing its fifty-sixth season at the charismatic waterfront locale. It is the second year under the artistic leadership of Gordon, who previously served as general manager, and once again it has a little something for everyone.
“The great thing about the people that come here is if they don’t like one show they always like the other show,” Gordon shares. That is her methodology. Over the year she sees upwards of a hundred shows to arrive at the eight that will represent the best of Chicago’s off-Loop theater in week-long engagements at the space.
“We take the best of the season and recreate it on our stage,” Gordon continues, “and a lot of patrons come to us because they don’t have the opportunity, or ability, to go out during the rest of the year and see theater. They know that when they come here they will have a taste for everything that is going on.”
Comedy, drama, musical, sketch—it is all ripe to end up on the Theater on the Lake stage. “People think that the shows that are loud and big and have a lot of spectacle do well down here because they compete with the lakefront, but there are a lot of dramas that do really well,” Gordon has discovered. If the show is of quality and the difficult scheduling of remounting live theater performances can be worked out, Gordon is glad to offer any type of production a space in her season. The opportunity to bring in new work like the forthcoming Chicago Dramatists production of Bill Jepsen’s “Cadillac” is particularly exciting to her.
“It is an opportunity for the director and the writers and the actors to revisit that work,” she says. “You very rarely get a chance to redo things that you think you made a mistake on. It is never finished so now is that opportunity.” (William Scott)
This week, Neo-Futurists present “Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind.” The Theater on the Lake series runs through August 3 at 2400 North Lake Shore Drive. See the entire schedule at chicagoparkdistrict.com.
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Because “Picked Up,” the new one from the Neo-Futurists that stages a different television sitcom pilot each week, owes so much of its comedic success to pure nostalgia, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic for the too short lived “Strangers with Candy,” Comedy Central’s late 1990s glorious satire on all the situational comedies with which I had grown up. The story of “boozer, user and loser” Jerri Blank, the 46-year-old ex-con-turned-high-school freshman, brilliantly realized by actress Amy Sedaris, “Strangers with Candy” lovingly-viciously skewered everything from pedophilia to mental retardation, religion to physical disabilities. Nothing was off-limits or taboo and in this spirit the revolving lineup of six “shows” that “Picked Up” will present over the next six weeks—from retarded wrestlers to crime-fighting mimes to horny teenagers in space—should make for some hysterical comedy. That is, if the first entry that the press was invited to review, the pilot concerning the retarded high-school athlete who forms a wrestling club called the Unitards (get it?), is any indication. But although the content (read: show) will change from week to week, the framing device will remain the same. The head writers “pitch” their series to the audience, there are some morbidly meta monologues typical of the Neo-Futurists, and there’s an inspired choreographic dance sequence by the writers to the synthesized beats reminiscent of eighties pop band Devo that hopefully will remain throughout the run. As if that weren’t enough, the icing on this very rich comedic cake is the heartfelt honesty and emotional truth with which the writers address their feelings on the desire for creative success in the tainted yet totally addictive commercial world of television sitcom-writing. It has to make you wonder: what would happen if a Neo renegade sold out to the Nielsen Rating. (Fabrizio O. Almeida)
At the Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland, (773)275-5255. This production is now closed.
It’s pilot season at that sexy little think tank of imagination called the Neo-Futurarium. Having just completed a journey through the concept of invention with “Contraption,” The Neo-Futurists are setting their aim on the stalwart torchbearer of popular culture that pervades America’s homes, offices and iPods—the television sitcom.
“Because we create pieces for ‘Too Much Light’ in a very specific way, we were interested in pursuing a project that would require us to write through a completely new process,” says Jay Torrence, Neo artistic director and co-creator of the six-week string of live sitcom ideas, pitched not to television executives but to the paying audience. Together with fellow creators Dean Evans and Ryan Walters, they have assembled a writing team including Ian Belknap, Sean Benjamin, Laura McKenzie and Lauren Sharpe. These scribes represent a multitude of disciplines including standup, solo performance, dance and clowning. With the Neo-Futurists’ rebellious aesthetic, you can bet there will be no single girls in the city working at magazines. These concepts are far more delightfully off-kilter.
“Unitards” (April 10-12)
Ronnie Wexler’s dream is to wrestle. But when the high-school wrestling team doesn’t want his extra chromosome anywhere near their mats, special hopes and special dreams are confronted with even special-er challenges.
“The Colony” (April 17-19)
Six misfit teens ditch out on high school and start a colony on Mars. This red planet’s about to get a whole lot of awkward horny.
“Office Prison Break” (April 24-26)
If you think your nine-to-five job is bad, try doing nine-to-life. At Solutions Inc. you can clock in but you can’t clock out!
“No Place Like Home” (May 1-3)
From failed dreams to nighttime riddles, Emily Kane just can’t seem to get it right. Will she decipher her premonitions in time to save her dead friend Chris? Tune in and find out!
“Too Much” (May 8-10)
Six pretentious artists, one house and an awful lot of miscommunication equals “Too Much”… comedy. When these performance artists leave the stage, the real drama begins. Find out what happens when people stop being Neo-Futurists and start being roommates.
“The Mime” (May 15-17)
“Don’t do the crime if you can’t face the mime.” A reluctant superhero mime artist takes on the mafia by thinking outside of the box. (William Scott)
At the Neo-Futurarium, 5153 North Ashland, (773)275-5255. This production is now closed.
RECOMMENDED
Things have gone a little crazy inside the New-Futurarium. Writer/director Bilal Dardai’s “Contraption” has taken over and it will not quit until everyone in room is a little uncertain of their own state of mind. Part infotainment, part Brechtian pontification on the grip insanity has had on many of histories great inventors, “Contraption” delivers one vaudevillian sight gag after another but manages to be more than a good laugh. Despite the total deconstruction of the play before your very eyes, it still keeps a gripping and educational through line. Dardai’s writing, however, is stronger than his direction. He manages to construct striking stage pictures that are undoubtedly from a Neo-Futurist, but some less obvious choices with the text would have served the material well. The cast is a tight ensemble of four. Dina Connelly stands out, though. Equally at home playing an animatron as a sexy psychiatrist, her energy is exuberant and perfect for the wonderfully quirky production. (William Scott)
At the Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland, (773)275-5255. This production is now closed.