EDITOR’S NOTE: This a new version of the review of this play, based on the critic’s viewing of the second act. See this for the original and the comments that accompanied it.

Having now seen both halves, I still find that the high point of of Zeljko Djukic’s production takes place in its very first moments, when two suspicious Capulet servants circle one another ambivalently and vulnerably, creating a tension and hypersensitivity that could have set an exquisite emotional compass for the play, but unfortunately the aura evaporates almost immediately. Instead, the show feels increasingly less controlled and meaningful throughout the first act, as actors rush on and offstage with little palpable motivation and with a real sense of free-floating anxiety as they attempt to maintain one high note of emotional timbre. The second half suffers from the overzealous intensity of the first; when the real climaxes should occur, they feel curiously stilted, and the final scene, which is performed silently and with arresting visual effect, feels like the result of exhaustion and tacked on rather than in dialogue with the rest of the show. Romeo and Juliet come across as more childish than foolishly adolescent, with a Juliet who seems to be always on the verge of stamping her foot and whose most memorable gesture is curling up in her mother’s lap; during the lovers’ “morning-after” scene there’s no sense of motivation for their pairing, sexual or otherwise. With the exception of Carolyn Hoerdmann’s earthy Nurse and Peter DeFaria as a Friar Laurence who creates something close to a moral center of the play, the actors seem apprehensive rather than commanding, the show seems to be stuck in the text rather than deploying or appropriating it. And at the risk of sounding like a philistine, I might suggest that for a production that deliberately doesn’t try to do anything progressive, three hours plus is simply too much to ask of an audience.  (Monica Westin)

At Chopin Theater, 1543 W. Division. www.tutato.com. Through December 21.

A pure spectacle of multicultural burlesque epic, but not usually in a good way. Visually gorgeous but fairly incoherent, the show’s biggest obstacle is that very little of it is actually comprehensible; instead, while many lines are in English, the actors speak in a number of languages that seem to reflect their ability to speak English rather than the importance of their words. For example, the actor playing Oberon doesn’t speak any English, which makes much of the plot hard to follow. In addition to the story getting lost, the acting takes a back seat as well, most of it quite weak except for Ajay Kumar as a charismatic Puck and Aporup Acharya as a Bottom who brings the only real element of real human character into the show. Director Tim Supple’s obvious Peter Brook influence doesn’t seem to be much updated, with drumming and sound that one might expect at a sort of “ethnic dancing/drumming” festival; and the show feels dated, all bright lights and flashy colors and excitement about the exotic without any critical element to it. It’s also immediately obvious that this production is something of a colonial enterprise rather than an independent theater company—in fact, Supple traveled for a year in India hand-picking actors for himself, a fact that sits uneasily over the show, which also moves much too slowly for all of the running and shrieking that happens onstage. The experience is of a colorful tornado of actors rolling on top of one another and climbing up and down ropes—but all this action doesn’t seem to really take us anywhere, especially when the lines recede into unintelligibilty. The ending borders on a love-fest, with actors singing, holding candles, and asking the audience to clap along with them, in a moment that would make Edward Said roll over in his grave; this is Orientalism at its most insidious.  (Monica Westin)

At Chicago Shakespeare’s Courtyard Theater, 800 East Grand, (312)595-5600. Through December 7.

By Valerie Jean Johnson

“Late at night in the guts of an abandoned theater, a company of actors gathers to rehearse Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” They soon realize that they’re not alone. As they are drawn deeper into the Bard’s most magnetic play, the ghosts that have haunted the story since its inception hover and encroach.”  So goes the story behind “Radio Macbeth,” the latest offering from the renowned New York City-based SITI Company. Founded in 1992 by Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki, this ensemble-based theater company is no stranger to Chicago, having made the city both a regular stop for many of the nearly thirty shows they’ve toured around the US and abroad over the past sixteen years, as well as a home for an annual two-week intensive training workshop in the summer. This will be their second time taking the stage at Hyde Park’s Court Theatre, after the highly successful 2006 run of “Hotel Cassiopeia,” written by the company’s resident playwright Charles L. Mee. And whether the play be by Mee, Noel Coward, August Strindberg or a completely original work devised by the ensemble, each production carries the indelible strength that comes from SITI’s singular (and rigorous) style of training and development. I caught up with artistic director Anne Bogart about the working life of SITI Company, the desire to take on arguably the Bard’s best (and bloodiest) tragedy, and the delights to be found in being haunted.

For our readers who may not be familiar with SITI Company, would you please tell us a bit about your process of devising work as an ensemble?

We work very collaboratively.  I start by describing the world of the play and I tell the actors and designers and all involved everything that I have imagined about our production.  Then we put our heads together and begin to work.  Except for songs and dances, which we develop and practice every day, we always rehearse in the order of the play, never skipping.  Once we have staged one scene, we move on to the next, in order.  It is a slow process.  When we get stuck we wait until consensus about how to move forward.

SITI Company’s first foray into the work of Shakespeare was “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” What were the driving influences behind the decision to tackle “Macbeth?”

Well, we had such a grand time working on “Midsummer” that I was anxious to tackle another Shakespeare.  And why not move from one of his greatest plays to the next?  These two plays are thematically and structurally diametrically opposite which seems right when moving from one to the next.  Also, “Macbeth” was the very first play I ever saw as a child and it is what made me decide to become a theater director.

“Radio Macbeth” is presented as an adaptation from Shakespeare. How do you define “adaptation” in this way? How much of Shakespeare’s original script is a direct part of this piece?

We are not doing the entire play, rather it is a cutting of the original.  A few of the bits are rearranged but ultimately I believe that we have stuck rather faithfully to Shakespeare’s play.  We try to keep out of the way of the rich language and situations.

Director Darron L. West describes “Macbeth” as “the ultimate ghost story.” What about ghosts entices you personally, and artistically?

I believe that all theater is ultimately about dead people; giving dead people voice.  The Japanese Noh theater, for example, was originally built over graveyards.  The actors stamped the ground to allow the spirits from below to inhabit their bodies.  This sounds morbid, I know, but it is actually quite delightful to allow for the voices and memories of the past to be filtered through one.

So, are there any superstitions in the company about saying “Macbeth” in the theater?

Oh gosh, we joke around about it.  Ultimately though, I do not think that we are overly superstitious.

What’s next for “Radio Macbeth?” Will the tour continue after the run here in Chicago?

Absolutely!  I hope to tour the play for many years.  But I will state here that I share the company’s enthusiasm for performing in Chicago in particular.

At Court Theatre, 5535 South Ellis, (773)753-4472, through December 7

Start with a perfect score (Richard Rodgers), perfect lyrics (Lorenz Hart), perfect source material (William Shakespeare) and a perfect book (George Abbott) and then eviscerate all of the above and you get an idea of what to expect from David Bell’s “new adaptation” of 1938’s “The Boys From Syracuse” that is currently playing at Drury Lane Oakbrook. This Rodgers & Hart show is one of a mere handful that really are perfect specimens of the American musical theater (Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me Kate” and Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” also based on Shakespeare, are also on just about everyone’s short list) so you would think that anyone who wanted to “revise” such a show would have to be major supporter of, say, “Coke II.” Fast forward completely past one of the best overtures in any show and what you get are doo-wop harmonies, pseudo-Satie piano music and over-the-top caricatures that make “Road to Morocco” movies look sophisticated. Much of the original score has been gutted, as has the entire Act I climax. Yes, you do get some of the show’s classic standards such as “Falling in Love With Love,” which is literally shrieked instead of sung, and a truncated “This Can’t Be Love.” Chorus scenes and the show’s swing era ethos have been replaced with pop-gospel-revival arrangements and “American Idol” conventions. It is hard to remember the last time that such a great work has been so thoroughly disrespected and misrepresented and we can only hope that some area presenter who could actually deliver the goods on this one will do so soon. Meanwhile, far better to check out the full recording of a concert version of the work with all of the trimmings made a decade ago by New York City Center’s “Encores!” series where at least “Boys” can be heard as it was meant to be heard. (Dennis Polkow)

At Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace, (630)530-0111. $28-$33. Through September 28.

RECOMMENDED

“The Merchant of Venice” is the most problematic work of the Shakespeare canon and remains the longest-running and most performed high-profile work of art that can still be routinely interpreted as anti-Semitic. In light of recent remarks by Rev. Jesse Jackson and the ensuing debate that followed about whether or not there is ever an “appropriate,” even inclusive context for a word with as hateful a history as the “n” word, the timeliness of the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble presenting the show in its home base of Rogers Park promoted throughout the neighborhood by posters that look as if they were leftovers from a Nazi propaganda rally will undoubtedly raise more eyebrows than could ever actually attend the show to seek out what BoHo has up its sleeve. This ultra-streamlined and fast-moving adaptation, cut to the bone by director Peter Robel, makes very clear its perspective from the outset by the constant presence of characters whispering, both in audible actuality backstage and silhouetted against screens and throughout a very cleverly constructed soundtrack, allowing the entire “us” vs. “them” theme of the play to emerge in sharp relief to demonstrate what a collective effort any ostracization of one group by another must always be. In this version, Jewish lender Shylock (Fred A. Wellisch) is initially polite and genteel, with his early remarks about refusing to eat or drink with his Christian clients more a matter of self-defense than elitism—after all, they routinely spit on him and call him dog, but now, they need him. As Shylock’s worst fears of being used by his enemies are realized beyond his wildest imagination, he retreats to the same kind of radical extremism that frequents our daily news and his day in court becomes his sole chance to air out a lifetime of being used and abused by the hateful majority that surrounds and smothers him. It is a powerful portrait of a man driven over the edge, which has always been in the text itself, but which has often been played as a caricature as one-dimensional as the ironic poster promoting this far more filled-out portrayal. (Dennis Polkow)

At Heartland Studio, 7016 N. Glenwood, (773)791-2393. 

GQ and JQ (aka the Q Brothers) are taking the Chicago Shakespeare Theater stage this summer with “Funk It Up About Nothin’,” their “ad-rap-tation” of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” Right off the heels of their international hit “The Bomb-itty of Errors,” “Funk It Up” is next in their ongoing attempt to translating the complete works of Shakes into the hip-hop idiom. I did not see their previous show, but if the current one is any indication, I am very grateful for that. I understand the impetus to marry the classical text with the hip-hop genre. The problem is the show does not feel authentically either. Instead of using the music to make what is great about Shakespeare accessible, namely the words and meter, it merely takes the plot and sets it to beats that come off more cute than anything else. There is also a healthy dose of cheap gay jokes and profanity that dilutes the family friendliness they seemed to be going for in the costumes, set and performance style. I love this idea on paper, but if you are a true proponent for Shakespeare or hip-hop you will want to stay away. (William Scott)

At the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand, (312)595-5600. Wed-Fri 7pm/Sat 7pm & 9:30pm/Sun 2:30pm. Through Aug 3.

RECOMMENDED

Some Shakespeare plays are more effective than others for a summer evening outdoors, but such was the wonderful sense of ensemble that the cast of First Folio Shakespeare Festival’s production of “Much Ado About Nothing” achieves in the Bard’s bawdy war of the sexes that when a gentle summer rain began to fall for a time in the midst of the comic chaos on opening night, neither the cast nor the audience seemed to much notice, nor care. Severe weather had, in fact, knocked out two out of three of the outdoor summer festival’s preview performances, which made the opening’s tight ensembling all the more remarkable. Director Michael F. Goldberg has transferred the action to the early nineteenth century and has assembled a cast of area Shakespeare veterans—several new to the West Suburban festival—along with young newcomers that together are able to achieve the right balance of spunk and satire. The lovers Beatrice (Melissa Carlson) and Benedick (Nick Sandys) manage to woo each other with just enough contempt and self-righteousness to make those sexual sparks fly and while Claudio (Will Allan) is a bit whiney, his Hero (Alison Lani) is such a handful, who can blame him? The ladies, gentlemen and the bumbling constables of the watch all convey their respective roles superbly, John Reeger’s Dogberry nearly stealing the show with his wry and witless rambling. (Dennis Polkow)

At Mayslake Peabody Estate, 31^st and Route 83, Oak Brook, (630)986-8067. $21-$26. Through Aug 17.

RECOMMENDED

Director Barbara Gaines and writer Ron West are determined to shake off these recession blues and battle audiences’ wartime weariness using a frivolous little comedy concerning two sets of identical twins separated at birth and accidentally reunited years later amidst mayhem and madness. Ironically, in order to accomplish this they’ve adopted a play-within-a-play format for Shakespeare’s contribution, and ingeniously framed it within Mr. West’s: scenes that take place in recession-plagued and war-torn London, 1940, amidst the mayhem and madness of the Blitz. Does it work? Like gangbusters. Indeed, Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s rarely produced “The Comedy of Errors” is an artistic triumph on almost every level and quite possibly, despite its frothy hi-jinks at heart, one of the most topical shows in town. The show transports audiences from the confines of Navy Pier to the cavernous interior of England’s Shepperton movie studios where a motley crew of artistic types and temperaments are committing Shakespeare to celluloid, all for the purpose of “entertaining the troops.” There’s the oozes-gravitas Shakespearean vet who must settle for a secondary role when an American pilot flying with the RAF is given the lead in an attempt to persuade America to join the war. The leading lady dallies with her strapping co-star when her director/husband isn’t looking. That co-star suffers from a hilarious bout of halitosis. Gaines’ deft comic hand has never been so confident, West effortlessly generates clever dialogue and compromising situations that add resonance and depth to “Comedy”’s scenes and a fine and funny ensemble—there isn’t a weak link in the nineteen-person cast—offers an outrageously enjoyable orgy of comic invention. In the end, the Shepperton Studio storylines all promise to work themselves out for the best, in the spirit of Shakespeare’s finale for “Comedy” and as a nod to that play’s most touching theme concerning families torn apart, reunited and all the more stronger for it. It’s a kind of pluck and spirit—especially useful in pugilistic times—that Shakespeare, Gaines and West clearly admire and celebrate here, and the reason for this production’s added resonance. (Fabrizio O. Almeida)

At the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand, (312)595-5600. This production is now closed. 

RECOMMENDED

Seeing a Pinter play on stage is, for me, a somewhat trepidatious enterprise: like Chekhov or Shakespeare, there is fragility in Pinter’s savage poetry that can easily become leaden, impenetrable in performance. How surprising then that Mary-Arrchie’s “Caretaker” feels rather light, goofy even, with little sense of the menace or danger that hangs thick in this play on the page. But director Hans Fleischmann’s “slapstick” approach is surprisingly effective for the most part, inducing an (unexpected) steady stream of laugh-out-loud moments throughout. Some excessive mugging does slow down the inherent clip of Pinter’s dialogue at times, and the dialects falter during some of the lengthier speeches, but Richard Cotovsky (Davies), Dan Kuhlman (Mick) and Todd Lahrman (Aston) navigate the idiosyncrasies of Pinter’s world (made fantastically claustrophobic by scenic designer John Wilson) with an almost grimy glee—delivering a genuinely fun and disarming production of a play that could otherwise take itself much too seriously. (Valerie Jean Johnson)

At Angel Island, 731 W. Sheridan, (773)871-0442. This production is now closed.

Strawdog Theatre’s new cutting of “Richard III” transplants the ruthless, crook-backed King into a stylish contemporary dynasty, made up of a sharply dressed upper crust with a hint of Mafia undertones in their dagger-concealing crisp suits. But while this production is heavy on fashion, its woefully lacking in passion. With the exception of a few energetic bursts, the performances on the whole feel lethargic, the actors almost disinterested in the juicy lamentations they are given to utter. One such exception is Janet Ulrich Brooks, who makes the most of this deliciously grisly material as Margaret—but when she bursts in with her crazed and vengeful rant, the intensity seems misplaced, as though she was transplanted from a different production of the play. While this cast has a firm grasp on the language, keeping the story clear and accessible throughout, and the brute force of Miles Polaski’s wonderfully menacing sound design commands fervency at every scene break, the fire just didn’t ignite. (Valerie Jean Johnson)

At Strawdog Theatre, 3829 N. Broadway, (773)525-6797. This production is now closed.