Review: Maggie Andersen Writes a Highly Readable Memoir in No Stars in Jefferson Park
When I open a book to review it, I view it as an assignment. Read it as thoroughly as practical, and perhaps skim over some sections. But by the time […]
Nancy S. Bishop is publisher and Stages editor of Third Coast Review. She’s a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com, and follow her on Bluesky at @nancyb.bsky.social. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.
Review: Family Secrets and Lies Are the Raw Material for Four Places by 4 Chairs Theatre
Four Places is a tense family drama, played out over a lunch conversation between two adult children with their mother. The play by Joel Drake Johnson is now being staged […]
Review: Babes With Blades Hits The Mark With a Futuristic Story of How to Get Along in Dystopia
The lights come up and a fight begins. A Recruit chooses to fight an officer as a test of her fitness to join the Army. Members of the Army look […]
Review: Wrightwood 659 Displays Three Diverse Exhibits That Play With Space and How We Exist in Space
Three new exhibits at Wrightwood 659 explore a variety of approaches to space and spatial impressions. Scott Burton: Shape Shifts may at first appear to be an exhibit of furniture […]
Review: Goodman Theatre’s Revolution(s) Gets Activist Fuel and Spirit From Its Playwright and Its Musical Creator
Something unusual happened Monday night as we entered Goodman’s Owen Theatre. We were offered ear plugs. And I thought to myself, yes, this is going to be good—and loud. The […]
Review: Meet the Ageless, Timeless, Deathless Witches of Bushwick in Lazy Susan Theatre’s Wyrd
Three ageless witchy sisters live together in a basement apartment in Bushwick, a Brooklyn neighborhood something like Edgewater or Andersonville. Wyrd is a 2018 play written by Matt Minnicino that […]
Review: Trap Door Takes Us Back to the Sixties with Amiri Baraka’s Electric Dutchman
Amiri Baraka was still LeRoi Jones when he wrote Dutchman in 1964. The play, now being staged by Trap Door Theatre, is an early dialogue on race, class and power. […]
Preview: Take Home a Piece of Theater History at the Goodman Sale on October 11
Goodman Theatre is offering us all an inside view of its century of theater history with a costume shop sale taking place on Saturday, October 11, at the theater. Individual […]
Review: How Did the Plays of Shakespeare Survive for Four Centuries? The Book of Will by Promethean Theatre Tells the Story
Lauren Gunderson’s 2017 play, The Book of Will, is a Shakespearean tale that takes place after the Bard dies. It would have been a tragedy if the King’s Men had […]
Review: In Ashland Avenue at Goodman Theatre, We Relive the 1980s at Pete’s TV and Video Store
Goodman Theatre’s new play, Ashland Avenue, is a love letter to 1980s Chicago. The character who epitomizes that era is Pete, proprietor of Pete’s TV and Video, who founded and […]
Review: Two Sisters Search for Joy Through Improv and a Little Magic in Rabbits in Their Pockets at Lifeline Theatre
Two sisters. Ash, the elder, has a professional job with a good income. Harley, the younger sister, inherits the family home when their father dies. “Probably because he thought I’d […]
Review: The First Lady of Television at Northlight Theatre Is Sitcom History and the Story of the Mid-Century Red Scare
If you have tickets for Northlight Theatre’s The First Lady of Television, you may think you are going to see a comedy about the beloved Molly Goldberg and her 1950s […]