Review: Teatro Vista’s The Wolf at the End of the Block Is a Thriller Set in Chicago’s Mean Streets
It’s the end of the evening, the end of The Wolf at the End of the Block. The lead character, Abe (Gabriel Ruiz) is in a bar, thinking about what […]
The Nether at A Red Orchid Predicts a Darker Side of the Web and Virtual Life
Jennifer Haley’s very contemporary play, The Nether, is set in a world we may find all too familiar. Neither real nor unreal. Mostly virtual, in fact, rather like our social media […]
High Energy Rock Chops in Remount of High Fidelity: The Musical
Oh, if only one could jump into the Wayback Machine into the simpler times of Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel and Stephen Frears’ 2000 movie to escape 2017’s dystopia. You can, just […]
Finding Love with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater
In celebration of February’s Black History Month and Valentine’s Day, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater presents an exploration of love during its debut at the North Shore Center for the Performing […]
A Family 20 Years Later in Raven’s Assembled Parties
“Times change,” Julie’s neurotic-if-charming sister-in-law, Faye, tells her near the end of The Assembled Parties, now in its Midwest premiere at Raven Theatre. “Yes,” is Julie’s reply. “Times change and […]
Steep Theatre’s Earthquakes in London: A Sly, Carnival-Like Treatment of the Planet’s Demise
Three sisters. Estranged from their climate scientist father. Their lives each upended by climate change. And dozens of other characters. Steep Theatre’s U.S. premiere of Earthquakes in London spans eras […]
Hypocrites’ Season-Ender A Meditation on Life and Death
It is perhaps fitting that the now final show of The Hypocrites’ season–cut short due to financial troubles–is Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer-prize-winning play, Wit. In Edson’s heartbreaking play, Dr. Vivian Bearing, […]
Gloria: Ambition and Desperation in a Toxic Office Environment
Have you ever worked in an office—creative or otherwise—where a bunch of young associates groused over their bosses, gossiped about their colleagues, and desperately sought promotion to the next step […]
Blues for an Alabama Sky Takes Us to 1930 Harlem, Where Dreams Are Made and Broken
The Harlem Renaissance was an era of great creativity in the arts that progressed through the 1920s, but the Great Depression hit many artists hard. Jobs were scarce and salaries […]
A Disappearing Number at Timeline Theatre Is a Joyous Intellectual Brain-Teaser
A Disappearing Number is a multi-layered, complex story of love and math over the course of a century. Timeline Theatre’s new production of the script by Complicité is mesmerizing, sometimes […]
Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice: A Quirky Twist on Greek Mythology at Promethean Theatre
Sarah Ruhl’s sweet, quirky Eurydice retells the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, but focuses on the bride rather than on the bereft groom. It’s a story of memory and regret, […]
The Hunter and the Bear at Writers Theatre A Scarily Inventive Ghost Story
In 2013, during Writers Theatre’s final season in the Women’s Library Club building, PigPen Theatre Co. made their Chicago debut with their much-lauded production of The Old Man and the […]