On the surface, Ulysses follows a day in the life of two Dubliners, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedalus, but truly covers the entire range of human experience: life, love, grief, drinking, faith, […]
Re-Joyce in The Plagiarists’ Ulysses
Remy Bumppo’s Life of Galileo Dramatizes Science vs. Faith Conflict
Remy Bumppo Theatre calls itself “think theatre.” And there couldn’t be a better tagline for this company, which takes on some of the most intellectually intriguing scripts in the theatrical library. Their […]
weAREproductions Damns Love, Lies in Fleetwood Macbeth at Public House Theatre
Writer/director and weAREproductions co-founder Ricky W. Glore has set the Scottish play in a 70s radio station. King (Duncan, played by lanky Aaron Sarka) is the reigning disc jockey with a penchant […]
Sparse, Specific Kill Floor at ATC a Thrilling Character Study
American Theater Company‘s Midwest premiere of playwright Abe Koogler’s contemporary drama Kill Floor is a searing character study in desperation and the search for meaningful connection. Set in a small town in the early […]
The Hypocrites’ Adding Machine Anything But Mediocre
Amidst a cloud of haze and the repeated plunking of a piano key, a nondescript man hunches over his desk, writing feverishly. By the time everyone has found their seats, the monotonous note has […]
Court’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night: Dysfunctional Family Masterpiece
Photos by Michael Brosilow. A friend says that all great stories are about dysfunctional families. Certainly much of the best modern theater is about dysfunctional families. You have Sam Shepard (True West, […]
Matilda, a Musical Bookworms Can Rejoice To
I had to borrow a kid to go see Matilda. I also had to put aside my usual prejudice towards musicals. But no one was forcing Matilda on me. It was […]
Gift Theatre’s Richard III A Robo-Usurper
Michael Patrick Thornton in The Gift Theatre’s Richard III. Photo by Claire Demos. The real Richard III perhaps wasn’t such a bad chap, not the “bottled spider” Shakespeare would have audiences believe. […]
Writers Theatre Opens New Venue with Sparkling Arcadia
1809–Thomasina and Septimus. Present–Valentine, Bernard, Chloe and Hannah. Photos by Michael Brosilow. Writers Theatre opened its spectacular new theater in Glencoe this week with an appropriately spectacular production of a play by […]
Cole Theatre’s The Bachelors Would Be Better Off Remaining Single
We are at an ideal time to be making a social commentary on the male perspective. That’s right – the male perspective, the very perspective that has idealized femininity since kingdom come, […]
Strong work in AFT’s after all the terrible things I do
About Face Theatre’s Chicago premiere of playwright A. Rey Pamatmat’s after all the terrible things I do delivers on the company’s promise to produce plays that “advance the national dialogue on sexual and […]
Lookingglass Production Diminishes the Power of Lorca’s Blood Wedding
Lookingglass Theatre’s new production of Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca, directed by Daniel Ostling, is set in the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Lorca’s simple and poetic language tells […]
