Conor McPherson is a storyteller. That was his first love and he’s a master of the form, in the Irish storytelling tradition. Many of his early plays were monologue plays […]
If you’ve been around the performing arts scene in Chicago enough, you might have heard tales of a bellydancing Wookiee. We certainly had, and found ourselves mesmerized by the fun […]
Madelines. Military service. Marriages and family. Swann’s Way to Time Regained. An older man decides he will read Marcel Proust’s iconic novel. As he reads all six volumes over the course of a […]
“How did you discover Brecht?” That was the first question asked of the four theater directors by the moderator at this engrossing session on “Brecht in Chicago/Brecht and Chicago.” It […]
The Neo-Futurists are staging their sad and fantastical romp based on the true story of Chicago’s 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire, in which 600 audience members were killed. This short run […]
This isn’t a “best theater of 2018” list. We didn’t see everything. Most of our writers are freelancers, all with other gigs, and it’s hard for us to cover the […]
Pink crosses spread across the front of the stage. Many of them are marked “Desconocida” (unknown). Unmarked graves of young women who wanted to better their lives by working in […]
Fiddler on the Roof premiered on Broadway in 1964, and it was a smash hit. It ran for more than 3,000 performances (a record at the time) and won […]
In case you think brooding suggests gloom and doom, think otherwise. Trap Door Theatre’s The Old Woman Broods is chaotic, cacophonous and more than a little cuckoo. The 1969 play by Polish […]
It is perhaps a sign of programming genius that the team at Chicago Shakespeare Theater slotted the whimsical comedy delight A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the middle of a long, cold, […]
Algorithm Nation, or the Static Quo, directed by Matt Hovde, is the Second City’s 107th Mainstage Revue. Let that number sink in for a while. 107 shows would be impressive no […]
Mary Zimmerman’s The Steadfast Tin Soldier is the theatrical equivalent of a gift under the tree on Christmas morning; it’s warm, heartfelt, and wrapped nicely in a bright holiday bow. The […]