Poleitico: Pole Dancing and Politics at the Den
Polaris, a new contemporary pole dance company, debuted at Chicago’s Den Theatre in Wicker Park on Wednesday night with their show Poleitico. Billed as “a contemporary pole show focusing on […]
On the Road: New York Theater, Off-Broadway Is My Way
Third Coast Review went to New York last week—mainly for a theater critics conference. The schedule provided plenty of time for great theater, and I took advantage of that by […]
Newsies at Marriott Theatre is Relevant, Energetic and Earnest
It’s new show season at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, and we were there for the opening night of their latest play, Newsies. Set at a time when fat cats […]
Dream Freaks Fall From Space Is a Comedy Masterclass at Second City
By Matthew Nerber There is clear motive, it occurred to me, behind the Second City’s 106th Mainstage Revue Dream Freaks Fall From Space. The piece was directed by Ryan Bernier, […]
ATC Plumbs Entrenched Racism in Welcome to Jesus
Will Davis directs Janine Nabers’ world premiere Welcome to Jesus at American Theater Company. It’s an oddball dissection of Texas Christianity and their other state religion, football, all driving toward the […]
Artistic Home’s Powerful Wedding Band Portrays a Biracial Couple in 1918 South Carolina
Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White is a powerful drama of black-white relations in 1918 South Carolina, soulfully directed by Cecile Keenan at the Artistic Home. The […]
In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play: Where Clueless Men Misunderstand Female Sexuality
It’s a woman’s play, about an era when women’s physical and emotional needs and desires were not only misunderstood, but completely ignored. Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room, or the […]
Specter of Housing Insecurity Exorcised in Theater Oobleck’s A Memory Palace of Fear
Rust Belt Chicago’s editor/writer Martha Bayne and artist Andrea Jablonski co-curate Theater Oobleck’s unique haunted house, tapping into fears about housing insecurity. A rainy, raw fall day was an apt […]
The Underdog’s Underdogs Campaign in Jackalope’s 1980 (Or Why I Voted For John Anderson)
By Matthew Nerber, a performer and theater artist in Chicago, and a former literary contributor with the Generation, the University at Buffalo’s longest running alternative newspaper. When not seeing or […]
Brecht Deserves a Better Revolution in The Last Days of the Commune at Prop Thtr
Bertolt Brecht is an interesting, if often didactic, playwright. And so it is with The Last Days of the Commune, a play that was incomplete when he died in 1956. […]
Lookingglass’ Hard Times a Dickensian Circus
Published in 1854, Charles Dickens’ Hard Times – For These Times satirizes English society in its depiction of economic and social hardship in a fictitious industrial town in Victorian England […]
Preview: Theater Wit Hosts Gala at Your Place, Black Tie and Pants Optional
It’s gala season. Galas are pleasant enough, with entertainment, drinks and food. You get to dress up, look your best and have a night out on the town. All that […]