Stages, Theater

Review: In Steppenwolf’s No Man’s Land, Four Characters Act Out Pinter’s Menacing Puzzle

Steppenwolf Theatre’s production of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land is meticulously staged and performed by an excellent cast. Director Les Waters’ four actors do a masterful job with Pinter’s puzzling 1974 script.   […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater

Review: Another Marriage at Steppenwolf Theatre Portrays a Marriage That Could Be Yours or Mine

You may recognize aspects of your own marriage or that of a friend or relative in Another Marriage, Steppenwolf Theatre’s world premiere play. The script by actor Kate Arrington succeeds on many […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Lit, Nonfiction, Stages, Theater

Review: Sam Shepard, an Unreliable Narrator of His Own Life, Gets a New Biography by Robert Greenfield

It’s appropriate that True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work and Times by Robert Greenfield ends with the 2019 Broadway staging of True West, Shepard’s iconic play about the American West, manhood and brotherhood. […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater

Review: Steppenwolf’s Last Night and the Night Before Tells a Family Story Laced by Drug Use, Violence…and Love

Last Night and the Night Before at Steppenwolf Theatre is a tale of complex family relationships crippled by drug use and violence—but with love as the overriding theme. Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater

Review: Bald Sisters at Steppenwolf Is a Story of Cambodian Immigrants Searching for Identity

I suspect that for Cambodians and Cambodian Americans, the racist and genocidal history of the Khmer Rouge is a stain on their history just as slavery, racism and the Civil […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater

Review: At Steppenwolf Theatre, Miz Martha Washington’s Crazy Dreamscape Offers Comic History Lessons and Discomfort

Leaving the theater after seeing this wise and hysterically funny play, my first thought was, I would like to see this produced in Florida, where the governor and legislature have […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater

Review: Choir Boy at Steppenwolf Is a Splendid Spectacle With a Flawed Script

It’s not easy growing up as a gay Black boy. Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play Choir Boy is the story of Pharus, a high school senior at the Charles R. Drew Prep School […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater

Review: New Steppenwolf Ensemble Theater Sparkles With Seagull, in Which Everyone Is Miserable

Seagull by Anton Chekhov adapted by Yasen Peyankov

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater

Review: At Steppenwolf Theatre, King James Is All About Friendship, Heartbreak and Basketball

It seems like it’s all about basketball but it really isn’t—until it finally is. King James, the wickedly funny world premiere play by Rajiv Joseph, is on stage at Steppenwolf […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater, Virtual

Review: Steppenwolf Opens 2021-22 Season With Tracy Letts’ Trio of Virtual Plays Set in an Off-Kilter World

Steppenwolf Theatre adds to its Steppenwolf Now series with three short plays by Tracy Letts, available virtually through October 24. These three pieces, totaling about 40 minutes, create the opening […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Art & Museums, Feature, Stages, Theater

Dialogs: Architecture Collides With Theater in Steppenwolf Podcast, “Collision,” Featuring AS+GG’s Gordon Gill

Theater and architecture share a creative bond in this edition of Steppenwolf Theatre’s Half Hour podcast series. The podcast features Gordon Gill, the architect for Steppenwolf’s new Arts and Education […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater, Virtual

Review: Steppenwolf’s Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! Skirts Issues in Favor of Entertainment

Many Americans seem to have a British-Royals obsession that has never made sense to me. Steppenwolf Theatre’s newest online production in its Steppenwolf NOW streaming series plays on that royals […]

Nancy S Bishop /