“You think six feet of dirt means something?” quips the ghost of Leon Goldwater’s trumpet-toting father in eta’s new production of “Fathers and Sons.” The essence of the story is encapsulated in this sentence. Although the show is not a remake of the original Russian classic, it does explore much of the same emotional terrain. Read the rest of this entry »

As denizens of the neighborhood nurse their thirsty vehicles at the BP station on East Hyde Park Boulevard, just east of the Metra tracks, they can already hear it. Perhaps they are distracted by the hiss of the frothing pump or are inside buying a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos; but if you pause and look around, they all appear to be swaying to a subdued bass line and a chilling croon with no ostensible earthly source. Around the corner, the street is showered from above with dense light. Clouds and skulls dance before the sidewalk on a monolithic screen, accompanied by a tune that has already become to local residents disarmingly familiar.

This nightly apparition that haunts the corner of East Hyde Park and Cornell every night from 4 to 10pm is only a peripheral component of “Notes to Nonself,” an installation that has been hosted at the Hyde Park Art Center for the past 21 days and will remain until May 2. Read the rest of this entry »

All the surfaces in the lobby of Pilsen’s EP Theater are covered in vinyl, chipped polish, and at least seven layers of irony. The decorators of this room seem to have taken their cues from effete Victorian imagery and coupled it with the limp-wristed flamboyance of ’70s chic. So it came as no surprise that, before the Lights Out Theatre Company’s performance last Friday of Justin Tracz’s “Song For A Future Generation,” a woman emerged from behind the cardboard backdrop and welcomed the twenty or so audience members with the introduction: “This play is about a dance party in space, so let’s make some noise, alright?” Read the rest of this entry »

To describe Dream Theatre Company’s theatrical double-feature “Aelita” and “Shiny Boxes” as two plays is perhaps slightly inaccurate. The two shows, which opened February 4 at Pilsen’s Dream Theatre Company, desperately seek a postmodern audience as they align more with stage dramatizations of abstract, disturbing poetry.

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Like the Iliad or the tale of King Arthur, “The Tale of the Heike” is a vaguely mythologized historical legend that has made a momentous impact on culture and civilization. It is the story of struggle between two clans, the Tairo and Minamoto, for control over Japan. The story is full of battles, temple burning, execution, and romance. It was passed down over the centuries through the oral recitations of blind Buddhist monks, who accompanied their recitals with the music of the biwa, a five-stringed instrument similar to the lute. While some aspects of the performance have changed over the eight centuries that have elapsed since its origin, many of the essential elements—the chant-like vocals and the ancient instrument—linger. The lack of visual performance onstage seems to reflect the original narrators’ blindness: the power of the story is aural. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not often one sees college students, professors, elected officials, a medical oncologist, and a detective fiction writer all in the same room, let alone onstage together—but that’s what the audience at the annual Revels play was treated to last Friday and Saturday evenings at the University of Chicago’s Quadrangle Club. “Revels 2010: A Touch of Nature” is part of a dramatic tradition that dates back to 1904, when UofC faculty and staff enacted a loose interpretation of a George Bernard Shaw play entitled “Mrs. Warren’s Professor.” Read the rest of this entry »

“Can’t you just let things go?” the character Joan Didion exclaims in “The Year of Magical Thinking” at Court Theatre. Didion, played by Mary Beth Fisher, recalls the countless times her husband, John Gregory Dunne, said just that to her after a fight. “Can’t you just let things go? Do you always have to have the last word?” The play, which Didion adapted from her 2005 memoir, is just that: the last word. With a beautifully crafted script, Didion narrates the trauma of being a survivor while loved ones die, and what it means to finally let go. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s Christmas story usually involves a lovable family with a disproportionate amount of weird. This family then finds itself in a series of unfortunate situations overlaid with a terrible soundtrack until the last minute, when all family conflict is abruptly packaged into a large box. Gift wrap, please.

The Pilsen-based surrealist troupe Dream Theatre does it differently with their annual production of the holiday play “Cold,” taking an approach to Christmas that evokes strangulation with holiday ribbons more than the gaping cheer of gingerbread or Santa-pattern tissue. There are no zany aunts and uncles present, but only two characters in the play: a misanthropic hermit and a sex-addicted compulsive liar. Read the rest of this entry »