Is there any other role as epic as the title character in Ibsen’s poetic fantasy? The fortunate (or unfortunate) actor who tackles Peer Gynt must portray some 60 years of adventure and more makeovers than the aging movie star of your choice.

What’s more, one has to wonder whether Ibsen ever intended Peer Gynt to be staged. Calling for, among other things, an enormous pig upon which two characters ride off stage, a sinking ship, and at a minimum, 41 different characters, this vast undertaking has been assayed by The Artistic Home, a small Equity company with a 25 seat audience.

Fortunately, Kathy Scambiatterra’s production is blessed with a strong central portrayal from John Mossman. Swinging from the ceiling, leaping from platform to platform, he creates a picture of a man with a spirit too big for his tiny hometown. When happiness finally seems possible, he flees to roam the globe and try his hand at all sorts of occupations from capitalist to prophet before trying to return home.

Mossman’s performance carries the day, but the rest of the production doesn’t match his energy or effort. The young cast doesn’t handle Ibsen’s verse or style nearly as well. Scambiatterra keeps the pace moving and pulls some strong visuals out of the tiny space—particularly the ocean in which Peer nearly drowns. However, some of the cuts (necessary for this script that could run four or more hours without edits) leave the story unclear and lighting problems persisted throughout the production.

In the end, Peer Gynt is out of balance, with Mossman’s performance overshadowing the rest of the efforts. However, given the demands of the part and the play, this doesn’t prevent the production from working. Though certainly a flawed attempt at a flawed script, Peer Gynt doesn’t come along every day and Mossman’s work makes the evening worthwhile.

Peer Gynt—The Artistic Home

Michael Phillips, Tribune—“Mossman swings from little trapezes and dangles from a ceiling-hung rope, playing Ibsen’s raucous archetype like a restless maniac. In his comic-antic mode, which is the preferred mode in Scambiatterra’s staging, the blond-dyed Mossman resembles a strapping Norwegian variation on Mel Brooks… Mossman’s energy is much appreciated. However, once Peer becomes a middle-age ravaging capitalist Mossman doesn’t sufficiently modulate his performance. Scenes such as the madhouse vignette and Peer’s encounters with The Button Moulder, a gloriously mundane figure of doom, lack the necessary weight. So the production ends up being wider than it is deep. It’s still deft. Scambiatterra has delivered an energetically compact storefront edition of Ibsen’s insane masterpiece.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“With its epic scale and its even more epic acting demands, it might easily be assumed that Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt would be the kind of play that would turn up at the Goodman Theatre, or Court or even Lookingglass. But once again it is Chicago’s fearless storefront pioneers who have stepped up to the big challenge, proving that small can indeed be mighty and that ingenious imaginations can easily outstrip big budgets. The production of Peer Gynt that opened Sunday night at the Artistic Home—a decidedly cramped performance space near the corner of Irving Park and Southport—is a marvelous piece of work. It features a stellar, oxygen-depleting star turn by John Mossman in the title role—a performance that makes you wonder why this actor is not on Broadway.”

Lawrence Bommer, Free Press—“Treating it like an exuberant but ethical cartoon, director Kathy Scambiatterra indulges in broad storytelling that sacrifices poetry for energy and betrays more American bumptiousness than Norwegian angst. Still the action unfolds with a kind of inevitable familiarity that redeems the raucousness, John Mossman’s athletic and charismatic Peer completely captures the dangerous charm of the boy-man’s insufferable assurance.”

Tim Sauers, Gay Chicago—“In its cozy home on Irving Park, Artistic Home mounts an ambitiously adventurous staging of Henrik Ibsen’s Norwegian folk tale. Director Kathy Scambiatterra fully realizes this epic journey thanks to her big imagination that pleases both the intellect and the senses. Her collaborators include a hard-working, devil-may-care ensemble, led by the acrobatic John Mossman in the title role, and an inventive design team that gives this rousing production great visual appeal despite a small operating budget.”

Big Time—Eclipse Theatre Company

Michael Phillips, Tribune—“Director Steve Scott’s staging is nice and tight, with a particularly fine performance from Janelle Snow as Fran, the live-in graphics designer lover of Paul, who lives for the art of the deal and the smell of investment banking napalm in the morning… Brian McCastkill’s Paul is all brass and smug-s.o.b. confidence, just asking for a comeuppance. There’s solid supporting work from Kerry Cox’s banking colleague (her monologue about all the death in her family is the best thing in the script) and from Rom Barkhordar, coolly effective as Paul’s man in the Middle East.”

Albert Williams, Reader—“Keith Reddin’s Reagan-era one-act about an investment banker taken hostage by Islamic radicals is more potent now than ever. Its protagonist, Paul, embodies oil-dependent America’s determination to fight Muslim militancy without addressing the poverty and injustice fueling that antagonism. Eventually Paul’s self-absorbed misreadings of every situation cause his business deal and his romantic relationship to fall apart. The play crackles with sharp satire and chilling drama in Steve Scott’s beautifully acted, emotionally nuanced staging for the Eclipse Theatre Company; this production actually surpasses the work’s impressive 1987 Remains Theatre world premiere, which starred William Petersen. Brian McCaskill registers each shattering step of Paul’s life-transforming journey. Janelle Snow is haunting as Paul’s lover, a woman gripped by destructive dissatisfaction with her life. And Kareem Bandealy arouses both fear and sympathy as Paul’s kidnapper, a revolutionary who reveals the false assumptions behind Paul’s delusions of U.S. superiority.”

Rick Reed, Windy City—“It’s a solid production, with a strong ensemble, particularly Janelle Snow, who does more acting with her eyes and her tense, small movements than anyone else speaking dialogue. Yet, I can’t wholeheartedly endorse Big Time. In spite of solid production values, deft direction, and gritty performances, the play itself doesn’t have backbone. It’s as if Reddin had an idea (late ’80s greed and its effects) and then built characters and an elliptical, unsatisfying story around it. In getting across his cautionary theme (the loss of one’s soul, really), he forgot to give us characters with whom we could connect.”

Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—“The cast is very strong despite the fact that they are depicting very little. Brian McCaskill is excellent as Paul, the yuppie banker. Janelle Snow is also excellent as Fran, as is Thomas Jones, who plays Peter. They all flounder in their narcissism very well. The rest of the cast is equally good in its respective undemanding and obvious roles. Outstanding in delivery is Kerry Cox, who has the best monologue in the script. She recites a diatribe of bizarre family tragedies that had her travel from one unfortunately doomed relative to another… It is such an absurd infusion of energy and contrast to the rest of the story that it gives you hope that there will be more of this humor or surrealism but proves to be nothing more than a teaser.”

Sons of Liberty—Breadline Theatre Group

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“And for that reason alone, Sons of Liberty—the play by Paul Kampf and Michael Oswalt now in its world premiere production by Breadline Theatre Group—is impressive. Its authors have dared to look at the gray area. And while they are quite clearly aligned with one camp, they also are smart and insightful enough to be able to deal with the passions of their enemies and the fence-sitters. They even give voice to those who align themselves with the right side for all the wrong reasons. Talk about complexity.”

Christopher Piatt, Reader—“Expect a slew of Revolutionary War entertainments to crop up in the next few years. Comparisons of the Iraq quagmire to Vietnam, the cold war, World War II, and even that nasty north/south scrape in the 1860s will no longer cut it. With personal liberties under siege, Americans are now fighting for their freedom at home as well as abroad. Or so claim Paul Kampf and Michael Oswalt in their split-personality play, which has one foot in 1775 Massachusetts and the other in a present-day Boston bar during imagined riots after a bogus election. (Costume designer Emily Brungardt ably evokes both periods.) This well-meaning but overlong effort (three hours!) can be didactic and occasionally phony, but under Oswalt’s direction a cast of 16 gives it an urgency that almost legitimizes it. Make short plays, not war.”

Terra Nova—Backstage Theatre Co.

Lenora Inez Brown, Sun-Times—“Sometimes things just work, and Brandon Bruce’s directorial debut as BackStage Theatre Company’s artistic director is one of those things. His production of Ted Tally’s 1977 drama Terra Nova—which tells the story of an expedition in which, ironically, nothing worked—boasts a strong ensemble and a resourceful design team (who extol rather than bemoan their meager budget), stimulating the mind and the imagination.”

Christopher Piatt, Reader—“Ted Tally imagines what life was like for explorer Robert Falcon Scott and four other Englishmen who died while returning from the south pole in 1912. In this BackStage Theatre Company production of Tally’s 1977 play, Scott experiences a lot of hallucinations of his wife in a bad wig and his Norwegian rival Roald Amundsen, speaking in an absurd Yakov Smirnoff accent. Other than these missteps, director Brandon Bruce has staged a solid, gripping drama about men battling nature and what it means to be a member of a team. As usual, Bruce excels at orchestrating ensemble work, but here Seth Zurer and Marcus Kamie stand out as frostbite victims whose deaths are preceded by stir-crazy breakdowns. Their loopy madness in the face of a frozen grave is the real deal.”

Nina Metz, New City—“Director Brandon Bruce has assembled a terrific cast for this Backstage Theatre production, particularly Michael Pacas as lead explorer Robert Falcon Scott (who can say an awful lot with those startled stares) and Ronald Kuzava as Bowers, the chipper runt of the team. Good performances aside, the production is undermined by its shabby scenic design—a small budget is no excuse for a crappy set. Even so, the story is a gripping one, particularly if you’re an Into Thin Air type. These men suffered in no uncertain terms and it is all the more amazing that Earnest Shackleton would attempt the same trip two years later—and so famously make it back alive.”

Rick Reed, Windy City—“BackStage Theatre Company’s production has much to recommend it. Director Brandon Bruce has elicited several fine performances that showcase both the suffering and the triumph of the expedition, and has a firm hand on the downward spiral that brought death to Scott and to all of the men in his party, just 10 miles away from safety. Nancy O’Freeman makes good use of the narrow, small space of the Stage Left Theatre, setting us down in a suggested but evocative frozen landscape. Freeman’s costume design also contributes to the feeling of inhuman cold and historic authenticity. Michael Pacas, as Scott, does a heroic job with a heroic part, making Scott a man we root for and admire. The men who portray Scott’s team all turn in amazing work, most notably from Ronald Kuzava, who plays a sprightly, optimistic Brit.”

Quote of the Fortnight:

“Oscar Wilde said it and everyone repeated it: ‘Oh, would that I could live up to my blue china!’”—Michael Phillips reviewing The Importance of Being Earnest in the Tribune