Terry Hamilton and Isabel Liss in Happy Breed

Many theatres seek to walk the line between pandering to their audience by remounting tried and true theatrical classics and taking big risks with unknown works by visiting the rarely performed titles in a well-known author’s canon. These usually lead to mixed results as a rarely performed play, even if it’s by a name playwright, is usually rarely performed for a reason. Sometimes, though, a difficult script merely awaits the right combination of artistic collaborators to truly come to life.

In the case of Noel Coward’s This Happy Breed at Timeline Theatre, it’s easy to see why most theatres have shied away from this overly long script. Almost Chekhovian in its examination of a middle-class family living between the wars, Coward eschews his normal comedy of manners for drama that could almost be described as kitchen sink.

The Gibbons move into their first house in 1919, shortly after Frank’s return from the trenches of World War I. Over the subsequent 165 minutes, we see the Gibbons family age and mature, shaped to some extent by the forces at play outside their home. We touch on the abdication of King Edward VIII, the General Strike and the rise of Hitler in Europe as another war looms by the time the play closes in 1939.

Nick Bowling has assembled a strong cast that navigates the many comings and goings of Coward’s 20-year journey, though they can’t completely overcome the play’s structural issues. Coward dawdles over relatively minor points and then gives major crises short shrift when they arrive. Through it all, the family remains generally unchanged—Frank (Bill Bannon) still maintains a stiff upper lip, his wife Ethel (Isabel Liss) fusses, their youngest daughter, Queenie (Dana Black), makes her Big Mistake, and returns to her family in one of the evening’s more touching moments. Life does move on, and despite some truly traumatic events—the death of their son Reg (Joe Sherman)—one gets the sense that the Gibbones will persist despite all adversity, much as England itself.

Bowling keeps the pace moving and has filled the scene changes with footage of world events that help, somewhat, to keep the play rooted in context. The entire cast does solid-to-excellent work, and it’s a credit to them that they keep the audience engaged, despite the minimal plot and action. Still, the play runs two hours, 45 minutes—long by contemporary standards—but, fortunately Coward’s strongest writing comes late in the play, helping keep the audience involved. This is worthy work from TimeLine, and Bowling and company get the most from what Coward has to offer.

This Happy Breed—TimeLine Theatre

Chris Jones, Tribune—“Not only does director Nick Bowling manage to give this well-made play the necessary sense of the epic, but thanks mainly to two unflashy but intensely credible and heartfelt performances from Terry Hamilton and, especially, Isabel Liss, as good old Frank and Ethel Gibbons, he also has the entire theatre fighting back tears in the second act.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“The play is almost Chekhovian in its tragicomic tone and sense of time, and in its appreciation of the delicacy of human relationships and the potency of idle conversation. And the very talented director Nick Bowling has done a masterful job of filling it out with archival footage that, like the play, spans the years 1919 to 1939. The world beyond the doors of the modest Gibbons household has been made palpable. And Bowling’s 12 impeccably cast actors give us the sense that they have ventured out into it.”

Jack Helbig, Daily Herald—“Director Nick Bowling’s production is perfectly tuned to bring out the best in Coward’s words. Every member of his tight ensemble plays a character who grows over time. And every actor in this company communicates these subtle changes with finesse and ease. Terry Hamilton and Isabel Liss are especially strong as Mr. and Mrs. Gibbons, the couple at the center of the story. Designer Tom Burch deserves his own applause for creating a set that re-creates the look and feel of a lower middle-class London flat. The play’s two hour, 45-minute running time might seem daunting for those accustomed to movies that run less than 100 minutes, but it’s worth it.”

Nina Metz, New City—“TimeLine Theatre’s well-acted, though awkwardly staged, revival of This Happy Breed holds you at a distance. That may have something to do with Tom Burch’s in-the-round scenic design that approximates (intentionally or not) the feeling that you are spying on this family through a window in their home… This is director Nick Bowling’s one misstep; with a cast like this one, nothing should obscure the performances. Particularly that of Dana Black as Queenie, the social-climbing daughter whose flimsy hauteur is both relatable and just plain old sad. Kathleen Ruhl makes the most of her small part as the immovable crank of a grandmother. And the button-downed parental tag team of Terry Hamilton and Isabel Liss form the bedrock of this production.”

Lawrence Bommer, Free Press—“The audience surrounds the action, transforming the stage into an island like England. That intensity reflects the painstaking craft that’s poured into every aspect of Happy Breed. Every performance hits its own height, but it’s impossible to over praise Terry Hamilton and Isabel Liss as the much-tested, salt-of-the-earth Gibbons spouses, Dana Black as their heart-hungry eldest daughter, Angela Bullard as a dottily spiritual odd woman out, Andrew Carter as a sailor who defies the stereotype by remaining true to one girl forever, and Kathleen Ruhl as the sour-pickle mother who not only imagines the worst but demands it. The sheer rightness of everything on this stage amounts to a natural phenomenon.”

Arrangement for Two Violas—Visions & Voices Theatre Co.

Michael Phillips, Tribune—“[Playwright Susan] Lieberman has the right building blocks for a touching period drama that’s actually about something. She has not, however, arranged the pieces in surprising ways. The minute you hear of viola-playing Peter traveling to meet the viola-playing Henry, you know what’s about to happen. When Karl and Nan and Peter travel to Milwaukee and meet Henry backstage, you know how that’s going to go… What’s missing from the play, and to some extent from Ann Filmer’s otherwise solid production, is a plausible sense of social tensions, of public and private faces… Many will find the play moving. In these times, however, some of us need stronger, more authentically textured stuff.”

Lenora Inez Brown, Sun-Times—“It’s a good thing for Visions and Voices Theatre Company that Illinois is a blue state and Chicago a blue city, given the sometimes too-obvious liberal views central to its premiere of Susan Lieberman’s well-acted but unevenly written drama Arrangement for Two Violas… Throughout Chase and Meegan’s story, Lieberman’s language rises to the poetic. One such beautiful moment is when Meegan reads the love letter he cannot send because the mailman reads the town’s mail. Another is when the two search for each other at Symphony Hall. More of these would have made the evening sublime; instead we, like the men, get only glimpses of heaven.”

Jennifer Vanasco, Free Press—“Susan Lieberman’s new play is lovely and lyrical, capturing the feeling of alienation that must have attended a country doctor who happened to be gay. The many monologues are poignant and wrenching. And gays and lesbians will find interesting, if well-trod, arguments about whether it is better to be out and kicked out of your home community or closeted with career and neighborhood success. But there’s a little too much going on to fully concentrate on the relationship… And Sander and Rader don’t have chemistry or enough time in the beginning to explain the attraction—though each character is richly developed in his own right and for the most part their relationship has a believable arc.”

Christopher Piatt, Reader—“Lieberman create human analogues for red and blue America—the humble, unassuming social conservative Peter and the sophisticated, razor-tongued Henry—then steps back to let them have at each other. Much to the play’s benefit, director Ann Filmer has cast John Sanders as the country mouse and Stephen Rader as the silk-pajamaed city mouse. The tenderness with which they approach the men’s prickly romance is completely disarming. And both actors allow the relationship to develop so naturally that you find yourself rooting for them the way you might for close friends to work out their marital problems—or for the factions in our country to come to some understanding.”

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—“What precipitated this mature, intelligent, articulate play’s similarly irrational plunge into operatic bathos? Did playwright Susan Lieberman set out to write a shallow hankie-wringer and the Voices and Visions production company attempt to subvert it into something smarter? Or does the abrupt change in tone, from historical sociodrama to romantic tragedy, spring from creative ambivalence blurring the boundaries of its dramatic universe? Whatever the answer, when Peter is finally forced to choose between his personal convictions and his lover’s passionate pleas—after which it’s all over but the tears and the suds—we applaud his decision.”

An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf—
Appetite Theatre Company

Nina Metz, Tribune—“No amount of garnish can disguise a bad piece of meat. The same can be said for Michael Hollinger’s comedy An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf, now in a decent if pointless production by the new Appetite Theatre… Despite the best efforts of the cast and director Lauren Golanty, the whole thing plays like one of those ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketches that starts off badly and gets worse. Pass the Alka-Seltzer.”

Christopher Piatt, Sun-Times—“It’s all a fantasy, though, and in this debut production by the fledgling Appetite Theatre, the most successful moments are the ones in which director Lauren Golanty and her cast let themselves go to the absurdist heights of Hollinger’s sad, layered comedy… Instead, Golanty’s production erratically ranges from wild slapstick to admirably absurd humor to stilted, awkward phoniness. In what could be a splendid final moment of fanciful comic heartbreak, Victor dances with his dying paramour while Alvey plays ‘Lady of Spain’ on the tuba. The scene does little more than amuse, a creative shortage that summarizes most of the evening.”

Jenn Goddu, Reader—“A depressed multimillionaire, Victor, bent on starving to death in a restaurant catering only to him is at the center of Michael Hollinger’s play. But John Coriell’s disaffected portrayal works only when Victor quotes Hemingway, not when he tells his own life story. Aimlessly pacing the stage and stumbling over some lines, Coriell lacks the charisma that would explain the cafe staff’s loving loyalty. It falls to the supporting actors to give the show flavor, and director Lauren Golanty sometimes pushes the farce too hard. But the performers in this Appetite Theatre production fare well when they work in an honest or happily offhanded manner.”

Middle-Aged White Guys—Open Eye

Christopher Piatt, Sun-Times—“But because the last time a play changed the country’s history was an 1865 production of Our American Cousin, political theatre that takes itself too seriously can’t really be taken seriously by us. Given that criterion, perhaps the most successful of the shows to take a swipe at the Team Bush is Open Eye Productions’ Middle-Aged White Guys. So unconcerned is it with its effect on voters that it casually opened a full five days after the election. The beauty of Jane Martin’s 1995 play, produced so smartly here, is that it works whether the current administration is on its way out or staying put.”

Nick Green, Reader—“Jane Martin’s scathing critique of middle-American values offers a lesson in the art of taking responsibility and apologizing. Too bad Bush wasn’t at this Open Eye Productions show… God visits the brothers in the form of a white-trash trinity. David Beck (in Abe Lincoln drag) contributes a hilarious performance as the worst of the three brothers, and in Deanna Zibello’s imaginative set, rusty oil drums share space with the burned-out hull of a car—and when it rains, it actually pours.”

Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—“It is a decent and solid production, but what grabs you right from the start is the fantastic junkyard set designed by Deanna Zibello. As you wait for the show to begin, you find yourself looking for a rat to scurry out from under the hollowed-out car wreck or old fridge. Perhaps the filthiest looking set that I have ever seen, it makes you want to get a hepatitis shot when you walk past to get to your seat. The stained mattress covered in dirt and topped off with a muffler ices this less-than-appetizing mud pie. It is a true example of how much a set can do to put you in the right place and frame of mind before the action or dialogue ever starts.”

Rick Reed, Windy City—“Open Eye, however, gives this one-sided, masked op-ed piece a deft and polished staging. The ensemble gamely goes after their bigger-than-life roles with gusto, in spite of the fact that the characters never seemed connected in any significant way, nor do they even seem real. Melissa Young’s direction is thoughtful and she makes this 75-minute play a quick journey into the ugly side of America, skillfully winnowing down the play to its conclusion: these middle-aged white guys apologize for what they have made of this country. If only... It’s this last touch that makes Middle-aged White Guys a surreal fantasy.”

Windmilled—The Neo-Futurists

Michael Phillips, Tribune—“Inspired by ‘Don Quixote’ and its indelibly sardonic clashes of idealism versus realism, the new Neo-Futurists show Windmilled doesn’t really work. But I liked a lot of it anyway. Sometimes a production of internally competing interests has enough going on upstairs to compensate for a lack of finesse. Director Sharon Greene, who performs Windmilled with her co-writers Shawn Huelle and Jay Torrence, hangs the show on the Cervantes novel with its relentless cruelties and durable knight errant/put-upon servant duo. That relationship—‘so buddy movie,’ Greene says early on—is given contemporary parallels here.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“The Neo-Futurists, perhaps not unlike Cervantes, are hard-core ironists—sardonic in the way that disillusioned romantics often tend to be. They also are very clever in all things conceptual. What they lack—and what frequently leaves me frustrated and unsatisfied by the troupe’s work in general—is technique. Intentionally flat in their vocal delivery, and often thuddingly artless in their overall performance skills (whether by design or not), the sharp minds of the performers are continually undermined by their fear of artfulness. And their often inspired ideas can quickly grow unbearably tedious. And no doubt about it, they do have some very good ideas about how to reimagine the Don Quixote story.”

Brian Nemtusak, Reader—“Conceived and directed by Sharon Greene, this noble meditation on noble futility—written and performed by Greene, Shawn Huelle, and Jay Torrence—has its heart in the right place but never quite achieves the associative synergy it seeks… In this show the Neo-Futurists venture further into kinetic-art territory than usual, with frequently affecting results. But an uneasy mix of obliquity and formlessness hobbles the piece’s best ideas—and the pall of this blue city’s electoral ineffectuality hangs over the make-the-best-of-it rest.”

Web Behrens, Free Press —“Plugging in with their own mixed-media contributions are Greene’s co-performers, Jay Torrence and Shawn Huelle, who connect to the show thematically but not always stylistically. Torrence suggests a story abstractly, in a predominantly silent performance. Meanwhile, Huelle’s tale of playing Sancho to his lovelorn friend’s addled Quixote on a crazy road trip to Alaska more clearly parallels the source material than anything else on stage, for what that’s worth. The trio’s pieces interrupt as much as they compliment each other, and overall it would be more satisfying if Greene had developed a one-person show.”

Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—“Although this is a collaborative writing effort with excellent work wonderfully written and performed by Shawn Huelle and Jay Torrence, it is Sharon Greene who proves herself to be a writer-director-performer to watch out for with this magnificent show. Her articulate and personal insights, creative and challenging constructions, and fresh approach and examinations of a theme are remarkable. It will be a delight to see what she comes up with next in an experimental setting, and I hope to see her approach writing from a more conventional perspective. Seeing her work on Windmilled gives you the impression that you are watching an important and confident talent find her voice, and it is one well worth listening to.”

Quote of the Fortnight

“Like cigarettes, vanity productions should come with warnings: This product created by people with more money than artistic judgment.”—Cathy Seabaugh reviewing Klass Productions’ production of The Return of Herbert Bracewell in Windy City.