Karyn Morris and Erin Neal in Griffin’s Time and the Conways. (Photo: Michael Brosilow)

Griffin’s production of Time and the Conways offers just such a situation. A rarely produced (and are there any more dangerous and sometimes telling words in theatre than “rarely produced?”) play by J.B. Priestly, this study of a family begins in 1919 as the Conways celebrate the end of the war, the return of one son from the front and the 21st birthday of one daughter. In the first act, the upper middle-class family holds a party that mostly occurs off stage, complete with charades, awkward guests and a little romantic tension. In the second act we flash forward to 1938 as the family gathers to deal with a looming fiscal crisis. All the children, now in their late 30s and early 40s, have gone their separate ways and bitterness has replaced the affection from the first scene. In the final act we return to the party and see the seeds of conflicts to come.

While it doesn’t have the most conventional structure, Priestly offers generally conventional writing. Each of the children can pretty much be summed up in archetype. There’s an awful lot of conveniently-arriving-in-the-doorway-to-hear-what-someone-really-thinks-of-me. And nothing much happens. We see a state of being in Act I, a different state in Act II and the reasons for the second state in Act III. No one really changes or evolves. The only event of interest comes in Act III, when it becomes clear that Kay (the daughter of the birthday) has actually seen the future in some way and knows of the conflicts to come. She does nothing with that knowledge, though, except become upset, so it’s an interesting but undeveloped idea, and nothing more.

Obviously, these complaints all fall on the script and I’ve made no mention of Griffin’s production. Well, the production is fine to good, even if it can’t overcome Priestly’s inherently static writing. Jennifer Grace, as Kay Conway, and Adam S. Moore, as her brother Alan, particularly bring some nice notes to their performances. Jessica Kuehnau’s period set offers director Jonathan Berry a great variety of traffic patterns with which to work and co-lighting designers Rebecca A. Barrett and Lee Keenan effectively evoke the change in period between the first two acts.

Nevertheless, if the script is only a three on a scale of 10, then the best the production can hope for is perhaps a five. Griffin can’t transcend its material and, in the end, this is a good effort on unworthy material.

Time and the Conways – Griffin Theatre Company

Nina Metz, Tribune—“The appeal of J.B. Priestley’s 1937 British family drama, Time and the Conways—and it is a minor appeal, to be sure—is its snapshot of domestic middle-class life just after World War I in 1919, and again on the eve of World War II in 1938. The contrast is stark, from the fizzy promise of the Jazz Age to the grim prospect of yet another long and arduous war, and Jonathan Berry’s staging for the Griffin Theatre Company adeptly captures these changing sensibilities. If only the play itself had more emotional heft.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“With its sharp-edged, rapturous, gorgeously realized production of Time and the Conways—a 1937 family drama by British playwright J.B. Priestley—Griffin Theatre Company has unearthed a largely forgotten gem… Director Jonathan Berry has done a superb job with his glorious ensemble players, who communicate the fragility of life and an almost mystical sense of our place in the continuum.”

Kelly Kleiman, Reader—“J.B. Priestley’s once-heralded, now rarely seen, 1938 drama focuses on a British family’s decline over the years between the two world wars. The Griffin Theatre Company’s revival is directed with a light touch by Jonathan Berry. What could have been a simple family melodrama becomes a meditation on the curdling of youthful optimism and promise into sour middle age. Despite the upper-class English milieu, there are echoes of Eugene O’Neill, especially the thought that there’s no present or future, just the past repeating continually. Priestley makes wonderful use of Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience,’ and the actors entrusted with these complex poetic texts deliver them with exceptional skill and conviction.”

God of Hell – Next Theatre

Chris Jones, Tribune—“They’ll love it in London this fall, because God of Hell plays directly into European constructions of American insecurity, obsessive jingoism and inclination to bully. For those of us who prefer a more complex or nuanced geo-political view? God of Hell doesn’t evidence a lot of staying power. But its problems at Next might also stem from an uneven production with too many competing styles and not enough tension. As a result, events are darkly interesting (especially for Shepard fans) but hardly compelling.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“So here’s the dilemma: On one hand you will surely not see a more electric (literally), bristlingly staged and performed production of this play than the Midwest premiere now at Evanston’s Next Theatre. On the other, no matter how passionately you may disagree with the current occupants of the White House, Department of Homeland Security and all the rest, you can still only be stupefied by the simplemindedness of Shepard’s message. In this play that might best be described as The Manchurian Candidate Lite, or Buried Child Meets Bush Man, the playwright’s outrage at the U.S. response to Sept. 11 seems to be matched only by his seeming denial that a terrorist attack ever happened or required a response.”

Jack Helbig, Reader—“Sam Shepard’s black comedy concerns a Midwestern dairy farmer whose old friend shows up shooting blue electric sparks from his hands. Karen Kessler directs. Shepard’s ham-fisted satire of post-9/11 America has none of the subtlety, grace, or dramatic power of his best work. The dialogue is obvious, the characters are flat, and the story is both preposterous and uncompelling. In the right hands, this flawed script full of righteous indignation might have been at least amusing, but Kessler’s Chicago-premiere production lacks passion and conviction.”

Nina Metz, New City—“Oh, and it’s meant to be funny, at least when Shepard levels his gaze at the mundane absurdities of marital hostility and boredom. In terms of politics, however, this is strictly hit-em-over-the-head territory, so farcical and harsh, it’s harshical. Even if your own worldview happens to fall in line with Shepard’s—which mine does—it would have been nice to have that challenged. Thought-provoking theatre this is not. There’s not a whole lot director Karen Kessler can do other than let Shepard’s script climb on its soapbox and scream itself hoarse.”

Emily Lee, Gay Chicago—“Kicking off its 25th anniversary season, Next Theatre Company offers an uneven, if enjoyable, staging. Director Karen Kessler follows up some stellar work with a well-tuned effort here. Although the work becomes unbearably shrill at times (what Shepard production doesn’t?), Kessler keeps a steady hand on the action, allowing her audience a larger foothold than is often available at a Shepard play. Credit much of this to Natalie West and Rick Peeples. As Emma and Frank, they are absolute perfection, giving hilarious life to the author’s best moments. Effortlessly recreating the quiet and mundane Wisconsin couple, they bring to focus the sweet closeness and irritated exasperation of a couple together far too long.”

Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City—“For all the production’s strength—the shocking special effects and the picture-perfect (if condensed) farmhouse set by John C. Stark—The God of Hell is not one of Shepard’s best. Quickly written (I would guess), thinly plotted and lacking true depth of character, it lacks the profundity of Shepard’s most significant work such as Buried Child, The Tooth of Crime, True West and Fool for Love. The God of Hell is effective in the moment—its message is clear, its theatrical methods are amusing and its impact is disturbing—but that doesn’t make it a work of dramatic literature that will withstand the test of time.

The House of Bernarda Alba –
Greasy Joan & Company

Mary Houlihan, Sun-Times—“As Bernarda Alba, [Lynne] Hall is a powerful presence. Dressed in black widow weeds and with hair pulled back in a severe bun, she is the epitome of cruelty. Smiles do not dare enter this visage. There is a subtle fierceness to Bernarda Alba that is a powerful element of this character, but (director Julieanne) Ehre mostly sidesteps this and relies instead on screeching rants that sometimes overwhelm character and audience. Curiosity and passion are the key to Lorca’s younger women. The portrayals in the Greasy Joan staging vary in success.”

Justin Hayford, Reader—“Federico Garcia Lorca’s 1936 drama is performed in a previously unproduced translation by Nilo Cruz and Karin Coonrod. Julieanne Ehre directs for Greasy Joan & Company. Ehre makes an effort to give her production a contemporary feel and steers most of her cast toward psychological naturalism. But like most of Lorca’s dramas, this one borrows as much from Andalusian folklore and Greek tragedy as from real life, and Cruz and Coonrod’s 1998 version rightly adheres to nonnaturalistic conventions. In this staging, the emotion and poetry central to Lorca’s vision are largely replaced by a sense of measured concern, though they do emerge in Lynn Hall’s formal, clipped performance as Bernarda.”

The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz –
House Theatre of Chicago

Chris Jones, Tribune—“That intense show propelled the House theater company toward its current popularity. This newer work has some of the same limitations—most notably overambition, some stylistic digressions that reveal immaturity, and Klapperich’s confounding refusal to cut away his weaker material. But this show does nothing to dispel the excitement surrounding the House’s distinctive work. The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz is a fascinating show because of its unwieldiness and its quirks, not in spite of them. You either go with a show that combines rock music, metatheater, puppets, palpable pain and scenes acted with dark intensity or you resist it as a kind of raucous pastiche by overenthusiastic theater kids.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“The story has been adapted by Phillip C. Klapperich, who clearly has gone right back to L. Frank Baum’s books, and has taken a few cues from Spamalot along the way as he introduces such peripheral storytellers as Krumholz, Gethsemane and Hiccough. And it has been directed and choreographed by Tommy Rapley with the kind of kung-fu energy and childlike sense of wonder and faux-naivete that marks every House production. Along the way, there is great fun (even revelation) to be had, as all the familiar characters who drop in from Kansas, or are ‘picked up’ along the Yellow Brick Road on the way to the Emerald City, learn to battle their deepest fears and to prevail against the toughest odds.”

Laura Molzahn, Reader—“Kansas farm girl Dorothy Gale is thrust into a battle between good and evil, in the House Theatre of Chicago’s reworking of L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Phillip C. Klapperich’s script is directed by Tommy Rapley. It takes brains, heart and courage to confront and transform a cultural icon, but playwright Klapperich and Rapley do it, reimagining almost every element of the well-worn tale, and in the process the scenes and characters become more complex—funnier, sadder, and more real despite the outlandish setting. Moments of high hilarity are contrasted with scenes of dreamlike scariness and serious if understated purpose”

F.O. Almeida, New City—“Something memorable is transpiring at the Viaduct courtesy of those hipsters at the House Theatre, and it isn’t just limited to the onstage visual and theatrical ingenuity of The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz, playwright Phillip C. Klapperich and director/choreographer Tommy Rapley’s inspired reworking of the L. Frank Baum classic novel. What’s truly magical is observing adults of all ages—with cold beers in hand, Cheshire-cat smiles plastered onto their faces and necks craning to catch every inch of action on the yellow-brick road of a stage—surrender with childlike awe to this sublime theatrical experience crafted from a century-old narrative ingrained in the American cultural fabric.”

Lawrence Bommer, Free Press—“More terrible than great, Philip C. Klapperich’s incontestably sincere retelling of L. Frank Baum’s classic presents a darker and painstakingly analytical version of Dorothy’s journey from Munchkinland to Emerald City (which omits Kansas altogether)…Klapperich drives home Dorothy’s denial of her powers as a ‘witch slayer’ and embellishes her saga with Joseph Campbell-like allusions to a hero journey, where the Oz questers become a family as they act in solidarity. The problem is the thinness of the characterizations, the slowness of the staging and the lameness of the repetitious dialogue, defects for which stylized fight scenes can’t atone.”

Tim Sauers, Gay Chicago—“The House gives this all-too-familiar tale a distinctively original staging, one that is not only innovative in its approach and creative in expression but gutsy with its execution. This version doesn’t gloss over the heart of Baum’s material but, rather, focuses on the gloom and doom that resides deeply in Baum’s writing, keeping at the forefront the themes pertaining to pushing past fear and loss of innocence. Yet the group adds a playful and humorous spin to all of this, a well-thought-out silliness. Playwright-adapter Phillip C. Klapperich along with director-choreographer Tommy Rapley mixes all these elements into a truly satisfying and energetic experience, all heightened with a sense of theatricality as the characters at times speak or refer directly to the audience.”

Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City—“Perhaps because neither Klapperich nor director Tommy Rapley plays Dorothy for sentiment, she doesn’t have much personality as interpreted by Paige Hoffman. She grows in strength but not in heart. The winning personalities are her strange companions: Cliff Chamberlain’s acerbic, commanding Tin Man, Jake Minton’s puppy-like Cowardly Lion and—especially—Stephen Taylor’s remarkably deft comic performance as the Scarecrow. Rapley’s direction and dances are consistently inventive and sure, splitting the difference between sincerity and self-awareness. Technically, the production is a marvel of low-budget resourcefulness. Nonetheless, we really didn’t need yet another Wizard of Oz; for all its amusement value, you won’t really care about this one.”

Quote of the Fortnight:

 “Using pretentious pseudo-Pirandellian devices, Wright shows us 9/11 through the eyes of four young urbanites (and a sock puppet) to whom the catastrophe they call ‘the thing’ is merely a backdrop for personal traumas and undergraduate philosophizing. The result is profound only in its smirking, sitcom-ish, egocentric dissociation from the real gravity of the material. A little sadly, the Uma Productions staging is very good.”—Tony Adler reviewing Uma Productions’ Recent Tragic Events in the Reader.