Kareem Bandealy, Irit Levit and Vincent P. Mahler in Silk Road’s 10 Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith.

In many ways, Silk Road Theatre Project’s 10 Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith could be the story of any immigrant family. The parents, remembering the old country, hold to the old ways, while their children seek balance between their parents’ outlook on life and their new country’s. And those outlooks are often not the same.

Kamal (Vincent P. Mahler) came to the U.S. from Egypt and has done well for himself selling carpets. He has an apparently happy family, with his wife Mona (Irit Levit) and three children, all of college age. The oldest, Twafiq (Kareem Bandealy) has apparently begun to question his religion. Another, Hamza (Anil Hurkadli) has apparently thrown himself into learning more about Egyptian culture, and the only daughter, Huwaida (Monica Lopez), is about to enter an arranged engagement with a man she’s never met. While Twafiq has come to grips with his disagreement with his father, it’s Hamza and Huwaida who really discover and act on their struggles in the course of the play.

Yussef El Guindi’s script may not break new ground, but it’s still a well-crafted piece of storytelling. Director Stuart Carden has brought out all the affection this family can hold, so when they begin to break apart, the pain for the audience is palpable. Still, things never reach too great a head. No one is disowned or driven to particularly desperate straits. You get the impression that, if everyone could just sit down and talk things through, it would all work out.

Carden has assembled a solid cast, anchored by Mahler, Bandealy, Hurkadli and Lopez. Physically, the Chicago Temple space serves the show well, although Carden hasn’t found a way around the long scene changes for which the script appears to call. Nonetheless, this is a pleasant, if not earth shattering, production offering a quintessential American story that reminds the audience that all immigrant populations have gone through similar adjustments—a nicely unifying theme in these times of polarization.

Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith—
Silk Road Theatre Project

Chris Jones, Tribune—“The appeal of Ten Acrobats is that while we’ve seen parents of innumerable ethnicities throw up their hands in horror at their kids, we’ve rarely seen Muslim characters do so. That’s because—in the Chicago theater, at least—we rarely see plays with Muslim characters. And if we do, they’re usually some kind of exotic cameo. This omission is less egregious in the British theater—which recently has turned up several decent Muslim plays. But among American theaters, even a conventionally structured and thoroughly conventional play about an Egyptian family struggling to reconcile tradition and progress can be called a radical event.”

Mary Houlihan, Sun-Times—“Guindi’s engrossing play is receiving its world premiere in a lively, heartfelt production by Silk Road Theatre Project… As the sometimes predictable story unfolds (the ending is a little too perfect), El Guindi asks questions about what it means to be Muslim in an overwhelmingly Christian country. At times, he glosses over deep philosophical discussions with a soap opera-sitcom veneer, but that’s not a bad thing when kept within boundaries. El Guindi finds a workable balance between sharp humor and head-banging angst, which shapes his story effectively.”

Justin Hayford, Reader—“The Silk Road Theatre Project offers the premiere of Yussef El Guindi’s drama about an Egyptian immigrant trying to keep his family together—including one college-student son whose religious faith is dwindling, another son struggling with his homosexuality, and a daughter trying to reconcile Islamic tradition and female independence as she enters an arranged marriage. Guindi is better at illustrating problems than dramatizing them. But the actors under Stuart Carden’s direction bring warmth to the schematic script, revealing how much potential the playwright has.”

Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—“Once again, Silk Road Theatre Project manages to triumphantly do what few even contemplate. It breaks down stereotypes. It gives a complicated situation in-depth analysis from several angles. It challenges preconceived and simplified notions, and it manages to create captivating and entertaining theatre in the process. In this world premiere of Yussef El Guindi’s Ten Acrobats In an Amazing Leap of Faith, we are introduced to a Muslim-American family that is far from the alien depictions that are so common to our current War in Iraq, post-9/11 political climate.”

Scott C. Morgan, Windy City—“With so much in it, Ten Acrobats... has a somewhat diluted focus as we ricochet off each sibling’s troubles over the course of an alternately enlightening and preachy three hours. Ten Acrobats... also lessens its impact by an ending that feels too pat and abruptly resolved. Despite these minor flaws, Ten Acrobats... is largely entertaining throughout and achieves its goal of giving us an insightful peek into the life of a Muslim-American family.”

Bark!—Chicago Center for the Performing Arts

Chris Jones, Tribune—“Now I’ve visited the Humane Society on a Saturday morning and wondered what the dogs inside were thinking about. That level of sympathy is probably enough to stay somewhat engaged in, and amused by, this better-than-you-are-probably-expecting show for most of its two hours, in part because the pop tunes by David Troy Francis are diverse and easy on the ear and the book and lyrics (by Gavin Geoffrey Dillard, mainly) are really quite witty.”

Misha Davenport, Sun-Times—“While [Devin] DeSantis and fellow cast member Mary Mulligan (who plays a retired police K-9) are worth noting for their ability to milk the comedy for all it’s worth, someone should throw these talented actors a different funny bone. The show, running for 12 weeks in the new basement studio theater at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, is also filled with emotionally charged songs that get the audiences’ tails wagging. That’s when the show reveals not only its heart but also its true power. It’s unfortunate that this material is bookended by kitschy and clichéd comedy numbers.”

Jennifer Vanasco, Reader—“There are songs about chasing one’s tail, singing to sirens, and whizzing on stuff, as six puppies in a pound sing perkily about their past lives as beloved pets, working dogs, and street tramps—and howl to be adopted. The performers are warm and adorable, and the inventive costumes capture the dogs’ personalities. But even the most devoted fan of canines might find two hours too long, especially since the melancholy, power-ballad second half tries to turn dogs into, well, Cats.”

Nina Metz, New City—“Lacking a single redeemable quality, Bark! leads the pack as one of the worst shows of 2005. Set in a dog pound, a cast of six assume canine clichés in a musical so insipid and dull, it makes Cats look like high art. Looking for a quirky, pets-eye view of the world? Look elsewhere. Especially if you actually like dogs… The show supposedly has an Off-Broadway run in its future, but I can’t see why. The most profound emotion I felt throughout this two-hour debacle was a deep and thorough embarrassment for the actors. Put this dog to sleep.”

The Glory of Living—Profiles Theatre

Chris Jones, Tribune—“That said, though, Carla Russell’s direction is generally savvy and sure-footed. And it’s always laudably intense. With the help of Steppenwolf Theatre casting director Erica Daniels, Russell found an extraordinary young newcomer named Kelly O’Sullivan to play the central role of Lisa, a young woman who kills others for the sexual pleasure of her husband. O’Sullivan’s work is enough to make this show well worth seeing—it’s a disarmingly self-deprecating blend of desperation, childish confusion and no self-image whatsoever. It’s precisely what the play demands.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Profiles Theatre, another bold storefront, is now staging a no-holds-barred revival of [Rebecca] Gilman’s play, directed with an ideal mix of creepiness and pathos by Carla Russell. It’s the first time I’ve seen the drama, and it was an awakening. I’ve had mixed feelings about a number of Gilman’s subsequent works (Spinning Into Butter, Boy Gets Girl, Blue Surge) and great admiration for Dollhouse, her searing remake of the Ibsen classic that debuted earlier this year at the Goodman Theatre. The Glory of Living may have been an early effort, but it was fully formed, and it remains fascinating in its anatomy of the roots of violence and the psychology of abuse.”

Jennifer Vanasco, Reader—“In Rebecca Gilman’s unflinching 1996 play, based on the true story of the youngest U.S. woman sentenced to death, a 15-year-old girl marries an auto thief who convinces her to procure young girls for his pleasure, then murder them. She doesn’t refuse—but she calls 911 so the dead girls won’t stay lost. One of Gilman’s early plays, The Glory of Living isn’t as pedantic as later scripts. It isn’t as focused or rich either, and this staging fails to probe whatever psychological depths and mysteries it might have.”

John Beer, New City—“Gilman’s first act is a relentless and expert assault, leaving you dreading as much what you might be about to see as reacting to what you’re already seeing. Cox plays the demonic Clint with furied menace and brutal power. O’Sullivan conveys simultaneously the ferocious callousness and wounded innocence of Lisa. Their scenes together mix violence with a dreadful stillness. Gilman’s second act takes an unfortunate detour into ‘CSI’-land, with seemingly interminable interrogations confirming what we already knew. But O’Sullivan and Joe Jahraus as Lisa’s attorney Carl, invest the final moments of the play with tragic poetry.”

Scott C. Morgan, Windy City—“Director Carla Russell was wise to assemble a super-attractive and talented cast to help lure audiences into the play’s underbelly world of run-down Southern motels and chilly prison rooms (each simply and cunningly rendered by set designer Keith Pitts). Cox’s and O’Sullivan’s entrancing performances make us keenly aware of Clint and Lisa’s alluring co-dependent bond, even as we are progressively exposed to their morally sickening acts of degradation and murder.”

The Madwoman of Chaillot—The Artistic Home

Chris Jones, Tribune—“Director Kathy Scambiatterra tries to compensate by treating the whole thing as a warped French farce—jugglers juggle, fat cats look fat, waiters scowl, that kind of thing. Artistic Home is known for the strength of its ensemble acting, and this show, which features a huge cast of disparate ages, is typically full of actors working very hard to turn small characters into fully realized creations. It’s an energetic, intense show that almost busts a Parisian-style gut. But while several of the performances—including Gillian Kelly’s Madwoman and Maria Stephens’ emotional Irma—are appealing, I found the show overplayed.”

Tony Adler, Reader—“Jean Giraudoux’s anti-Nazi allegory, about an eccentric Parisian who schemes to free her neighborhood from intruders, is directed by Kathy Scambiatterra. This revival is too cute by half, and it fails to address the script’s darker aspects, including a barely encoded anti-Semitism. But viewed, squintingly, as a King of Hearts-like parable about the triumph of humane madness over rapacious reason, it can be endearing. With a few exceptions, the cast triumphs more by elan than skill.”

Tim Sauers, Gay Chicago—“Scambiatterra sets this up with exceptional aptitude and then equally stated by her committed ensemble that portray a vast array of characters that include evil prospectors, corrupted politicians, police, a deaf mute, a juggler, café workers and other outlandish madwomen. At the heart of all of this lunacy is the Madwoman of Chaillot, portrayed gloriously by Gillian Kelly. With her operatic trained melodious voice, a cherubic face that sits below a large auburn wig of curls and on top a swelling of fabrics, scarves and pearls, Kelly luxuriates in being the center of attention, a well-deserving place to be. She’s charming and commanding, playful yet stern, giving her diva, nutcase persona great charisma. She personifies the true spirit of Giraudoux’s intent.”

Quote of the Fortnight:

 “I left the theatre finding no faults with the production and delighting on many elements but unable to be fully captivated.”—Venus Zarris reviewing Northlight’s production of Pride and Prejudice in Gay Chicago.