When returning to a well loved entry in the canon, telling the story is only part of the battle. A theatre—a director—must offer something that brings the play to light in a fresh way. This doesn't necessarily require a heavy concept—often a fine performance, an invigorated staging can do it. But without this freshness, a production will sink into the general memory of the theatre patron: mixed together with every other production of that play they've seen.

Chicago Shakespeare tackles the full length text of Romeo and Juliet after staging it in their Short Shakespeare format many times. To handle this best known of Shakespeare's plays, they've imported Mark Lamos, a Chicago native, but long-time resident of the East Coast, including a long stint as artistic director at Hartford Stage. There's not much to fault with Lamos' staging—it's clear and usually brisk—but it's not going to startle anyone either.

Lamos has brought in a number of out-of-towners to play many of the major roles, including Tybalt, Lord Capulet, Lady Montague, Mercutio and, most notably, Romeo and Juliet. This is a perilous choice for a theatre named Chicago Shakespeare, as out-of-town actors need to be awfully good to warrant ignoring the vast range of local talent available. Unfortunately, only Steve Hendrickson's Lord Capulet and Robert Petkoff's Mercutio offer truly interesting interpretations. In the title roles, Carman Lacivita's Romeo falls right into many of the traps in the part—playing Romeo's states rather than his actions. Julia Coffey's Juliet fares somewhat better, although she tends to hammer on one shrill note in the more emotionally heightened scenes. Of the rest of the cast, Rondi Reed's Nurse best blends the humor and tragedy, while Mike Nussbaum's Friar Lawrence, though prone to a bit of mugging, finds the humanity beneath this servant of God.

Not much else about this offering grabbed me. Aside from being plagued with an annoying sound design, from the generic chorus voice-over to unnecessary musical underscoring, the production moves solidly along, finding some of the humor and pulling some of the heartstrings. For someone who has never seen a production of Romeo and Juliet, this would be a solid first exposure, but for those who have already experienced Shakespeare's classic tragedy, this interpretation will probably fade quickly.

Romeo and Juliet—Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Michael Phillips, Tribune—"Director Mark Lamos' staging, the first Chicago Shakespeare assignment for this former Hartford Stage artistic director, is a tradition-minded affair in tights, which doesn't necessarily portend great or even good things. Yet this cool, clear rendition—a disappointing Romeo notwithstanding—is the closest I've come to a satisfying traditional take on the play. In the best scenes the poetic force is formidable, indeed. It's there in Julia Coffey's plaintive and mellifluous Juliet. No mere simp in ingénue's clothing, this is a young woman with brains and a heart. Coffey makes puppy love and cosmic heartbreak two sides of the same coin, and doesn't overplay either side."

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—"In his new Chicago Shakespeare Theater production of what is surely among the world's most widely known and riffed-on plays, director Mark Lamos also might be accused of going a little too much ‘by the book.' And this has nothing to do with his faithfulness to the play's Renaissance-era roots… No question that the production is altogether ravishing to look at… Equally indisputable is the fact that Lamos has elicited superb portrayals from his actors… But along with all this comes a number of missteps."

Kim Wilson, Reader—"If you think you got everything out of this love story from high school or college readings and the Zeffirelli film, think again. Director Mark Lamos and his cast find new twists in Shakespeare's famous words and familiar family dynamics, giving this production a contemporary sensibility despite its period setting… Tweaking the rhythm of the lines, Lamos turns phrases like ‘Thou kiss by the book' and ‘Holy St. Francis!' into comic one-liners, bringing the proceedings to a giddy pitch before plunging into the final tragic scene, which Carman Lacivita and Julia Coffey execute with convincing heartbreak and resolve. Such sweet sorrow indeed."

Lawrence Bommer, Free Press—"Gorgeous in their ceremonial splendor, Candice Donnelly's 15th century costumes inevitably recall Franco Zeffirelli's superb 1967 film version. That's a big mistake. Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, the stars of that perfect treatment, were achingly beautiful, contagiously innocent and throbbingly in love. They seem to have invented love on the spot for the camera. Their irresistible attraction is a far cry from the lack of chemistry between Carman Lacivita's by-the-numbers Romeo, a minor Adonis who keeps jump-starting his devotion as it repeatedly flags, and Julia Coffey's too lady-like Juliet, whose unorchestrated hysteria in the second act quickly forfeits sympathy."

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—"These factors facilitate a refreshingly uncluttered version of the familiar tale. Extensive edits in the text make for an unhurried pace that allows us to note details too often ignored in most productions—Friar Lawrence's motive in helping the fugitive couple elope, for example, and his appearance at the scene of Juliet's sham suicide to dispose of the telltale vial—a gesture so downright logical that fans of police procedurals laughed on opening night in very recognition of its common sense. And while the possibility that Mercutio might be gay is now old gossip, who before would have suspected Lord Capulet of domestic abuse?"

Dead Wrong—National Pastime Theatre

Chris Jones, Tribune—"[Darby] Tillis can be halting, rambling and difficult to follow. And more problematic still, the piece largely fails to tell his story in any kind of coherent, cohesive fashion. [Laurence] Bryan gives it a decent shot—through voice-overs and the like—but unless you've done some research into Tillis' case, the details of what happened won't seem all that clear. There's far too much opining and not enough storytelling. Tillis tends to focus on what he wants to say—when he also should be thinking about what the audience wants and needs to know… Clearly, it's hard for Tillis to put aside his anger and frustration at what happened to his life—and telling his story in a theatre demands a broader gamut of emotions. But who could reasonably blame him?"

Justin Hayford, Reader—"Darby Tillis begins his 50-minute autobiographical monologue by admitting he's not an actor. Instead he's on stage because of his powerful experiences: he was the first death row prisoner in Illinois to be exonerated, after he spent nine years in jail, framed for a murder he didn't commit. The impact of those traumatic years is unmistakable in Tillis' hulking but cowed physicality and in his wrenching original blues songs. But Tillis and director-adapter Laurence Bryan struggle to turn his experience into a cogent narrative, preferring broad hyperbole to humanizing detail. The text is full of holes: we know nothing about Tillis' life before going to prison and little about his prison experience beyond his conversion to Christianity. Tillis doesn't need to be an actor, just a better storyteller."

Patriots—The Neo-Futurists

Michael Phillips, Tribune—"Even a lesser Neo-Futurists show has a lot to recommend it, and Patriots offers the sort of impudent high spirits that help compensate for the ultimate thinness of its premise. Whitman and Thurmond make for interesting bedfellows, yet their warring notions of patriotism remain more interesting in theory than in practice. On the other hand, I enjoyed a lot of the show. And if we Americans actually came to an agreement about what patriotism is and should be, America wouldn't have so many millions of its residents feeling so queasy about the subject at the moment."

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—"By the end of the show, neither man is as easily categorized as he might once have appeared to be. Nor, of course, is the history of this country—which is the main conclusion of this often whimsical, thought-provoking, idea-stuffed 65-minute show created and directed by Chloe Johnston in collaboration with seven performers who contribute their own meditations on patriotism, democracy, racism, love and more. History, they remind us, is a fickle muse, and you'd do well not to rely on poets, politicians, actors or, for that matter, journalists or professional historians for the final word."

Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—"As usual, the Neo-Futurist's brilliant style conceptualizes creatively, academically, cerebrally, dramatically, humorously and visually to create something so far outside of the box that you would be hard pressed to remember the square shape of a box by the time that they are done with you. Patriots is funny, poignant, stimulating and clever, with an excellent pace and great direction of a remarkably focused and engaging ensemble. The pithy and imaginative visuals and writing as well as the outstanding performances by the wonderfully intelligent and gifted cast create an experience that is entertaining, challenging and emotionally compelling."

Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City—"Certainly, there are depths to be plumbed in the political and spiritual choices made by Whitman and Thurmond, but Patriots fails to delve. The one-hour show is presented with great theatrical flash, much of it appealing, but the congruities between the two men—such as their wartime experiences or common belief that blacks and whites ‘could never amalgamate'—scarcely are addressed, and their more substantial contrasts are drawn only passively."

Rimers of Eldritch—Eclipse Theatre Company

Michael Phillips, Tribune—"Eclipse's production, directed by Steven Fedoruk, is solid but it doesn't really trust the piece. Granted, it's minor, and difficult. But watching and listening to Fedoruk's large ensemble in the small Victory Gardens studio space, you can't help but think everyone is YELLING EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME. Even conspiratorial two-person conversations come across as bellowed, presentational affairs. A couple of strong, nuanced performances compensate. As Cora, the suddenly single middle-age diner owner, Donna McGough looks, sounds and feels authentically of the play's locale. And in a minor role, that of the caretaker daughter of the aged witness to a crime, Isabel Liss proves she is one of the best non-Equity (non-union) performers in a city with actors, actors everywhere."

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—"Rimers is a marvelous, poetic chorale of a play—a bitter blending of 17 ‘voices' that intersect and overlap to evoke the secret desires, fears, guilts, anguish and deceptive moral rectitude of the remaining inhabitants of a dying Midwestern town. And it is receiving a sensational, intensely intimate, perfectly cast production here under the direction of Stephen [sic] Fedoruk."

Lawrence Bommer, Reader—"Director Steven Fedoruk's 17 cast members tautly transform the script's ‘collages' into a devastating group portrait in this Eclipse Theatre Company production. Frank A. Wellisch achieves a kind of outlaw nobility as the pariah who knows Eldritch's secret sins—this is one murder mystery that manages to indict everyone. Watching it, you imagine a dozen other crimes that could just as easily have claimed the stage."

Emily Lee, Gay Chicago—"Many companies have tried and failed to successfully stage this very good and extremely difficult play. Wilson tells his story very carefully, giving us bits and pieces slowly, dribbling out the details of a rape and murder little by little. He repeats scenes. He plays with time. He does this without apology and often without the smallest hint of an explanation. And always under the story there is the politic of small town. Everyone knows everything and everyone here. And everyone disapproves. It is a formula that requires a bit of theatre magic to pull off. Eclipse, choosing to overact and over direct the piece, doesn't quite do it."

Catey Sullivan, Windy City—"Instead of standard exposition and linear scenes, we get gorgeously overlapping, waves of dialogue that echo and repeat like the themes of a fugue. It isn't a structure to be undertaken by theatrical dilettantes. No worries here: directed by Steven Fedoruk for the increasingly prominent Eclipse Theatre, Rimers pierces like a midnight train whistle."

Quote of the Fortnight:

"We don't need Ibsen. Or an Elvis. Just a sweet, supportive, middle-age rock star wannabe with enough sense to write well and then get out of the way"—Chris Jones reviewing Goodman Theatre's production of Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky in the Tribune.