Profiles' The Radiant Abyss

It’s easy to see why Profiles was drawn to it. On the surface it’s the sort of fare they’ve made their reputation on: gritty, in-your-face drama that brings a certain lyricism to a nihilistic portrayal of the underclass. The Radiant Abyss takes place in the management office of a strip mall in North Carolina. The owner, Erin (Carolyn Klein), is discovered mid-coital with a security guard, Steve Enloe (Eric Burgher). They complete their business before the arrival of his latest girlfriend Ina (Whitney Schaffer), and the rest of the first act concerns Erin’s plan to somehow do something to the church next door, which she accuses of…well…bad stuff. Maybe they’ve all agreed on a plan that involves Ina attending a service and leaving a door open and Steve Enloe (who’s always referred to by his full name) defacing the inside of the church. Maybe they haven’t.

The second act essentially ignores the church plot, which appears to have not really come off. Instead Ina arrives the next morning to confront Erin with her suspicions about their affair. This devolves into Erin attempting to get Ina to leave Steve Enloe, or at least do…something.

This is the main problem with Radiant Abyss. Plots come and go and a lot of vague statements get made, but it’s not at all clear where things really end up. When the inevitable act of violence arrives at the end of the show, it just sort of happens. There’s no real build and it’s completely unclear what’s been decided or gained.

The script lacks both subtlety and clarity, and Darrell W. Cox’s production only exacerbates its problems. The trio of actors jumps in with a lot of energy, but only one gear, which doesn’t help articulate anyone’s journey. It appears they were all encouraged to shout as loudly as possible in Profiles’ tiny space. One cannot fault their effort, but the results don’t match the investment.

The Radiant Abyss—Profiles Theatre

Michael Phillips, Tribune—“Director Darrell W. Cox does a sharp job with this material, though he may stress the mania at the expense of clarity and rhythmic change-ups. (The zephyrlike Profiles production runs under 90 minutes; its world-premiere production, which may have been longer on the page, ran 35 minutes longer.) Still, it’s never less than stimulating. The promising actors tear it up without being stage hogs, and by the time a bizarrely sudden act of violence arrives at the end, playwright MacLachlan has proven his skill with dialogue, if not with things like narrative credibility.” LINK

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“If this all sounds an awful lot like a thuddingly obvious allegory about paranoia and retribution in the age of terrorism—one that suggests it is the lost souls on every side who are drawn to extremism while the big power brokers (in this case, Erin)—mess up everybody and escape relatively unscathed, well, you are right. Can ‘the other’ easily be demonized? Of course. Are those ‘others’ sometimes demons? Well, as we have seen, that, too, can be the case. Darrell W. Cox has directed with the same sledgehammer approach used by the writer. The three actors, who do whatever is called for, are only to be pitied.” LINK

Kerry Reid, Reader—“Dark comedy by Angus MacLachlan, about a realty manager who conspires with her young lover—and his other girlfriend—to intimidate a religious cult that has moved into the local mall. This exercise in pointless unpleasantness devolves into a mushy stew of sexual jealousy, low-rent intrigue, and religious and ethnic intolerance. Director Darrell W. Cox and his plucky actors do what they can to enliven the material, but this show is like bad sex, the kind you hope will be over soon.” LINK

Jenn Q. Goddu, Free Press—“We can see where this script calls for near farcical comedy at times and unnerving drama in threats of violence or blunt sexuality at others, but it all has little impact in this production. Allowing the actors more time to react in a more varied pacing of the play may have helped. Giving the audience a better understanding of the great emotional stakes for the characters certainly would have. The ending, in particular, seems to come out of the blue and it needn’t feel that way if the tension was built appropriately to lead into the final, violent moment. The actors and Cox do make bold choices but the performances are too unconvincing and the production too unfocused for us to feel drawn into this dark work about big needs driving small crimes.” LINK

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—“But even when the action achieves run-in-circles-and-scream intensity, director Darrell W. Cox never quite loses control of his story. Storefront-circuit regulars Carolyn Klein and Whitney Schaffer—playing, respectively, the rapacious Erin and the naive Ina—are accustomed to lifting far heavier-weight texts than this, and if Eric Burgher sometimes seems to flounder under Steve’s ambivalence, his adolescent persona renders it negligible. Their efforts make for an amusing enough 90 minutes, but playgoers familiar with the Profiles Theatre canon may get nagging feelings of déjà vu—not an auspicious response to a play ostensibly making its Midwest premiere.” LINK

Rogue’s Oresteia—Rogue Theater Company

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Rogue Theater’s Oresteia trilogy deserves attention for its sheer ambition alone. That the project succeeds on so many levels is just an added bonus.

Imagine. This small troupe, in only its third season, has created three productions running in rotating repertory. Each drama is the work of a different playwright rooted in a widely disparate historical period and style, and each piece has been tackled by a different director and overlapping cast.” LINK

What’s Wrong With Angry?—Circle Theatre

Chris Jones, Tribune—“Michael Matthews is the best Chicago director of whom you’ve never heard. Whenever this fellow takes the helm at the Circle Theatre of Forest Park, this spectacularly uneven troupe raises its game so dramatically, you wonder if you somehow took a wrong turn off the Eisenhower… The exceptional Jurgen Hooper, who plays the bullied kid, recently moved to Chicago from Baltimore. Based on his splendid performance, this is a move for which this city will prove grateful. [Playwright Patrick] Wilde’s play has its limitations—severe limitations—but this production is so darn good, you don’t really worry about them.” LINK

Zac Thompson, Reader—“British playwright Patrick Wilde’s oddly titled 1993 play brims with the conventions of coming-out plays: sensitive but clever young hero, wry female confidante, conservative small town, high school bullies, star athlete who’s secretly gay, public-toilet cruising, sentimental moralizing, parents who just don’t understand. All that’s missing is a ruefully wise drag queen and some gratuitous male nudity. Circle Theatre’s earnest production doesn’t quite redeem the stale script, but the spirited young cast members, led by an endearingly tender Jurgen Hooper, commit themselves to the material as if unaware or unconcerned that we’ve seen it all before.”

The Wild Party—Bohemian Theatre Ensemble

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“The smashingly good Bohemian Theatre Ensemble production of Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party may just turn out to be the surprise hit of the summer theatre season. Never mind that Lippa’s very adult musical is being performed in a cramped Chicago storefront, or that a good percentage of the ‘BoHo’ cast has yet to graduate from college. With bravura performances, dynamic, highly economical direction (by veteran Stephen M. Genovese), fabulously pulsating choreography (the work of Brenda Didier), and a tight, jazzy, seven-piece band (led by A. Scott Williams) playing a score that is both difficult and hugely affecting, this production offers twice the punch of Broadway touring productions.” LINK

Jennifer Vanasco, Reader—“The Bohemian Theatre Ensemble’s dazzling production of Andrew Lippa’s underrated 2000 musical is sexy, violent, melancholy, rapturous, and simply fun. The show, based on Joseph Moncure March’s scandalous 1928 poem, tells the story of a debauched Jazz Age party thrown by a vaudeville artist, Queenie, to provoke her explosive lover, Burrs. The firecracker cast seduces us with a fluid rendering of the jazzy, bluesy, and gospel-tinged score, finding the poignant centers of characters devoted to booze, sex, and drugs. This is one party that shouldn’t be missed.” LINK

Louis Weisberg, Free Press—“Bohemian Theatre Ensemble has mounted a stirring and stylish production of this obscure gem of a musical. For fans of musical theatre who are tired of retreads, The Wild Party! is something to celebrate. Based on a 1928 poem that appeared in the New Yorker about the excesses of the Jazz Age, The Wild Party! presents an evening of frenzied debauchery that’s as timely as last night’s circuit party. Part Frankie and Johnnie and part the Fatty Arbuckle story, the plot revolves around the crumbling codependent relationship of two vaudeville performers—Queenie, portrayed with lithe elegance and heart by Jess Goodwin, and the sadistic clown Burrs, who a nimble Anthony Fett aptly portrays like Jerry Lewis on crack.” LINK

Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City—“This production has clear-sighted guidance from director Stephen M. Genovese, musical director A. Scott Williams and choreographer Barbara Didier, who never let the small dimensions of the stage cow them into a small production. Without a need for amplification, the company performs full tilt, filling the house with waves of vocal and instrumental music, and placing the swirl of action almost literally in audience laps. Yet the lines of movement and the dance sequences remain untangled (if somewhat cluttered). Didier, especially, knows the trick of making non-dancers look like hoofers.” LINK

Quote of the Fortnight

“The majority of performers in local sketch comedy troupes are white.”—Nina Metz reviewing Boojie Nights in the Tribune.