2-2-07
House’s Sparrow Shows Growth of Troupe
I have not been to see any of House’s shows since The Life and Death of Harry Houdini, so I was interested to see how things had changed. And things have changed. First of all, the average age of the audience of Life and Death… appeared to be around 22. The young folks still look to be coming out, but the 50+ crowd also made a strong showing at The Sparrow. Back in the day, House showed an exceptional theatrical awareness of the storytelling power of the image, but the writing and acting lagged behind. Shows tended to be too long. Actors didn’t have the chops to match the pictures appearing on stage. With The Sparrow, the acting and writing have definitely improved, and some of the uncontrolled vitality has been tamed – there’s a smoothness that didn’t exist in the past.
And this is both a good and a bad thing. Certainly the House folk are growing up, and they’re handling their craft with greater expertise. But they’re also telling the same sorts of stories. House has always been the comic book of theatres – great pictures, vibrant, but unsubtle, stories. But part of their charm lay in the sense that they were telling their own stories, and that lent a certain veracity. Now, instead of a just-out-of-college group of actors telling stories of arrested development, as in The Terrible Tragedy of Peter Pan, you’ve got a group of actors approaching their 30s telling stories of high school. I’m looking forward to their handling of more mature themes.
In some ways, this is all nitpicking that arises from House being hailed as a theatrical phenomenon. But they’re not, really. Lookingglass trod this road. So did Defiant, in their way. And there’s no doubt that House has achieved a great deal in a relatively short time. The Sparrow feels even more rooted in the comic book aesthetic. In fact, it reads like the origin story for one of the X-Men. Young Emily Book (Carolyn Defrin) returns to a school she left years ago when she was the only member of her class not part of a tragic and fatal school bus accident. She needs to complete her senior year so she can go to college; the town needs to have a senior class to complete its healing.
But things get weird when it surfaces that Emily has strange powers, and from there it’s only a small step from celebrating her abilities to questioning her involvement in the tragic accident that scarred the town.
Director Nathan Allen, House’s most recognizable name, once again makes great use of the Viaduct’s wide open space. In particular, he relies a surprising amount on projected video, which gives the whole thing almost a cinematic feeling at times, while simultaneously replacing some (but certainly not all) of the more presentational theatrical choices he’s made in the past. In Defrin, he has an actor who can capture Emily’s inner turmoil in her own physically twisting choices, even if she’s clearly too old for the part. But relative age is out the window all over the place here. As the young teacher who helps Emily out of her shell, only to find himself part of an uncomfortable love triangle involving two students, Cliff Chamberlain shows a nice presence.
By the end of the play, with Emily headed off to Chicago, I was ready to read the comic book – I suppose it’s possible House will bring Emily back in a future production. And like a comic book, The Sparrow provides good entertainment, if not a particularly deep or subtle experience.
The Sparrow – House Theatre of Chicago
Chris Jones, Tribune – “To see The Sparrow, the fantastic new show by the House Theatre of Chicago, is to experience the same kind of goose bumps currently available (at much higher prices) at the Broadway production of Spring Awakening. You can smell and taste something new, something passionate, something original, something strong, something fresh, something true and, above all, something young.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times – “Conceived and directed by Nathan Allen, The Sparrow has words by Chris Mathews and Jake Minton, a score of great beauty by Kevin O’Donnell, and the invaluable input of that ever-ingenious choreographer Tommy Rapley (a Jerome Robbins in-the-making), as well as Molly Brennan and Patrick Andrews. Its story line recalls The Sweet Hereafter, the 1997 film by Atom Egoyan based on a Russell Banks novel in which we observe the fallout of a tragic school bus accident on the inhabitants of a small town. But Allen and his collaborators have put their unique stamp on every aspect of the telling.”
Jack Helbig, Reader – “This play by Chris Mathews, Jake Minton, and Nathan Allen is a postmodern bricolage of elements lifted from films, comic books, TV shows, and young adult novels in which a gifted person is also unhappy and flawed and has a tragic past. Its freaky teenage heroine can fly like Supergirl and impose telekinetic destruction worthy of Carrie, but her moving, mildly melodramatic story is neither Stephen King-style Grand Guignol nor standard superhero fare. The House Theatre of Chicago’s production contains plenty of the company’s trademark physicalized scenes.”
Scotty Zachar, Gay Chicago – “The director (the highly gifted Nathan Allen) and artistic team have come up with some brilliant scene changes and interludes, including a performance in the bio-chemistry lab by the teacher and a host of singing dissected pigs, and a basketball game that is infused with some fun, acrobatic cheerleading and MTV-influenced dancing. Special kudos must be made to the music and sound design teams: Kevin O’Donnell, Mike Przygoda, Jeremiah Chiu, Michael Griggs and Phil Canzo. O’Donnell has composed a remarkable score for this play. The music in this work plays a huge role in the telling of the story, and O’Donnell will no doubt go far in the field.”
Alice in Bed – Trap Door Theatre
Kerry Reid, Tribune – “Trap Door’s more-is-more aesthetic can sometimes derail its shows, with excess masquerading as insight, but Dado mostly manages to keep the proceedings from veering into pure camp. The outrageous costumes by Karen Kawa and the opium-den video interludes by Carrie Holt de Lama add visual interest to the sometimes-dense text but do not overwhelm the minor-key notes of regret, resentment and self-loathing in Alice’s mindscape.”
Justin Hayford, Reader – “Throughout the play [playwright Susan] Sontag seems to be throwing metaphors at the stage in the hope something will stick; rather than let a consistent, meaningful vocabulary of images evolve, she simply displays her efforts to be interesting. Director Dado wisely strips away nearly all of Sontag’s metaphorical clutter, giving the evening a sense of surreal whimsy even as Nicole Wiesner makes Alice’s depression and anguish disturbingly clear… But when Dado starts burdening the show with her own metaphorical overabundance, the production becomes nearly as opaque as the script.”
Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago – “There are so many elements that draw you into this experience and the performances are so engaging that you are swept into the world of Alice’s distorted and complex mind. Sadly though, the spectacle is far more intriguing than the revelations, tribulations and examinations of Alice’s despondently meandering yet brilliant abstractions. ‘Death is the only reality, and life is just an experimental thing,’ Alice tells us. Alice in Bed is a beautiful experiment but left me wanting in its cryptically bleak hypothesis and less than compelling conclusion.”
The King and I – Drury Lane Oakbrook
Chris Jones, Tribune – “For sure, William Osetek’s show is no feast of spectacle or revisionist amazement – and the staging sometimes get trapped in the wings of the theater. But the production values are solid. And so is the cast – which includes an impressive number of actual Asian performers. And assuming you can live with a small orchestra and some other limitations, the result is an honest, likeable, appealing show that’s pleasing to both eye and ear. The musical staging – from choreographer Rachel Rockwell – goes a good bit beyond your run-of-the-mill suburban King and I.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times – “The initial reaction to news of yet another revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I might be a roll of the eyes and the question: ‘Why are they doing that old show again?’ But such a response would be completely misguided, as the production that just opened at Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook so clearly and decisively demonstrates… Director William Osetek’s staging is wonderfully direct and minimalist throughout, and in casting the show he has deftly tapped into the entire pool of Chicago area ethnic actors (Asian, but also black and Latino) to help conjure the needed sense of difference, even if the story itself is an argument for how much people share.”
Dennis Polkow, New City – “Leaving aside the political incorrectness of a show that depends on the colonial arrogance of a largely fictional ‘memoir’ of a Victorian governess…it is great to see such a talented cast that includes so many Asians playing Asians, including Broadway performer Joseph Foronda as the king himself. The elaborate sets, too, are Asian in look and feel, and choreographer Rachel Rockwell has done a remarkable job of transporting the elegant style of Jerome Robbins’ ‘Small House of Uncle Thomas’ dance sequence to a smaller company and venue.”
Lawrence Bommer, Free Press – “Efficient but never merely dutiful, William Osetek’s loving staging of this treasure show lets the talent on this stage honor the brilliance on the page… It’s impossible to overpraise Emily Morales’ lovely and lyrical Tuptim, enchanting in ‘I Have Dreamed’ and ‘We Kiss in Shadow’ with handsome Richard Manera as her doomed beloved, or Jenny Januszewski’s elegant Lady Thiang… Best of all, Rachel Rockwell’s choreography, faithful to Jerome Robbins, turns ‘The Small House of Uncle Thomas’ ballet into a cascade of astonishment. Shall we dance indeed!”
The Price – Shattered Globe Theatre
Chris Jones, Tribune – “Schmidt’s production is no counterintuitive feat of revisionism, nor is it a show with an especially aggressive agenda. And the first act is overly ponderous. But hang in there. This is an unhurried, sure-footed production that builds its case slowly but powerfully on Kevin Hagan’s grandly stolid setting, using the firm foundation of honest-to-God, straight-from-the-gut Chicago acting from the mature, guileless quartet of Doug McDade, Maury Cooper, Linda Reiter and Don Blair.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times – “As Miller saw it, we all end up making some kind of bargain with the devil. Our character is revealed by just how shrewdly we finesse that bargain, and just how much of ourselves we are willing (or unwilling) to sell. It’s not a pretty picture, but it makes for vivid drama. Just look at the quartet of sharply etched characters who haggle for their share of life’s pie (or attempt to retreat from the struggle) in The Price... Under Todd Schmidt’s solid direction (on a sensational set by Kevin Hagan), the play’s little holes of logic are neatly finessed. As Miller suggests, perhaps a bit too smugly, life is just a big farce (or moral fire sale), anyway.”
Tony Adler, Reader – “Shattered Globe Theatre presents Arthur Miller’s 1969 drama about two brothers – one a beat cop, the other a surgeon – who meet after a long estrangement to divvy up the family heirlooms. Miller’s play is a masterful, sorrowful, funny, often stunningly perceptive look at the regrets and rage of middle age. Though plenty good enough to suggest the script’s marvels, the production fails to embody them.”