12-22-06
Only in Chicago
Perhaps I’ve become a kinder gentler critic. Perhaps I’ve had better luck with my choices of plays or perhaps (and I think that this is most likely the case) this has simply been an excellent year for theatre, even by Chicago’s exceptional standards.
That is not to say that there haven’t been a few less than compelling productions this year. But they have been fewer and farther between and the trials of nights spent watching bad or (possibly even worse) mediocre theatre have been more than eclipsed by nights spent viewing outstanding efforts delivered by incomparable talent.
I must applaud the sociopolitical relevance of productions like Katrina: State of Emergency and Mother Courage and Her Children.
Bailiwick Repertory’s Katrina: State of Emergency should be commended for boldly and dramatically shining such a focused spotlight on hurricane Katrina. This production was a startling expose of the critical and ongoing national crisis that took a media back seat to feature stories like “Bradgelina’s” ultrasound.
In telling the story of Mother Courage, a traveling merchant who peddles her wartime wares from a wagon pulled by her children, Bertolt Brecht examined the relationship between war and capitalism. Vitalist Theatre lived up to their name as this topic, so vigorously swept under the rug by way of pop culture sound bites, is perhaps the most vital issue at hand in this time of globalization meets hegemonic military maneuvers. Patriotism is a poor exchange for logic, reason and justice and Mother Courage summed this up brilliantly when she declared, “Whenever heroics are called for it’s a sure sign that someone has fucked up!” (Re: Iraq Report)
I must also mention the unique rarities of Request Programme and The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, delivered by Trap Door Theatre; Tuta Theatre’s Huddersfield and the Neo Futurists’ Roustabout – The Great Circus Train Wreck!
Trap Door is never at a loss for locating and producing obscure work. Request Programme offered a level of private humanity seldom depicted on stage, creating an inimitably profound experience of a solitary and secluded life. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant was an amazing piece of uniquely European insanity presenting stylized maudlin egotism at its most entertaining and enthralling.
Tuta Theatre Chicago’s national premiere of the dark and sardonic Huddersfield, awarded the prize for the best Serbian play in 2005, depicted the harsh and shattered reality of youth in the obscure Serbian town of Zrenjanin. The closing scene managed a playful redemption to the suffocating despondency, which created an unexpected dichotomy that alone accomplished something theatrically amazing.
Through a fusion of historical fact, historical fiction, whimsical self evaluation and balls- out absurdity, playwright Jay Torrence’s Roustabout: The Great Circus Train Wreck! created something that evoked surprisingly delightful humor, joy, warmth, melancholy, current political polemics and thought provoking introspection in this Neo-Futurists world premiere.
But what stood out for me this year, more so that any subject, pattern or trend, was one weekend. I was dazzled three nights in a row by companies who are vastly different, relatively new and virtually fearless. On one weekend in April I saw three plays back to back to back that were as marvelous as they were divergent.
Thursday, April 20, I witnessed Urban Theatre Company’s production of Miguel Pinero’s The Sun Always Shines For The Cool. Directed by the brilliantly gifted Madrid St. Angelo, this was not only the most completely actualized production of Pinero’s difficult writing that I have seen to date, but also one of the most textured productions I had seen all year. The opening scene miraculously recreated the cheap kitsch of the 1970s thereby producing a delightfully playful atmosphere. This lulled the audience into a feeling of false security so that the impact of the tragic dramatic content had even more of an emotional blow, producing something brutal and devastating, yet glorious.
Friday, April 21, I took a dear old friend to see his first professional play, Silk Road Theatre Project’s world premiere of Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat. My friend became an immediate convert to the power of live theatre as this riveting and truly heart pounding production, which proved to be perhaps the year’s most politically profound offering, brilliantly illustrated Benjamin Franklin’s pertinent quote, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” It depicted the reality of our ravaged civil liberties by way of the Orwellian nomenclative Patriot Act with frightening impact.
Saturday, April 22, I saw the world premiere production of The Building Stage’s Dustbowl Gothic. It took the iconic image from the Grant Wood masterpiece, American Gothic, and entered the world of the painting on many levels in what they called, “An Original Work of Memory, Hope, Myth and Reality.” Dustbowl Gothic essentially transported us into a reality that was so familiar in a way that was so unique that it inadvertently dazzled our consciousness. We were left stunned by the experience that was so simply and tenderly presented, yet devised with so much imaginative complexity. I overheard a man talking behind us who said that he was in town for the weekend as a gift from his wife, to reconnect with an old friend and experience Chicago. Luckily, he hit the jackpot by happening upon a uniquely Chicago experience that so many who live here didn’t even know existed.
I saw each one of these productions with different friends and each night will stand as a lifelong memory for all of us. I came away from this weekend spinning with a heartfelt rejuvenation. My mind was reeling with the infinite possibilities that only real art can inspire.
Each and every one of the superb aforementioned productions, be they pre-existing work or world premieres, had the unifying thread of this unparalleled theatrical location. You can search high and low to find excellent theatre. You can piece together a map of excellent work that dimly illuminates the globe. But, much like traveling on a plane at high altitudes at night, the dim scattered flickers become a blazing beacon when traveling over the bastion of theatrical radiance that is Chicago.
Only in Chicago could you have found each one of these dramatic jewels, cut in a way that beguiled its onlookers. And only in Chicago could you see three productions, in as many days, delivered with such passionate polish that were so extraordinarily spellbinding.
Venus Zarrris is a theater critic and feature writer for Gay Chicago Magazine. Her essays and stories have been featured on National Public Radio as well as various venues and universities in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Her writing and photography are on permanent exhibition in the Library of Congress and the New York Historical Society.
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