Author: Devlyn
Neo-Futurists cleverly reanimate two tales in ‘Pinocchio/Frankenstein’
By Devlyn Camp
The Neo-Futurists are always onto something funny and clever. Greg Allen, founder of the Futurists, writes and directs his newest work for their stage The Strange and Terrible True Tale of Pinocchio (The Wooden Boy) as told by Frankenstein’s Monster (The Wretched Creature). And oddly enough, that’s not his longest title produced. Juxtaposing the two tales, Allen examines the lives of two creatures made by man, searching for affection. By using the original Pinocchio tales, the story is un-Disneyfied and much more gruesome. Written through a realistic vision with a few funny, contemporary pop culture references tossed in, the Creature follows and mocks the hoping-to-be boy and criticizes his unwise choices. However foolish those choices may be, they’re freaking hilarious.
While Robert Fenton leads the journey with boyish charm and puns, the comedy is mainly driven by the supporting cast. The troupe shuffles through dozens of costumes, wigs and weird makeshift props. Dan Kerr-Hobert is outrageous as the randomly reappearing Geppetto and beyond uncomfortably creepy wagon driver, among other characters. His talent is matched only by the constantly changing Thomas Kelly, who turns roles on a dime. Each of their characters are funnier than the last.
Throughout the ridiculous retelling, various forms of puppetry assist the story. Basic hand, shadow and life-size puppets (containing actors) add to the bizarre nature of the play. Among many other absurd but effective methods of entertainment, the Neos provide silly string, fire, toy ponies, coffins for strangled puppets, and disassembled kittens. The Neo-Futurists are silly, ridiculous, aggressive, funny and so very smart. Pinocchio/Frankenstein is sketch comedy at feature length with a moral to the fable. While the ending isn’t quite right, it’s very overshadowed by the damn good two hours preceding it.
Pinocchio/Frankenstein
The Neo-Futurists
Through April 14, 2012
Tickets $10-20, available at neofuturists.org
Photo courtesy Joe Mazza; clockwise from left: Tien Doman, Chris Rickett, Thomas Kelly, Dan Kerr-Hobert, Robert Fenton, Guy Massey
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
Raven’s take on Arthur Miller’s ‘The Price’
By Devlyn Camp
Most anything done in life is based on the cost of doing it. Arthur Miller’s late ‘60s play The Price makes that very clear, and questions how money drives people – particularly families – together or apart. Raven’s new production is nothing short of a well-done rendering. The set by Amanda Rozmiarek is fully adorned with the chairs and chests and other furniture knick-knacks Victor wishes to sell. The design, to pop culture junkies, will definitely evoke memories of J.K. Rowling’s Room of Requirement.
The performance of the four actors is moderate, the best of which is done by Leonard Kraft playing Jewish antique dealer Gregory Solomon. He is sharp and witty with his lines, as well as the overall comic relief next to other actors who never seem to know what to do with their hands. Overall, the play is interesting as an intelligent Miller play on the brilliant psychology of financial choices, but average in this specific construction. And after all, when then price here is $30, is it something worth two hours? Well, that’s your choice.
THE PRICE
Raven Theatre Company
Through April 14, 2012
Tickets $30, available at raventheatre.com
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
‘Superior Donuts’ Uptown at Mary-Arrchie
By Devlyn Camp
Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company’s latest production is not the most riveting work in the city to see right now, but I will say this: Superior Donuts is the best play I have ever seen at Mary-Arrchie. Their production of the Tracy Letts play is above their average standard because of the on-stage talent. Richard Cotovsky and Preston Tate, Jr. make a great duo in the leading donut shop workers, Arthur and Franco, as they present Letts’s comments on current racial issues and ways of life with an edge of decent comedy.
The Donuts set design is interesting, but not the most exciting compared to other productions (ie. Steppenwolf debut of the play, among others), but Arrchie makes due with their small space. At the top of the show when the shop is being looked over by police after an overnight break-in, the place is delicately destroyed in an unrealistic manner. Sugar packets are almost strategically placed across the counter; knick-knacks are knocked over just perfectly. It’s unlikely that vandals would commit such a silly crime.
While it has its flaws (seconds-off lighting cues among the worst, and most distracting) Mary-Arrchie puts a decent work together that honors the quick and brilliant words of Letts. Perhaps this is a new step in an exciting direction for them. Or perhaps just a happy, exciting accident.
SUPERIOR DONUTS
Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co.
Through March 25, 2012
Tickets $18-22, available at maryarrchie.com
Richard Cotovsky, Preston Tate, Jr.; photo courtesy Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co.
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
‘The People’s Barnum’ at Quest
By Devlyn Camp
Quest Theatre Ensemble’s mission is to create theater for the non-theatergoer in Chicago (surprisingly, there are some out there!). This is why they make a
huge effort to make their productions free to everyone. If you watched our television show this morning (CANTV, Channel 19 on Comcast), you might have heard Jason Bowen, a founding member of Quest, call their productions “gateway” shows into more Chicago theater. Their goal is to get more people interested in live theater, which is a pretty important goal if you ask anyone involved in the arts.
Bowen is currently leading The People’s Barnum at Quest, which, as mentioned, is free. The musical is a fantastic night for kids, as it is circus-themed and visually exciting. There are several songs and character voices to keep momentum moving. While the bar isn’t set high for great quality theater, it’s the perfect evening to get the kids acquainted with live shows and let them hoot and holler as excitedly as they wish.
THE PEOPLE’S BARNUM
Quest Theatre Ensemble
Through March 18, 2012
Tickets free, reservations available at questensemble.org
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
Shattered Globe’s ‘Orpheus Descending’ tells compelling story
By Devlyn Camp
Not knowing the Tennessee Williams play Orpheus Descending, an audience member might not immediately see the relevance of the woman named Lady. As the show picks up speed, it becomes very evident that Lady is the heart and soul of the writing, and, in this production, Eileen Niccolai is the heart and soul of the cast. Playing a dry goods store owner who finds love in a young wanderer much younger than her husband, Niccolai conjures up a sympathy and understanding. Her character is broken by her dying husband who may have killed her father, and she struggles with a choice between desire and societal expectations.
The young wanderer, Val (Joseph Wiens) is handsome, quick-witted, and so charming. His short musical interludes pull the audience into his story in a hypnotic fashion. The chemistry with Lady is unexpected, as intended, but extremely honest. In contrast to the broken and reserved Lady, Heather Townsend’s Carol, the “exhibitionist,” is also broken but outspoken, always luring Val back into his young past.
The beige and dusty goods store set design by Courtney O’Neill compliments several actors crossing and cutting quickly on two levels, which is something to be said in Stage 773′s small (but lovely) black box. Julieanne Ehre directs appealing and romantic scenes that consistently have an edge of danger. With Val’s interest in his “life partner” guitar, Carol’s spicy attitude, and Lady herself, the play makes its issue very clear: Should one follow their personal desires, life’s required needs or youthful temptations?
ORPHEUS DESCENDING
Shattered Globe Theatre
Through March 11, 2012
Tickets $28-34, available at stage773.com
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
‘Ameriville’ at Victory Gardens: Did it deliver?
By Devlyn Camp
The first production of new Artistic Director Chay Yew is quite a statement, as the work is somewhat of an indefinable genre. Ameriville, performed by Universes, is a kind of dramatic performance art, featuring music, poetry, stand-up comedy, and flamenco, among several other forms of entertainment. Like most jobs, the task of delivering a message from the stage can be done with many tools, and this dramamusicaldanceshow utilizes everything it can get its hands on. The four actors, three men and a woman, have more than enough tricks of their sleeves ranging from outrageous character voices to strong a capella numbers and high-powered footwork.
These talents are put to work explaining the difficult lives of natural disaster victims and the indirect results. Through several perspectives, some sad, some brilliantly funny, most arresting, families still suffering from Hurricane Katrina make their cases known and question God’s place and the government’s work in the years following the storm. On the raked stage, backed by projected newspapers and American statistics, the stand-alone scenes question whether the country will be prepared for more disasters.
While it is emotional and vocally impressive, there’s no way of skirting the problem with the theatrical work: plot. Every aspect of the production is fantastic, from acting to lighting to set design and back, except for the hole that “purpose” usually fills. Yes, it informs on Katrina. Yes, it implies the possibility that we, as a community, are not prepared to face another tragedy like the hurricane. But stepping out on Lincoln Avenue beneath the bright marquee, the audience has no thought on how this presentation changes them. There’s no redeemable result, as there is hardly a story. The emotions exist only for a moment while the lights are still down. Tone should be the result of a show that delivers an entertaining work – not a direction forced upon a production.
AMERIVILLE
Victory Gardens Theater
Through February 26, 2012
Tickets $20-$50, available at victorygardens.org
Mildred Ruiz-Sapp and cast; Photo courtesy Michael Brosilow
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
The art of viewing art: The Hypocrites, ‘Six Characters’
By Devlyn Camp
On three stages surrounded by swiveling chairs, The Hypocrites, in their newest production, make an overwhelming and energizing attempt at explaining the intellectual creation and staging of a story. To the untrained eye, actors are men and women playing people by learning lines, wearing costumes and mocking physical gestures, but underneath is a mind churning away at executing the difficult art of storytelling (and imagine the effort a writer must put in, needing to understand all of the characters!). The untrained eye may not even completely follow the strand of puns, points, and debates in The Hypocrites’ production of Luigi Pirandello’s 6 Characters in Search of An Author. The non-theatre folk aren’t exactly in the Hypocrite’s demographic anyway, as the audience generally consists of actors off for the evening, those dang theater critics, and regular theatergoers. Viewers of the show are almost in that non-sarcastically, actually enjoyable script text analysis class in college, as the layered storytelling cuts and weaves drama and comedy among two starkly different stories almost seamlessly.
Opening on a late-starting put-in rehearsal for the touring cast of The Hypocrites’ recent production of Pirates of Penzance, delightful Laura McKenzie jabs at mockable annoying qualities in actors, playing a fictional version of her self. The “late start” to the rehearsal is rather believable. For a moment the audience flutters through their programs thinking they may have come to an open – and hilarious – rehearsal. During this rehearsal, six developed characters trapped in their own unstaged story intrude, asking the actors to present their play. The people are classic, dramatic horror story-style characters doomed forever in a moment’s tragedy.
The story then follows the 6 retelling their untold story as the Hypocrites try to act it out. While simultaneously engaging the audience in the story, the play also allows the viewer to step back and see it from the outside in: actors playing actors watching people play themselves as characters while trying to play those people’s characters… simultaneously maintaining an actual suspension of disbelief in the audience. The Hyprocrites make a great point for the paradox of theatre: There is a drastic difference between an actor onstage and a person offstage, and an actor’s onstage interpretation of those people as characters. The 6 characters become extremely agitated at the Hyprocrites for retelling their story with word-for-word dialogue and movement, while still relaying a different tone and tale. When a person becomes a character, and their story becomes the play, their actions’ intentions change in every storyteller and actors’ interpretation.
Remember when I said “the untrained eye may not even completely follow…”? The Hyprocrites very successfully execute this intricate and advanced pair intertwined of stories. Where one set of eyes might see a mess of people relaying lines, another set will see frantic and funny, methodically planned points on how to view art.
SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR
The Hypocrites at Chopin Theater
Through March 11
Tickets $28-36, available at the-hypocrites.com
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
Steep’s ‘Love and Money’ confronts the big ideas honestly
By Devlyn Camp
“I am a photosynthesist of cash,” states the boss in somewhat of a metaphor, comparing her work to the scientific process that creates energy for plants. Her employee, whose story is told in seven reverse-ordered vignettes, struggles to survive a marriage that aches for a piece of that cash flow. From exposing the twisted demise of his wife in the opening scene, the play takes steps backward in time to reveal the relationship’s deconstruction.
Each scene creates the setting and story based in delightfully awkward British humor. Much like Jennifer Egan’s novel A Visit From the Goon Squad, each character, from the boss to the husband to the wife’s babbling parents (played by quick and funny Jason Michael Linder and Molly Reynolds), shows a piece of the story from their perspective and admits their financial struggles. Those issues subtextually, and sometimes straightforwardly, disclose the problems circulating through their love lives. Scenes play out in Director Robin Witt’s clever blocking, and occasionally lack thereof, which is also smart. Many monologues – and even dialogues – are played standing stationary and out to the audience, leaving a viewer to focus on the wit and point of the words. Playwright Dennis Kelly’s words flesh out morals on top of morals: fixing one’s mistakes, dealing with karma, ethical methods of earning money, et cetera.
While many of the scenes start off funny and almost cute, they all progress to serious matters that anyone who’s ever paid a bill can relate to. The script and actors are genuine and entertaining, obviously understanding the kind of job where little money is made from a lot of passion. While the theme stands on a Sondheim-esque “life sucks” sort of policy, there are honest moments when one can truly believe money can’t hurt them anymore.
The play is obviously about love and money, but moreover, their byproducts. When discussed in a final, absolutely astonishing and candid monologue performed by Julia Siple, everything in life comes down to a person’s choice of valuing flesh and blood or finance. Depending on your own criticism and perspective, Steep allows you to make the choice.
LOVE AND MONEY
Steep Theatre Co.
Through February 25th
Tickets $20-22, available at steeptheatre.com
Molly Reynolds, Jason Michael Linder; photo courtesy Lee Miller
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
Well-played game at Lookingglass, ‘Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting’
By Devlyn Camp
In an effort to do some good, Branch Rickey began to take the necessary steps to integrate Major League Baseball in the early 1940s by creating a plan to sign Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Through the newest Lookingglass production Mr. Rickey Calls A Meeting, a fictional encounter of entertainment and baseball legends is played out. Legends attending in Ed Schmidt’s story include boxer Joe Louis, tap dancing king Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, actor and suspected communist supporter Paul Robeson, and of course Jackie Robinson (who, to the baseball illiterate, was the first black player admitted to the Major League since the 1880s). Also in and out of the meeting, to our comic relief, is Clancy the young bellhop and baseball fan.
In an engaging conversation, Rickey (Larry Neumann, Jr.) explains his plan to the gentlemen in order to create a unanimous agreement to support integrating the league. For Bojangles, this means risking his partial ownership of a Negro National League team. Robeson spends the act trying to understand Rickey’s hidden motivations, while Louis seems to be supportive either way. As the gentlemen argue, Clancy (Kevin Douglas) runs errands for Mr. Rickey, all the while persistently trying to snag autographs from his heroes. Douglas is quick-witted with great timing to match Bojangles actor Ernest Perry, who is purely delightful in his character.
On a half-diamond hotel room set lined by the powder of a baseline, Rickey breaks down the plan of a quiet revolutionless integration. Faithful to the facts, he asks Robinson to actually not fight the forthcoming disagreements, but to have “guts enough not to fight back.” As in many stories of integration, the plan must be executed with the right amount of theatrics in order to save face. It becomes clear that Rickey’s plan is not just altruistic, but self-serving, as black fans of the Yankees will move over to the Dodgers, as well as fans from the Negro National League. Through Clancy’s innocent eyes, as it wasn’t evident before, his heroes have their own demons. Bojangles is a gambler, Louis has anger issues, and Robeson, well, the communist issue comes up often, naturally. The conversation turns out the pros and cons of showmanship and reputation versus making radical change for the better. Money’s worth seems to hold more power than moral worth. As we can see by looking at MLB today, everything turned out to be copacetic.
MR RICKEY CALLS A MEETING
Lookingglass Theatre
Through February 19th, 2012
Tickets $20-$68, available at lookingglasstheatre.org
Kevin Douglas, James Vincent Meredith, Javon Johnson (left to right), photo courtesy Sean Williams
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
‘In the Heights’ tour features big talent and big voices
By Devlyn Camp
Not so far away from the tunes tapped on Broadway, the Washington Heights barrio features it’s own melody. It took years of effort, but finally, the 2008 musical In the Heights breathed Broadway life into the Latin and hip hop scores of the streets, going on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical and, of course, hit the road. In this production, now at the Ford Oriental Theatre, a new cast introduces Lin-Manuel Miranda’s (Music, Lyrics) original story.
Usnavi (Perry Young, in Miranda’s original role) tells the barrio’s story, although the acting is sometimes flat and awkward. He finds a quirky spot in Vanessa’s (Presilah Nuñez) heart though, and one can’t help but root for him. That every-leggy Nuñez is glamorous, powerful, and knows how to drop jaws with a silky solo number. In Vanessa’s effort to find a new home, she falls for Usnavi, who wants to leave his home, too, and head for his home country, the Dominican Republic. The cast also features strong voices in nearly every performer, among a dash of less-than-decent acting. Nina’s (Virginia Cavaliere) milky high notes in her song “Breathe” are even more appreciated when put next to her dull character. It’s difficult to put your finger on it, what’s wrong with the performer. Bad acting is just something one knows when they see it. When an audience member remembers that they’re in an audience watching a play, the dream broken, that’s probably when they’re watching something not click onstage.
Although among the lows, the production has many highs. Sonny (Robert Ramirez), Usnavi’s little cousin, is so smug and adorable. He is the comic relief of most scenes and leads the show’s funny bone along with the gossipy salon women. When the full cast finally comes together in the song “96,000,” there a vocal strength that outshines any flaw one caught earlier in the production. The sound is precise, the lights follow suit, and choreography is so wild it’s difficult to process in words. When the number is over, the audience has to catch their breath too.
Each song and scene is decorated with citizens walking around the barrio in contemporary choreography. The walking movement is altered to match a hip hop sound underscore. (The music, by the way, is a pretty impressive work by Miranda.) As each character focuses on how to find their way home, Abuela Claudia (Christina Aranda) happens to find her success very late in life. The younger generation, who were brought to this town by Claudia’s generation, seeks to leave to find new territory, not recognizing the past’s sacrifice. In a twist for the better, a sense community is recognized and the friends-are-family theme is utilized. While seeming commonplace here in the written text, onstage it is quite a beautiful layout. This street intersection (a gorgeous forced perspective set design by Anna Louizos) is where the insanely talented common people call home. Their everyday problems are supported by the friends on this block, and, as the smart lyric directly states, “When you have a problem, you come home.”
IN THE HEIGHTS
Broadway in Chicago
Through January 15, 2012
Tickets $25-$75, available at BroadwayInChicago.com
Photo courtesy John Daughtry
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
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