Theatre People

The Angel Next Door

Hello friends. Are you tired, rundown, listless? Do you poop out at parties? Are you unpopular? The answer to all your problems is in this delightful two-act farce. Paraphrasing the familiar opening words of that hilarious Vitameatavegamin commercial sketch from “I Love Lucy” seems apropos. It brings to mind the special kind of gleeful, gut-busting romantic comedy that actor and playwright, Paul Slade Smith, incorporates into his latest side-splitting, screwball comedy, THE ANGEL NEXT DOOR. Like “I Love Lucy,” the play is a fast-paced entertainment that takes theatergoers away from their personal problems, as well as today’s taxing, troublesome world, and provides a witty, very funny story about theatre people.

There are more than two sides to every story in BOTH

Teatro Vista, Chicago’s largest professional Latine theater company, has premiered its first production as part of its new residency at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and they have come out swinging. Artistic Director Wendy Mateo and Executive Director Lorena Diza have taken Teatro Vista’s 35-year history of radical abundance and expanded it into this new residency at Steppenwolf, as well as an explosion of new works spanning multiple mediums and platforms including short films, podcasts, digital novels and video media.  Part of that new production includes several short “prequels” to the play that can be watched on YouTube, which add to and deepen the tone and the world of the story.

BOTH, a new play by Paloma Nozicka and directed by Georgette Verdin is a sly, creepy and thoroughly entertaining take on grief, belonging, human connection, and truth. Don’t let those serious words fool you though, it’s also a ripping good yarn. Nozicka stars as Xochi, a woman staring down several catastrophic changes to her life: she’s pregnant with her boyfriend of only a year, has lost her twin brother Sebastian (Yona Moises Olivares) and is as disappointed in her family as they are in her. In an attempt to heal the family rift, she invites everyone to a private baby shower at her pristine lake house, the site of her brother’s disappearance. It doesn’t go as planned, in part because Sebastian shows up, after having been thought dead for over a year. The play bounces back and forth between two periods in time, both right before and sometime after Sebastian’s disappearance, giving Olivares and Nozicka the opportunity to play their characters at two very distinct stages in their lives.

Seeing Teatro Vista spread out and breathe in the resources that this new residency at Steppenwolf offers was a truly exciting experience. The set of BOTH, designed by Sotirios Livaditis, is a serene vacation home – draped in muted beiges and blues, with warm and inviting textures that make it feel like the audience is somehow looking through the fourth wall and into a private sanctuary. Costume designer Johan H. Gallardo used the same palette for the actors, creating a leisurely, elegant vibe that very clearly told the audience what the characters wanted to be feeling. That is, except for Nozicka’s Xochi, who, despite her blooming pregnancy, is clad in stark black, perhaps symbolizing the devasting truths that the other characters are all hiding from. Or perhaps, she took a page from Chekov’s Masha – she is mourning for her life – darkly funny, given how hugely pregnant she is. The pristine set and costumes juxtapose perfectly with the saturated, vibrant light design by Grano De Oro and the chilling sound design by Satya Chávez. While the set never changes, the light and sound create a cinematic effect, indicating by color which time the story is in – the past is a glowing gold, the transitional trauma is infused with nightmarish blues and reds and the present is a muted echo of both.

Nozicka’s Xochi is a sardonic, intelligent woman who has spent her life insisting on an adherence to the truth as a form of righteousness – after all, it’s been said to set you free. Her family are less committed to that freedom. In fact, the play is in many ways a narrative exploration of the question: Do you want to be happy? Or do you want to be right? This leads to the next question; can you make the ones you love happy by denying your own truth? In a classic “wise fool” moment, it is the steamrolled, well-intentioned Cynthia who suggests that truth can be a thing that we make, if we can only wish it into being hard enough.

The cast is rounded out by domineering, single-minded matriarch Angela, played by Charin Álvarez, who has a warm voice and solid presence that belies a cold, steely resolve to manifest her heart’s desire. Big brother Juan is played by Eddie Martinez with a thin veneer of joviality over an angry, sexist heart with limited imagination. Xochi’s boyfriend and Juan’s best friend Sam, played by Brian King, is yet another man who talks the talk, but loses control of his legs when it’s time to walk the walk. King has the kind of easy charm that makes it especially heartbreaking when he doesn’t deliver the goods. Then there is Angela’s sweet new friend, Cynthia, played by Ayssette Muñoz, whose soft, flowered dress and gentle manner is at odds with the rest of the family’s sharp edges. Finally, Olivares’s Sebastian is almost two people: the fidgety, funny brother, failing at hiding his growing despair, and the still, absent-minded, eerie revenant he seems to have become. It is Sebastian’s presence, or non-presence, that sparks Xochi’s inevitable crash into an impossible decision. She is the only family member who questions where Sebastian has been, the only one that notices strange differences in his knowledge and personal quirks. Her refusal to accept everyone else’s version of events drives the plot towards its unsettling conclusion. I’d love to say more, but to do so would be to give away some of the best parts, because despite the dark subject matter, this show is, in an old-fashioned sense of the word, fun.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Alina C. Hevia

BOTH can be seen at Steppenwolf 1700 Theater, located at 1700 N. Halsted St.
June 4 – 29, April 11 – May 10. Wednesdays through Saturdays 7:30 p.m.; Sundays 3:00pm.  Wednesdays – Pay-What-You-Will, all other days, $47.

Box Office: www.steppenwolf.org or call 312-335-1650

Email boxoffice@teatrovista.org for tickets

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.

Shake, Rattle and Roll

Heartbreak Hotel

A form of theatre called the jukebox musical continues its popularity in America with two very different variations. There are the musicals that cobble together an original story around the songbook of a famous singer or pop/rock group. Think of AMERICAN IDIOT, with its score by the rock group, Green Day; or the mega popular ABBA musical, MAMMA MIA! Then there are the biographical jukebox musicals that weave songs from a pop, rock, soul or country/western group or star into a show, whose life the musical depicts. Examples include JERSEY BOYS (about the rise of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons), RING OF FIRE (detailing the life and career of Johnny Cash), AIN’T TOO PROUD (about the popularity of the Temptations) or BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL. These jukebox entertainments focus on the personal and professional struggles of the artists.

If all is lost, can all be new again?

Kassandra at the Top of the World

There are only a few more days to experience the world-premiere of Kassandra at the Top of the World, a mythic and timely reimagining of the famous seer, presented by The Terror Cottas and the Chicago Parks District, in collaboration with Fat Theatre Project. This powerful original work written and directed by Eileen Tull, Artistic Director of Fat Theatre Project, confronts us with the things that are heard, but not listened to: Kassandra’s prophesies, survivors of sexual violence, inconvenient truths about the exploitation of our one precious planet. And, perhaps most importantly, that inner voice reminding us to embrace our innate divinity and bow to no one.

A Real Blast From the Past

Father of the Bride

The 1950’s has been called The Golden Age of television. Many of those black & white TV programs form the fond memories from my childhood. Besides some variety shows, the airwaves were dominated by situation comedies. All of these half-hour programs were G-rated stories, and each of them championed traditional family values, suburban life and strong community support. A few of them featured silly slapstick comedy, like the broad schtick once found in vaudeville. But the best-loved most humorous and heartwarming television programs included classics like “I Love Lucy,” “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” “The Real McCoys,” “December Bride” and the quintessential family comedy, “Father Knows Best.”

Everything That Happens is Chance

Private Lives

English playwright Noel Coward is best known for his finely fabricated craftsmanship. Coward’s sparkling, witty dialogue, his eccentric and memorable characters and his biting satire of the upper class elite is a pure delight. In this delicious theatrical confection, particularly as directed by Jeffrey Cass, the Artistic Director of BrightSide Theatre, PRIVATE LIVES is an elegant, delightfully droll and very sophisticated comedy. The story focuses on Elyot and Amanda, a divorced couple, who unexpectedly meet again in the south of France. The problem is that they’re each with their new spouses and on their honeymoons. Upon surprisingly confronting each other in the adjoining balconies of their hotel,  Elyot and Amanda discover that they are still in love with each other. So naturally they do what anyone would do in this situation: they abandon their new partners and run off together to Paris.

The Secret Lives of Windsor Wives

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The crisp Autumn air wafts through the streets of Windsor. The town is alive planning all the festivities for All Hallows Eve. Overflowing with bizarre misunderstandings, ridiculous costume disguises and over-the-top comedy, Director Phillip Breen has taken William Shakespeare’s 1602 Elizabethan comedy and plopped it down in contemporary England during the Halloween holiday. And although generally not considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, Mr. Breen’s production is not only loads of fun, but he’s made the story easily accessible for every audience member. He’s even provided an LED screen that projects the dialogue, for those who prefer to read their comedies, in addition to watching them.

Part Scripted Drama, Part Improvisation

Mrs. Krishnan’s Party

Leave your troubles at the door as you enter the intimate Upstairs venue on the sixth floor of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Set in the storeroom of a small grocery store a surprise party is in the works. And guess what? The good news is that we’re all invited to participate and enjoy the festivities! The shop is owned by a very original personage, in every sense of the word. Mrs. Krishnan is the charming, gregarious Indian woman who owns and runs the store. She’s a widow, with a son named Abu, who’s at university in another city. Mrs. Krishnan is a little kooky and an extraordinary cook. Today is the colorful celebration of the feast of Onam, and the entire audience has been invited to the festivities!

A One, A Two…You Know What to Do

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

In a Chicago recording studio, impatient record producer Sturdyvant and the star’s patient, put upon manager Irvin, prepare for their diva Blues singer. Ma Rainey is over an hour late for her recording session of a new album. But time is money. Her talented band members have all arrived early and are downstairs rehearsing, while teasing each other and sharing stories from the road. These likable musicians are virtuoso veterans trombonist Cutler, bass player Slow Drag, talented pianist Toledo, and young trumpeter and loose cannon, Levee. After Ma Rainey finally—finally—makes her long awaited  entrance, her entourage in tow (with her stuttering nephew Sylvester and sexy gal pal Dussie Mae), the recording session begins, with “A one, a two…you know what to do.”

We build the world we live in, every day, with every choice we make

The Sugar Wife

What is your sugar? The Artistic Home brings the United States premiere of The Sugar Wife to Theater Wit. As pertinent today as in the 1850’s it portrays, The Sugar Wife, written by Elizabeth Kuti and directed by Kevin Hagan, is a powerful exploration of what it means to hope in the face of the brutalities, the compromises, and the hypocrisies of life. Are some compromises inescapable? Are some hypocrisies acceptable? How do we make our way in an unjust and troubled world, and – perhaps most importantly – do we face the costs of our choices? We all have our price, we all make bargains and compromises – whether we look ourselves in the mirror or not.