Chicago Theatre Review

Monthly Archives: April 2022

Something Wonderful

April 9, 2022 Comments Off on Something Wonderful

The King and I – Drury Lane

Love flows across the Drury Lane stage, thanks to Alan Paul’s wise and sensitive direction. Like most every show presented at this venue, Mr. Paul’s “The King and I” feels at once grand, and yet intimate and personal. Every detail, every moment of growing affection, often spiced with unexpected humor and brimming with a vibrant humanity, simply radiates with honest emotion. This mismatched couple’s journey from courteous respect to genuine caring ultimately develops into a restrained Victorian expression of love, all thanks to Mr. Paul’s caring and empathetic direction.

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Real or Imagined

April 3, 2022 Comments Off on Real or Imagined

Molly Sweeney – Irish Theatre of Chicago

Set in the fictional village of Ballybeg, Ireland, Brian Friel’s story of a blind, young woman’s journey to regain her sight, and the two men who most influence her life, is a tale of how this miraculous surgery ultimately fails. Friel’s theme that seeing is not the same as understanding infuses each moment of this drama. Offering the titular character the possibility of restoring her vision is rationalized with the question, “What does she have to lose?” Well, the audience gradually learns the answer to this query, as the characters discover that things may not actually be as they appear. 

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