Playing In The Woods, Part 3

And now, the long-awaited (or at least long-delayed) review of Another Part of the Forest, the last show I saw at American Players Theatre. Great apologies for the delay--explanations are forthcoming.

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Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest, her 1946 prequel to 1939's classic The Little Foxes, was made for a proscenium stage--preferably one inside. It was the only production we saw that was a matinee Up The Hill, and certain moments suffered from the fact that it's impossible to have a blackout when the sun is shining. (The last moment of the play, particularly, though the musical cue still gave it a nice kick.) And the fact that it was quite hot and sunny didn't help, noticeably thinning the audience after the first intermission. So it's undeniable that the show had a tougher task than any of the others in the festival. But it certainly overcame the difficulties--Lillian Hellman wrote a tasty slab of melodramatic ham, and William Brown's production was just smashing, with everyone involved having a great time and keeping the audience entertained.

The play follows the scheming Hubbard family in 1880, 20 years before the events of The Little Foxes. The play delves into how they made their money and what made them who they became. It's often quite funny, but it's full of the "Old Testament Fury" that Brown mentions in his program notes: they may be absurd, and their antics fascinating, but there's no question that the Hubbards' ruthless scheming and acquisition of money and power is horribly destructive. That doesn't mean it's not fun to watch, though.

However, the melodrama takes a little time arriving. One of the strange adjustments for a contemporary audience watching the show is the delibarateness with which Hellman sets up the story. Act 1 isn't dull, but it certainly take some patience to get through it, as the script methodically sets each part of the plot in place. Authors don't take this methodical approach to exposition any more, but after adjusting, it's fun, raising anticipation for the explosions to come. And when the plot does get moving, it's delightful watching Hellman knock down what she just set up.

The cast has a fine time with their parts, making the characters pop from the stage even when they aren't entering through the aisles. Tiffany Scott makes a grandly manipulative Regina (though not nearly so dangerous as the older version), Marcus Truschinski chills the blood as the calculating elder brother Ben, Eric Parks and Tracy Michelle Arnold are hilarious as the feckless younger brother Oscar and Laurette, his lady love (who's also a lady of the evening), and Susan Shunk brings real pathos to Birdie. But the play belongs to the parents--Jonathan Smoots' Marcus, unshakably powerful in his own home until he isn't, and Sarah Day's Lavinia, seemingly addled and  powerless, but with a few aces up her sleeve.

Some just won't take to the stately pace and reliance on plot twists. But for those who like it, this is a damn fine version of a hugely entertaining show.

Playing in the Woods, Part 2

Athol Fugard, the great South African playwright, attacked the apartheid system with great force in his plays. Indeed, he was one of the country's most renowned artists during that shameful period. (Chicago saw productions of three of his plays from that era earlier this year.) But his work didn't stop when Nelson Mandela was elected president. APT is presenting Exits and Entrances, his two-character play from 2004, in the Touchstone. And while it doesn't have the raw power of his earlier works, it's still and entertaining and moving play, with sterling performances from David Daniel and Ken Albers.

Exits and Entrances is a memory play, exploring the relationship between the young Fugard (Daniel) and Andre Huguenet (Albers), one of the greatest South African actors of his era. By the time the play starts, in 1956, his career is on the decline. His Capetown production of Oedipus the King has a cast of miscast locals including Fugard, only 24, a ludicrously young version of the Old Shepherd, who also serves as Huguenet's backstage assistant. In conversations through the course of the run, as well as a reunion five years later, the playwright learns about Huguenet's life, regrets, and views on theatre, and shares his own theatrical dreams, life regrets, and fierce desire to change the country's horrible injustices.

The script's real advantage is in the characters: Fugard supplies a clear-eyed version of himself as a romantic young man, and a titanic Huguenet. This is the kind of part that actors dream of--grandiosity whipsawing into insecurity, dreams and desires beaten but not destroyed. And Albers makes a meal of it, making us care about this larger-than-life man and feel for his pain and disappointment. Daniel, though clearly somewhat older than his character, provides an appealing audience surrogate, full of ideals and artistic fire.

The script isn't quite as strong plot-wise. While the characters sometimes disagree, their main conflicts are either internal or with South African society. Most of the dialogue, therefore, consists of telling stories from the past and arguing issues. It's interesting to watch, but a little short on drama. Even though the show is less than 90 minutes long, it sometimes sags.

But it's really a chance to watch two actors doing great work up close. And for those who love great acting, it's definitely worth a trip.

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As You Like It is not named after its protagonist, like King Lear or Hamlet. But like them, it's unusually dependent on one performance: a production won't get far without a wonderful Rosalind. And the production at APT has found one in Hillary Clemens. She's completely lovable and delightful, with an easy command of the language and wonderful chemistry with Matt Schwader's Orlando. She's a strong center to Tim Ocel's lovely staging of one of Shakespeare's most complex comedies. The play is by turns hilarious, melancholy, philosophical, and life-affirming, and this production nails all of its moods.

Rosalind is the daughter of Duke Senior (Brian Mani), who was overthrown by his usurping younger brother, Frederick (Mani again), and exiled to the Forest of Arden. However, due to her friendship with Celia (Tiffany Scott), she is allowed to stay in the court. Orlando (Schwader) is the younger brother of Oliver (Darragh Kennan), who denies him his inheritance or any education and keeps him as virtual slave labor. Rosalind and Orlando fall in love at first sight when he comes to court and defeats the fearsome Charles (Michael Huftile), in a wrestling match. But just afterward Rosalind finds that she is being banished from the court. She, dressed as a boy, and Celia, dressed as a farmgirl, flee to the forest, where they encounter her father and his transplanted community, a group of lovestruck shepherds, and Orlando, on the run from his murderously angry brother.

The script balances a complex, quite silly plot with deep philosophical revelations and dizzy clowning, and it's tough to get them all right. But Ocel and company do it in the simplest way--playing the characters as real people with real problems. They're immensely likable, and our laughs are of recognition at frailties we share with the characters, rather than condescension. (One occasional exception is David Daniel's Touchstone, the fool: his clowning is often hilarious, but occasionally goes way too far outside the play's world, to jarring effect.)

Clemens leads the cast (which is excellent throughout), with able support from Scott, Schwader, James Ridge as the melancholy lord Jacques, and Nicholas Harazin and Ashleigh LaThrop as an unlikely rustinc couple. It's funny, exciting, and, in the end, deeply moving.

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Check back soon for my review of Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest, the last show I saw at APT.

Playing in the Woods, Part 1

This past weekend, I passed a major milestone in my life as a Chicagoan. (Or, given my move, a Chicagolandian.) I visited Wisconsin for the first time. This is something that absolutely everybody in Chicago does--it's close enough for a weekend car trip, it's cheaper than a lot of vacations, and it's gorgeous. But I had never had the chance to take advantage of it, and so felt like I was missing out on an experience common to all natives of this fine city.

But no more! Adam and I visited Wisconsin this weekend, and a particularly wonderful part thereof: The American Players Theatre near Spring Green, not far from Madison. The people of APT invited me to visit this past weekend. I saw four plays over three days, and will herein be reviewing them for you, along with the experience in general.

So what is APT? It's a classical theatre, in the middle of the Wisconsin woods. The Up The Hill Theatre--so named because it is in fact a quarter-mile hike up a hill to get there--is an open-air amphiteatre with 1148 seats and excellent acoustics. The Touchstone, which opened in 2009, is a lovely 200-seat indoor space.

APT starts with an absolutely unfair advantage: When the weather is nice (and it was absolutely perfect this weekend), the entire audience is in a great mood. Particularly for the shows I saw in the evening, I have rarely been in an audience that was happier and more excited to see a show. It certainly didn't hurt that all of the shows I saw lived up to that expectation, but the setting itself is an invaluable part of the company's success.

First, a few words on food: Picnics are part of the tradition at APT--there are tables all over the place--and with good reason. It's not a first-rate food town. There are a few places with fine-but-not-exceptional diner and pub food, and some fancy restaurants that are reportedly pretty wonderful (we didn't want to pay to find out), but the only really excellent meal that we had was at the Spring Green General Store, which has a delicious menu of salads, sandwiches, and soups, very fresh and tasty. (If you want a drink and snack, though, I highly recommend the Bird of Paradise Tea Room for some tea and pie. Oh man, that was good pie. And I'd have spent so much time picking a tea if they hadn't been about to close.) Premade picnics are available to order from the box office, and there are certainly enough grocery stores around to prepare one for yourself. If we are able to return, that's certainly what we'll do.

As for lodging: we were fortunate that the theatre put us up at the House on the Rock Resort. It's a lovely hotel (all of the rooms are suites), and certainly recommended for those who have the means, or a love of golf--the resort has 27 holes. However, there are more reasonable options available as well, though none so close to the theatre.

And if you are in the area, I recommend The House on the Rock. It's a hugely popular tourist attraction, and something that really must be seen: it's the creation of a possibly mad visionary who build a gigantic house and filled it with...stuff. There's a room that extends out hundreds of feet over open air, a giant carousel, and way more. It's unlike anything you've seen, and certainly an American original.

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After The House on the Rock, we saw the first show of the weekend, Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well. It's often known as one of his problem plays, and with good reason: the plot can potentially be quite off-putting. Helena (Ally Carey, who is remarkably only a year out of her BFA and still non-equity), a commoner and the orphaned daughter of a great doctor, is the ward of the Countess of Rossillion (Tracy Michelle Arnold), and in love with her son, Bertram (Matt Schwader). When she uses her father's medicines to cure the King of France (Jonathan Smoots), previously thought terminal, he grants her any husband she wants in the kingdom. She chooses Bertram, but he's horrified at the thought of marrying someone below his station, and just after their wedding runs away to war, the marriage unconsummated. She follows him to war, and initiates a scheme to win him back.

It would make sense to play this as bitter comedy, but director John Langs goes a different route. He emphasizes the characters' humanity and the reconciliation that comes at the end. There are many laughs, but rarely at the characters' expense. (The one exception is Jim DeVita as Parolles, Bertram's big-talking hanger-on, whom the script thoroughly humiliates. However, even he sees some redemption at the end.)

And it did wonders for a play I thought I knew--this production was more moving than I thought possible. I'd always thought of it as an odd, bitter little show, and the previous versions I saw didn't change my mind. But by emphasizing the characters' humanity and their consequences, without ever judging or dismissing them, Langs and his cast have given the show uncommon depth.

The acting is strong throughout, as it was in all four shows--the rotating repertory format clearly ups the game of everyone involved, and I wish there were more of it to be found in Chicago. Carey leads the way with an assured performance, making Helena's seemingly self-destructive decisions understandable, while Schwader makes you understand both why she wants him and why he doesn't deserve it. Arnold and Smoots bring moral authority to the play's older generation, and DeVita and John Pribyl are just hilarious, without taking the audience out of the play.

Langs' production does sag a bit in the second half--there were several sections when it seemed to take far too long to get through each plot point--but he's created a funny and moving production of a Shakespeare that often doesn't get the credit it deserves.

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I hope you enjoyed the first installment--check back soon for the other three productions we saw in Spring Green!

Blog Exclusive Review: Les Enfants Terribles: Prom Night

Sometimes Infantile, Not Terrible

(left to right) Scott Ray Merchant, Casey Kells, Chris Mueller, Alex Kyger, Eric Swanson, Brian Rad. Photo by Tom Hartmon.

When my roommate, brilliant actor/playwright/novelist Jessica Cluess, and I see a particularly strange piece of theatre or film, she generally turns to me with a shrug and says "Well, that happened." In a way it's a compliment: the art has, after all, provoked a reaction that's hard to put into words. There are many worse things a play or movie can do than weird you out. But if that's all it does, it's hard to argue that it's really effective--weirdness alone doesn't stick for long.

Well, Les Enfants Terribles: Prom Night certainly happened. What exactly was it that happened? Well, we're in a gym, decorated in patented tacky prom style (Shaun Renfro did the witty set). Just as a group of students (Jonathan Helvey, RyanLempka, and Amanda Beth Miller) are about to draw the name of the Prom King, Les Enfants burst in. Les Enfants, played by Casey Kells, Alex Kyger, Scott Ray Merchant, Christopher Paul Mueller, Brian Rad, and Eric Ryan Swanson, are a group of grotesque figures. They are wearing brownish, stained unitards, with foam-rubber growths of various kinds underneath--one has large, clunky feet, another gigantic breasts, the third a phallus that goes straight up to his sternum and what appear to be giant rabbit ears on his head. They chase out the people and proceed to enact a grotesque parody of the processes of courtship and prom royalty election, interspersed with bizarre a cappella performances of songs ranging from "All You Need Is Love" to "Tubthumping", violent beatings, and declarations of "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry." In less than an hour, it's done.

It's hard to make a recommendation on this show, because it depends so thoroughly on the taste of the audience members. For those who like aggressive, grotesque, bizarre humor, it's sidesplitting (and there were some in the audience). Others are likely to find it intensely unpleasant. I fell somewhere in between--moments made me laugh, others made me uncomfortable, and there were sections where I just got bored or felt like the show was repeating itself. The cast is clearly talented: they create clear and sharp characterizations and throw themselves into the show with complete commitment and unwavering intensity. (All are recent graduates of Roosevelt University.) It just doesn't add up to much, in the end. It's too weird to be silly, escapist comedy, but if there was any satirical point or commentary on humanity, it didn't come through to me. The show may just be going for "bizarre provocation with uncomfortable laughs", in which case it succeeds on those limited grounds--it's certainly bizarre and provocative, and often funny. It hasn't yet cohered into a compelling show, but it will be interesting to see how the group matures over time.

One important note: if you do go, dress as lightly as possible. The night we went, it was absolutely stifling in there, despite the best efforts of a few fans. Hopefully Red Tape will come up with another plan to keep the place cool, but for now, wear shorts and sandals if possible, and bring water.

Blog Exclusive Review: Hesperia at the Right Brain Project

Full Disclosure: Playwright Randall Colburn is a friend of mine, and I'm friendly with director Nathan Robbel as well. I stand by the fairness and honesty of the review, but take it as you will.

Searching for Redemption

(Billy Fenderson and Katy Albert)

The desire for redemption is powerful: who hasn't felt they have sins that need to be washed away? But the drive to get away from your own sins can hurt other people horribly. That's the conflict that animates Hesperia, the second play in the Randall Colburn season at the Right Brain Project. It's not a perfect play, but it does enough things exceptionally well to be well worth a trip.

Claudia (Natalie DiCristofano) used to be a porn star named Jess. But one year ago, she fled L. A. and her old life and ran to Hesperia, a small, conservative, evangelical midwestern town near the one where she grew up. She's engaged to Trick (Nick Freed), the local youth pastor, and feels that she's gotten beyond her past. But now Ian (Billy Fenderson), her former lover and porn partner, who went to LA with her, has also come to Hesperia, looking for the same solution.

It's a plot setup ripe for sensationalism, which Colburn entirely avoids. In fact, the play does a remarkably good job at showing the appeal of religious conservatism. It was quite a surprise for someone, like myself, who has never been particularly religious--I felt the sense of belonging, of having one's toughest problems cared for, that must make an overwhelmingly religious communities so sustaining. The play is full of revelations like that--Colburn has a razor-sharp eye for the details of human behavior, and it's a joy to see moment after moment that's funny, moving, and painfully recognizable. (The production certainly helps in this respect.) It's rare for a play to have so many uncomfortably honest moments, and something special for this reason alone.

But while the truth of the characters and situations and the quality of the acting (more on that later) make the show consistently interesting to watch, the plotting doesn't always help. There isn't much plot tension to hold the show together. A plot strand that should provide an air of tension and sense of urgency feels perfunctory and is poorly devloped, such that when it gets resolved it almost doesn't register. It's not that it was ever supposed to be a highly plotty show (or at least it doesn't seem that way). But at this point it still has moments where it feels meandering, even though it's less than 90 minutes long, and the ending doesn't pack quite the punch that it should. (I'd also like another play, or a second act, to see what happens to these characters in the next few years, but that's beyond the scope of this review.)

Robbel knows Colburn's work (they collaborated on Pretty Penny a few months ago), and he leads his actors to excellent performances. DiCristofano has the least knowable character onstage (Claudia keeps a lot back), but she's always believable and sympathetic, even at her worst. Fenderson is likable, if a little frightening, as a man overwhelmed by the chance to will his past away. Freed is exceptional, making a character who could easily be a buffoon into the most sympathetic one onstage. Katy Albert, as a potential love interest for Ian, gives a hugely appealing and natural performance, despite the fact that her subplot needs more development.

Hesperia isn't a perfect play (and I think that Pretty Penny was better), but it's still damn impressive, and the folks at the RBP clearly know how to showcase Colburn's work to its best advantage. It's worth checking out for anyone interested in quality new plays, and hopefully a prelude to bigger things from all concerned.

Blog Exclusive Review: The Wreck of the Medusa

(Full disclosure: I went to The Plagiarists' Salon last Monday. They're a very friendly group, and I like them. But rest assured, this is an honest review.)

Nobody can ever accuse The Plagiarists of lacking ambition. The Wreck of the Medusa, their new play, written by Gregory Peters (though Ian Miller is credited as co-creator) and directed by Jack Tamburri, explores the worst naval disaster of the 19th Century from a dizzying variety of perspectives and styles. There are scenes from before the journey, leading up to the wreck, and the years after, pieces of an overblown melodrama based on the disaster, and a look at the creation of Theodore Gericault's famous painting about the disaster, and scenes are played as realism, parody, direct address, and even horror. Nearly everything onstage is interesting, and some is really fantastic, but the diffuse focus makes the play seems longer than its two hours and 20 minutes. It's hard to follow something that goes so many directions at once.

The story of the wreck itself is a grisly one--the Medusa was the head of a convoy going towards Senegal (a colony just being returned to French control in 1816) which took an unsafe course to save time, and was guided even worse by a charlatan (Steven Wilson) who convinced the incompetent captain (Andrew Marchetti) he was an expert in navigation. The ship struck a sandbar, and 150 of the 600 sailors and passengers were left on an overcrowded raft with minimal provisions. After insufficient efforts to tow the raft it was abandoned. When accidentally rescued 13 days later, only 15 survived, who had resorted to cannibalism to survive. Afterwards, the French government attempted to cover up the criminal negligence that led to the disaster and discredit those who told the truth, but Alexandre Corréard (Greg Hess) and Henri  de Sevigny (Kevin V. Smith) published an account of the shipwreck which became a huge success.

No scenes take place on the raft, and this is wise--what stage depiction could live up to the actual horrors, or the ones we could imagine? But aside from that, the play seems determined to tell us everything about the wreck. It's like spending an evening with someone who recently became obsessed with the topic and read a bunch of books on it--everything said is fascinating, but the scattered nature makes it a little tough to follow.

But so much of it is really worth watching. The end of the first act, leading up to the wreck and the abandonment of the raft is riveting (I was reminded of the incompetence, before and after the storm, that made Hurricane Katrina such a disaster), and it is full of scenes and moments that are horrifying or beautiful. As a collection of scenes, performances, and ideas, it provides a lot of food for thought and feeling. The acting is on a consistently high level, with Hess, Smith, Griffin Sharps, and Wilson particularly strong. And the design is brilliant--William Anderson again makes a stunning set in a small space (full disclosure: he did the same for Here Where It's Safe at Stage Left), Anna Glowacki's costumes blend the period-accurate and the expressionistic, and Christopher Kriz's sound design is so evocative as to be almost physical, especially during the shipwreck.

For those of us hungry for new plays with real scope and ambition, The Wreck of the Medusa is very encouraging. If the creators got a little too excited by the possibilities and let the show get away from them, who can blame them?

The Wreck of the Medusa runs Fridays-Saturdays at 8 PM, Sundays at 3 PM at Angel Island, 735 W Sheridan Road, through May 9th. Tickets, $15-20, at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/98799

Blog Exclusive Review: Pretty Penny at the Right Brain Project

So to be clear about one thing: this isn't an official review. Randall Colburn, who wrote Pretty Penny, currently getting its world premiere at The Right Brain Project is a friend of mine: he won DrekFest, the annual contest for the most intentionally terrible play in America, at Stage Left in 2009, and we've gotten to know each other since. So while it opened a few weeks ago, when I was out of town, I was very pleased to have the chance to see Pretty Penny as a member of the press on Friday night. Some thoughts:

Early in the second act, when things have already gotten pretty complicated, one character cautions another "Don't let it get real." But of course she already has, and will only go further. Things getting real is the idea of the play--the attraction of masks and alternate identities, the power wielded through sex and lies, and the seduction and danger of breaking those barriers. The complexities of sex and identity in the modern age are dramatized with some frequency, but rarely with such intelligence, maturity, and fearless willingness to investigate consequences without sensationalizing.

The play is about Vick (Katy Albert, doing exceptionally assured work in her Chicago debut) who takes a job as an operator on a no-taboo phone sex line. Jerry (Josh Sumner), the owner, represents her phone identity, "Penny," with pictures he took of Crystal (Susan Myburgh), now a successful model, ten years before. Crystal and her boyfriend Tommy (Nick Mikula) find out, and both get very interested in Penny. Add in an obsessed caller (Buck Zachary), pining for his own missed chances, and a potential real-life date Vick keeps standing up (Stephen Gawrit), and things get really strange.

The play is structured in isolated scenes, and doesn't concern itself with matters of backstory--we never learn why Vick chose to work on a phone sex line or anything about her background and life, for instance. It trusts the audience to fill in the gaps and gives us enough to keep us totally engrossed. In this it's well matched with Robbel's production: the Right Brain Project's space is quite small, and there's just one row of benches surrounding the space on all four sides. Robbel dispenses with props and all sets but a few pieces of furniture, (mime supervisor Elizabeth Bagby makes it look completely natural) and the result is a microscopic focus on the characters and their behavior that pays off exceptionally well. He's also guided the actors to extremely strong, believable work, with Albert the first among equals.

Make no mistake, this is rough stuff. It's very funny and sharp at the beginning, but as the characters get more involved and desperate, it gets intensely uncomfortable--there are two scenes in the second act that had me squirming in my seat. And of course, it doesn't shy from sexual content, of fun and distressing varieties.

But it's not exploitative in any way--Colburn isn't rubbing our noses in depravity, just showing us real people in real situations. It's not a perfect play--I'm not sure the ending worked for me--but it's exceptionally strong, always fascinating to watch, and getting a first-rate production.  It's only running two more weeks, and I highly recommend a trip to see it. But if you miss it, all is not lost--the company is doing another of Colburn's plays, Hesperia, come summer. I'll certainly be there.

Pretty Penny runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 PM, Sundays at 7 PM through March 20th at the Right Brain Project, 4001 N Ravenswood. Reservations highly recommended, call 773-750-2033 or email tickets@therbp.org. More information here.

Blog Exclusive Review: In The Heights

Heat and Warmth

The heat of In The Heights is extremely impressive: after all, it takes place across three broiling days in July in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood, and features an array of young characters dancing to an exceptionally energetic and lively latin-influenced score. But it's the play's warmth that is, in the end, even more notable. This is a play that loves its characters and its setting deeply, and tells their stories with theatrical skill and genuine heart. Despite a few slips into sentimentality and a few other stray flaws, it makes for an exciting and moving show.

The show tells several intertwined stories with impressive grace: Usnavi (Kyle Beltran), owns a corner bodega (grocery/convenience store), with his cousin Sonny (Shaun Taylor-Corbett) as his only employee. He nurses a crush on Vanessa (Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer), who's desperate to leave the neighborhood, and her alcoholic mother. She works at the salon owned by Daniela (Isabel Santiago) and Carla (Genny Lis Padilla), who are being forced by rising rents to relocate to the Bronx. Nina (Arielle Jacobs), the neighborhood golden child, just got back from her first year at Stanford, but the year wasn't quite the triumph she said it was--a fact she's hiding from her parents, Kevin and Camila (Daniel Bolero and Natalie Toro). Soon she's also hiding her growing attraction to Benny (Rogelio Douglas, Jr.), an African-American employee at her parents' cab company. Watching over the whole block is Claudia (Elise Santora), related to none of them but an abuela (grandmother) to them all.

The plot looks complicated, but plays out gracefully and clearly. Bookwriter Quiara Alegria Hudes and composer/lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda (who also played Usnavi in the original cast) have crafted a winning, if romanticized, portrait of a neighborhood. Hudes' book doesn't have much time to work--well over half of the 2.5 hour show is music--but she deftly sketches characters that feel real after only a few lines. And Miranda's score is a wonder, certainly among the best to be heard on Broadway in the past 5 years. It's endlessly melodically inventive, and the lyrics are clever and lively. (It uses significant amounts of rap, and I'm amazed it's taken this long to have it in a Broadway show: as rap is based in lyrics and storytelling, it makes more sense in theatre than most genres. Perhaps the lack until now has just been Broadway's aesthetic conservatism, but I hope we hear more soon.)

Luckily, the book and score have real allies in the cast, who create a sense of ensemble and community that makes the story's implausible moments easy to ignore. They all sound wonderful (Miranda gives all of the principals a chance to really let it rip at least once), and its easy to believe that they grew up together and love each other and their community. While Usnavi is the nominal lead, Beltran gives a slightly subtler performance than Miranda did (at least judging from the cast album). This choice points up how passive the role is until relatively late in the show, but it also lets the ensemble nature of the story shine through: this is the story of everyone onstage. Each member of the cast deserves special comment, but lacking space, I must give particular credit to Taylor-Corbett's delightful comic work, the depth and fun Santiago brings to a character that could easily be a sassy caricature, and the erotic heat that Douglas and Jacobs give to their scenes together.

Director Thomas Kail and choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler keep the show in constant motion--it's dancing even when the characters are just speaking. They're wise to pitch the show to a slightly heightened style, in keeping with the small exaggerations of the book and score. They also use the small ensemble exceptionally well--the little details of character and movement going on in the background give the evening texture, and give depth to the dramas at center stage.

In The Heights has been getting a lot of attention for the use of latin music and rapping, which are still uncommon on Broadway. But in the end it's a very conventional show--characters learn lessons, lovers are united, and the importance of family, hard work, and community are validated. There's very little to challenge an audience member. But theatre created with this much skill and heart, that earns both the visceral excitement and the occasional tear in the eye, is still something really special. It's unquestionably worth heading into the loop to get to upper Manhattan.

In The Heights runs through January 3rd at the Cadillac Palace, 151 W Randolph. Tickets are $18-90, and can be purchased at any BIC box office, by phone at (800) 775-2000, at Ticketmaster retail locations, or online at www.broadwayinchicago.com.

Blog Exclusive Review: The Addams Family

Creepy? Kooky? Ooky? Check, Check, Check.

Red velvet curtains and an overture? Check. Dark but gorgeous sets and costumes? Check. Whimsical use of torture instruments? Check. Nathan Lane being funny (with a Spanish accent) and Bebe Neuwirth dancing sexily (in that low-cut dress)? Check and check.

The Addams Family, the new adaptation of Charles Addams' famed cartoons that opened its pre-Broadway engagement at the Oriental last night, is pretty much exactly what you'd expect a musical version of The Addams Family to be like. But what's wrong with crowd-pleasing? The tuneful, gorgeously-produced show certainly has its flaws, but it's hard to think of them while the show's going on--you're likely to be too busy enjoying yourself.

The story is not based on the television series or either of the movies, instead putting the characters in a new story: Wednesday (Krysta Rodriguez) has turned 18 and fallen in love with Lucas Beineke (Wesley Taylor). Morticia (Neuwirth) and Gomez (Lane) decides to invite Wesley and his parents, conservative Ohioans Mal and Alice (Terrence Mann and Carolee Carmello) for dinner, and of course revelations are made and lessons learned.

The plot outline is familiar, and bookwriters Marshall Brickman and Jim Elice don't do much new with it. But the evening's pleasure's are not in the story--indeed, it's tough to feel much emotional investment in the plot at all--but in song, performances, and sheer spectacle.

Andrew Lippa, until now best known for writing Off-Broadway's The Wild Party, has created a tuneful score in a variety of styles, from flamenco to Tin Pan Alley. It's stronger in the uptempo numbers than in the ballads, and none of the songs jump out as classics on first listen, but it's plenty of fun, and gives the cast some great opportunities to show off.

And what a talent-stacked cast! Lane and Neuwirth are the above-the-title stars, and both are quite delightful. Lane finds the tricky balance between his customary persona and Gomez' stereotypical Spanish romanticism, and swordfights with great aplomb. He's funny without slipping into self-indulgence. And Neuwirth, who looks smashing in that iconic dress, oozes sexiness--and her character's own self-regard--and when she gets the chance to dance, you can't look away. Carmello and Mann are both able to let their gorgeous voices out--Carmello's breakdown at the end of the first act is particularly amazing. Rodriguez also showcases a powerful voice and electric personality, and Jackie Hoffman as Grandma, though criminally underused, is downright hilarious.

The design is, in a word, stunning. Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, co-directors and co-designers of the sets and costumes, have created a gorgeous world. The scale is huge--you can definitely see the budget onstage--but every one of the amazing scenic effects feels utterly necessary and organic. As a result, the Addams house and surrounding areas feel like another character in the play. It's beautiful to behold.

Not everything onstage works: I've already mentioned the fact that it's hard to get emotionally involved in the play, which makes the would-be serious moments rather dull. There are two other tonal elements that feel jarring: the family is quite aware of how strange they seem to outsiders, and their home has been place in New York (the middle of Central Park, in fact). Both just feel strange--part of the charm in previous versions of these characters has been their utter lack of self-awareness, and placing them so clearly in contemporary New York just doesn't feel right. The character of Uncle Fester (Kevin Chamberlin) is also a serious issue--he has almost no part in the main plot, serving more as a commenter, and his own arc, about the love affair with the moon (don't ask), is at best distracting and at worst annoying. Chamberlin does admirable work, and much of the material is strong, but the character currently feels unnecessary, and that's a big problem.

There are other quibbles to pick, but it's already a very entertaining show, and hopefully will only improve in the next month. Sure, there's nothing earth-shattering here--it's a conventional musical comedy. But when done with such flair, and replete with so many wonderful little details, what could give more pleasure?

The Addams Family runs through January 10th at the Ford Center Oriental Theatre, 24 W Randolph. TIckets, $28-105, are available at the box office or by calling 800-775-2000 or visiting www.BroadwayInChicago.com

Blog Exclusive Review: Madam Barker's Holiday Variety Show

Coming to Your Town to Kick Your Ass

Apparently the next and final performance of Madam Barker's Holiday Variety Show is sold out. So consider this an advisory for the next time Madam Barker (the hugely entertaining creation of Molly Brennan) does a cabaret or variety show. And that advisory is: do your best to get seats. The show isn't perfect, but there were enough moments of inspired hilarity to make it more than worth a trip. And I suggest you follow my example and get a drink beforehand.  The show doesn't need scotch, but it sure doesn't hurt.

The show is exactly what the title promises: Madam Barker, a boozy, narcissistic entertainer, sings John Fournier's songs (backed up by the alluring and seedy Barker Dames) and introduces various other acts.

Barker herself is as magnetic a character as ever--assuming you aren't offended by crudely sexual humor. Singing Fournier's tuneful and funny songs ("My Love Will Kick Your Ass" and the introductory number will be released as singles soon), flirting with audience members, or knocking back shots, she's funny with a distinct edge of danger. When she has the stage, you never quite know what will come next.

The show's main issue is in its essential nature: while many of the other acts are quite good, none are quite as funny or scary as the Barker segments (with one exception we'll get to shortly).  As a result, as the show goes on the temperature decreases slightly. It ends up genial, almost warm and fuzzy. It's never less than entertaining to watch, but I missed the edge.

But the show comes roaring back for a fantastic finish: Rick Bayless, the local chef renowned for his trio of Mexican restaurants and his appearances on Bravo's "Top Chef," made guacamole. This in and of itself would have been entertaining, but he was joined by Shank (Paul Kalina) and Bruce (Adrian Danzig), who form the group 500 Clown along with Brennan. Bayless is an excellent straight man (even when appearing in boxers and undershirt), and the clowns make merry hell of the process. It's hard to explain what they do, but when Bayless is sitting on Shank's shoulders, chopping onions on a cutting board balanced on Bruce's head, it doesn't much matter. It's sheer lunacy. (And the guacamole was delicious too.)

So if you have a seat reserved, Mazel Tov. And if not, hope she has another cabaret or solo show--and hopefully in a larger venue. Even if Bayless doesn't return, it's a great party.

Madam Barker's Holiday Variety Show plays Friday, December 11th at 11 PM the Prop Thtr, 3502 N Elston. Information at www.madambarker.com

Exclusive Interview! Molly Brennan!

Okay, enough of the Broadway news from my two previous posts. Time for something unmistakably Chicago.

As has been well established, I'm a fan of the work of the troupe 500 Clown and particularly Molly Brennan, who created the character of Madam Barker for 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal and inhabited Harpo Marx in the Goodman's Animal Crackers. Well Madam Barker is back in The Madam Barker Holiday Variety Show, which has two more performances, this Friday, December 4th (which I'll be attending, with review to follow), and next Friday, December 11th, at Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston. Showtime is 11 PM. Among the many special guests will be Top Chef Rick Bayless, making guacamole with the group. You can get tickets here. But do it fast--they are flying off the metaphorical shelves.

I recently exchanged some emails with Brennan, and here's the interview that resulted. You can only see this here, folks; tell your friends!

First off, for those not familiar with her, can you explain who Madam Barker is?

Madam Barker is an aging singer who was never a star, with a love for a live paying audience, a passion for dirty glamor, and a thirst for the apocalypse. She was originally based on the Widow Begbick from Brecht's Mann ist Mann. When 500 Clown was developing 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal, John Fournier, the songwriter and co creator for the project, came up with the name "Madam Barker". She moved from being a secondary character in the piece to the mc of the piece, and enjoyed toying with the clowns in the Chicago premier of 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal at Steppenwolf in the Summer of 2009.

Has she ever appeared without the rest of 500 Clown? Why is she on her own this time?

Madam Barker and John Fournier have hosted their own show twice before this little run: Madam Barker's Cabaret and Madam Barker's Cabaret II: Have a Drink on Me at Prop. These shows served the purpose of me figuring out how to be the authority in 500 Clown. I needed to learn about hosting a real variety show before I could host a show gone wrong. With 500 Clown Macbeth and 500 Clown Frankenstein, there is a text to which I can refer. I have to know the actual thing before any kind of useful deconstruction can happen. In knowing how a variety show can work, I can examine what the stakes are, and what is interesting when it DOESN'T work.

We had such a GREAT time doing those shows and the Elephant Deal, that John and I just wanted to keep working together. 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal is a big, expensive show, and hard to just put up for fun. But the Madam Barker Show can happen in a tiny space with just me in my hat and John with a piano and a bunch of my friends, including 500 Clown, performing awesome variety acts.

In developing The Elephant Deal, we discovered Madam Barker isn't a Clown. She's a character. She is smarter, driven by results, has more authority, and because of these things, has more limits than a clown. But she can exist outside a 500 Clown show in a way that "Kevin", my Clown, doesn't seem able. Kevin exists in connection to the other clowns onstage. She is defined by her relationship to them and the actions they are performing. Madam Barker sings her songs and makes her jokes and changes her outfits, and as shit falls apart, she is not as flexible or resilient as Kevin. Her sense of play is less chaotic. She's eccentric, she's certainly not human, but she's not Clown.

How much of what you’re singing has been in previous shows? How much is original?

In this version, the Madam Barker Holiday Variety Show, one song was written for 500 Clown Christmas, 3 were written for Elephant Deal, and one was written for the Madam Barker Show, and the other 3 are from John's catalogue, which, by the way, is massive. So half are from 500 Clown Shows.

And, by the way, "My Love Will Kick Your Ass" and the "Madam Barker Theme Song" will be available as singles before Christmas! Hooray!

Are there any special guests?


YOU KNOW IT! LOADS OF THEM:

Chef Rick Bayless and 500 Clown
Actor Noah Simon
The Galaxie Girls (dancing!)
The Barker Dames (my backup gals)
Jessica Hudson as Mr. Cellophane (burlesque)
Donnell Williams as Ventrilla Kiss (also burlesque)
Tim Simeone and Jeff Trainor (Physical Comics)

What can we expect from the evening?

Entertainment, not art.
Hot chicks, funny guys and gals, Bayless guacamole, free stuff and me singing some great songs by Mr. Fournier.


The last show you did was Animal Crackers, where most of the material was written in 1928. How was that experience different from your original pieces? Do you plan to get back to theatre scripted by other people any time soon?

I will be performing in TWO pieces scripted by other people: Oklahomo for the Holidays with About Face Dec 11-14 and Lookingglass Alice with Lookingglass Theatre on tour this winter and spring, and back in Chicago in the summer.

In terms of working with the Animal Crackers script, I had all actions, no lines, like we do with 500, so that wasn't so strange to me. But I was also playing a guy who actually existed, so finding a balance between me playing the character and me mimicking stuff the real Harpo did was a challenge. Paul Kalina, also of 500 Clown, was the Clown Director, and he helped Jonathan Brody (Chico) and me with a lot of our "dialogue" and bits. So, again, there was some familiarity there. Paul has been my performance partner for 10 years, and he's one of my greatest friends, so being able to work in that comfort zone was a blessing.

The crazy thing about working at the Goodman after all the clown and avant garde stuff I've done was how BIG everything is there. I felt I had a true Harpo experience...I was this clown in this super fancy place. And I couldn't quite figure out why I was there...but I had a fucking BLAST.

What would Madame Barker say if we asked why we should come?

Because I love you. You're my favorite. And I'm broke. I used to work at the Goodman. THE GOODMAN!

Blog Exclusive Review: Spring Awakening

If I told you that Spring Awakening would bring back the feelings of being 15, you might not think of it as an endorsement. After all what with the raging hormones and general misery, who'd want to be 15 again? Well trust me, you do. Spring Awakening takes one of the worst times of life and transform it into an exciting, frequently thrilling piece of theatre.

Composer Duncan Sheik, bookwriter/lyricist Steven Sater, and director Michael Mayer have adapted Frank Wedekind's 1891 German play about the danger of sexual repression into a rock musical. German Expressionism and rock music (and the real thing, by the way, not the watered-down pop that so often passes for rock on Broadway) might seem like an uneasy mixture, but it works remarkably well. After all, what frustrated teen hasn't wanted to pull out a microphone and sing about their pain?

Melchior (Jake Epstein), Moritz (Blake Bashoff), and Wendla (Christy Altomare) are teens in a provincial German town, stifled by authority at home, at school, and in church. Honest discussion of sexuality is so nonexistent that Wendla still doesn't know how babies are made. But the restless, throbbing energy in their bodies--and their songs--won't be denied, and the consequences are tragic.

Teen angst is a subject well-covered in popular culture, but the brilliance of the play and Mayer's staging is the immediacy with which it is presented. Watching actual ranting teens for over two hours would be torture, but the show takes you inside their minds and bodies in a terrifyingly intimate way.

Which is not to say the play is without flaws. Listening to the album, it's impossible to miss the many tortured rhymes--"Thought is suspect and money is their idol/And nothing is okay unless it's scripted in their bible" is only one of dozens--and many of the characters are underwritten to the point of incoherence. It's easy to find the problems, but in this production, they just don't matter much. The best songs reach right off the stage and shake you up, and all of them are fascinating to watch.

Mayer's dynamic staging benefits immensely from the work of the rest of the creative team. Bill T. Jones' choreography is full of choppy, isolated movements which crystallize how alienated these teens are from their own rapidly changing bodies. Kevin Adams' lighting is simply jaw-dropping--he uses a huge number of instruments to create a dazzling array of looks. The extremes might look overblown in another play, but in this one they are stunning.

The production has inevitably lost some power on tour, but it's the fault of the venue. What was overwhelming in a 1,000 seat theatre in New York sometimes fails to fill the Oriental, at least twice the size. Moments are blunted in their effect, and the emotions sometimes feel remote.

The entire cast gives confident, powerful performances--they sing with great passion and skill and they make the characters believable and sympathetic. I found Bashoff, as the bizarre, tortured Moritz, particularly fascinating. I was also terribly amused by Andy Mientus (looking a bit like Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies) as Hanschen, the magnetically creepy gay seducer--who also has what may be the funniest and creepiest masturbation scene of the contemporary stage.

The play has real flaws and the production may not always live up to its full power, this is true. But Spring Awakening is an extraordinarily exciting show, and you really should go see it before it's too late.

Spring Awakening plays through August 16th at the Oriental Theatre, 24 W Randolph Street in Chicago. Tickets and information by calling (800) 775-2000, clicking www.broadwayinchicago.com, or visiting the box office.

Blog Exclusive Review: Owen Wingrave at Chicago Opera Theater

Mrs. Julian (Brenda Harris), General Sir Philip Wingrave (Robin Leggate), Miss Wingrave (Mary Jane Johnson), and Kate Julian (Jennifer Johnson) scold Owen Wingrave (Matthew Worth) in Chicago Opera Theater's Owen Wingrave. Photo by Liz Lauren.

An opera without its central character is in serious trouble. But don't cast stones at Matthew Worth, the capable singer portraying the title role in Owen Wingrave, Benjamin Britten's 1971 opera now onstage at Chicago Opera Theater. It would take a genius performer to create a compelling character from the cipher at the center of Myfawy Piper's libretto. 

Based on a Henry James short story, Owen Wingrave tells the story of the scion of a famous military family who announces, while at military school, that he has become a pacifist. Not only does he refuse to go to war, he believes that war itself is criminal. In his family and era (late Victorian) this is downright horrifying. Unfortunately, the audience never understands what led Owen to change his mind, or how he feels about going against his family. (He's also going against potential fiancee Kate, but the lack of chemistry between Worth and Jennifer Johnson indicates that he isn't too worried about that.) Owen's only sustained self-expression comes in an Act 2 aria that reaches the heights of cliche in its paean to the beauty of peace.

If the audience doesn't understand who Owen is or why he does what he does, they have precious little reason to care what happens to him. It doesn't help that Owen's arguments with his family are repetitive--the characters never seem to communicate or even change tactics, just shout the same things repeatedly. This may be true to how families argue, but it is mighty trying to watch.

But what of the music? What of the singing? I'll be the first to admit no expertise in operatic music, or any particular knowledge of Britten, but here goes: this work (written for television near the end of Britten's career) shows a clear atonal influence. This is not in itself a problem--Britten creates snatches of stunning music. The problem is that whenever something exciting starts to happen, it ends almost immediately. The pieces of interesting music seem to get lost, because they never develop into anything coherent. There may be an excellent reason for this fragmentation, but it gets in the way of the audience's emotional involvement, at least on first listen.

Conductor Steuart Bedford is a Britten expert--in fact, he conducted the original television production of Owen Wingrave--and he leads orchestra and singers through a confident performance of an exceptionally challenging score (though the orchestra drowned out the singers for the first 20 minutes or so). The cast were particularly impressive for their ensemble work--this is not an opera that allows for diva moments.

Ken Cazan's production doesn't solve the work's dramatic problems, and creates a few of its own. For instance, the set changes are performed by supernumeraries dressed in identical "old man" costumes, wigs, and makeup. The idea may be to represent the repressive conformity and weight of tradition in the Wingrave family home, but the costumes are so obviously fake that the overall effect is comic. The other production choices may not be so wrongheaded, but they are often uninspired. There are a few impressive stage pictures, but the production rarely leaps from the stage.

Chicago Opera Theater claims to produce operas that are compelling dramatically as well as musically, to present opera that is also theatre. It's the reason they invited a theatre critic such as myself to the show. They are admirable for reaching in to dark corners of the operatic repertory to produce works that might otherwise remain unseen. This approach often pays dividends, but this time they've ended up with exactly the musically impressive but emotionally remote evening that the company endeavors to avoid.

Owen Wingrave runs May 20, 22, 26 at 7:30 PM and May 24 at 3:00 PM at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park, 205 E Randolph St in Chicago. Tickets, $30-$120, can be purchased online at chicagooperatheater.org and by phone at 312-704-8414

Blog Exclusive Review: Edward II

Here is a review of Sean Graney's dynamic staging of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II at Chicago Shakespeare.

Director Sean Graney has already had an excellent fall with his exceptional staging of Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera, which I sure hope you saw before the end of its run this weekend. Now, only a month later, comes his production of Edward II, by Shakespeare's contemporary Christopher Marlowe. This grisly tale of a king done in by his love for a man is not particularly subtle, but Graney's staging certainly packs a punch.

The staging is promenade style--the audience members stand and sit among the actors, who might pop up from anywhere at any moment. The audience is encouraged to move around to get their own perspectives on the action, with actors shooing them out of the way when necessary. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it ends up working remarkably well. Graney's inspiration doesn't end with the staging style--everything feels organic, every production decision thought out carefully. For most of the play I was not engaged emotionally--my main reaction was  "That is so cool!"  However, once the play slid into its frightening finale I found myself horrified, not wanting to watch but unable to turn away.

Edward II (Jeffrey Carlson, regal and irresistible) has fallen hard for Piers Gaveston (La Shawn Banks, worth losing a kingdom over) a Frenchman of common birth, to the point of ignoring his wife, Queen Isabella (Karen Aldridge, magnetic) and offering Gaveston any office in the kingdom that he desires. His nobles, led by the conniving Mortimer (the dangerous Scott Cummins) cannot accept this, and conspire to kill Gaveston and depose Edward. From then on, things get brutal, both in the story and in the production. The many acts of violence are not gorily explicit, but they are extremely disturbing and immediate--those with weak stomachs should not attend.

Graney uses a deeply cut version of the script that only runs about 85 minutes, but still manages to tell the story with impressive clarity. I hadn't read the script before attending, yet I always knew exactly what was going on--no mean feat for a play from the 1590's.

The production definitely stages for visceral impact. There isn't much soaring poetry to be found, and the actors work in broad strokes, sometimes bordering on the crude. Still, the staging is constantly surprising and exciting, and it's a real thrill to see an avant-garde off-loop director being given a Chicago Shakespeare sized budget and keeping his idiosyncratic vision.

While gallery tickets, keeping you at a relatively safe remove, are available, I can't imagine them being anywhere near as much fun as going promenade. Best of all, promenade tickets are only $20--and if you go to chicagoshakes.com/edward and enter the code MARLOWE, you can get them for only $5 on October 14 and 21. If you have the courage for dangerous, thrilling theatre, go. You won't regret it.

The Picture of Dorian Gray--Blog Exclusive Review

Here's a review of The Picture of Dorian Gray at  Lifeline Theatre, the fourth play I reviewed in seven days. Oy.

It's hard to  horror onstage. There is only so far that onstage special effects can go, with the audience right there to see the trickery, and creepy camera work is impossible without a camera. Theatrical chills usually work best when they are almost or entirely in the mind of the audience. This is a lesson that would have been well learned by Lifeline Theatre's stage version of Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is effective enough at setting up an unsettling atmosphere, but when the scares arrive they provoke more giggles than gasps.

The play concerns Dorian (Nick Vidal, who looks the part of the young beauty and portrays it with conviction) and his descent into depravity. A beautiful young man who fascinates all he sees, he has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward (Aaron Snook as a young man, Don Bender when older). Dorian wishes that he could always stay as young as the picture, while the picture would show the ravages of time--and it happens. 

Many of those ravages are provoked by Lord Henry Wotton (Paul S. Holmquist, younger, Sean Sinitski, older), a witty and amoral man who counsels Dorian to seek nothing but pleasure, and damn the consequences. This leads, as such things often do, to heartbreak and a few deaths, but Dorian maintains the look of the innocent 20-year-old, while the picture ages into something hideous.

Robert Kauzlaric's adaptation makes the fascinating choice of putting two people onstage for most of the characters (though not Dorian), allowing for narration as the play is going on, and the visible contrast between young men and their aged counterparts. In the early part of the first act, I was drawn in by the set-up and the storytelling. Director Kevin Theis' actors seemed to have a strong grasp of Wilde's language and the play's intricacies. But once Dorian's love affair with young actress Sibyl Vane (Melissa Nedell) went south, the hoped-for scares turned into laughs and the production went off the rails. Perhaps no onstage depiction of a horrifyingly aging portrait could match the mental image. Special effects aside, though, the acting and staging of the frightening moments suggested a campy horror movie, rather than a subtle moral chiller.

This is a problem when the real monster is a man's own slide into corruption. This production, while admirable and occasionally successful, never brought that monster to life.

No Darkness Round My Stone--Blog Exclusive Review

Here is the first of what will hopefully be many reviews exclusive to this blog, this time of No Darkness Round My Stone at Trap Door Theatre in Bucktown.

When a play begins with a live man copulating with a corpse, only to be interrupted by the dead denizens of the cemetery, you have a pretty good idea of what kind of show you're in for. For those who enjoy the idea of a play featuring dead people acting out scenes from their lives, full of pungent language and bizarrely compelling images but short on linear plot development, this proves a satisfying and at times spectacular show. Those with no taste for the avant-garde probably won't change their minds based on the ghoulish goings-on.

The play, by French author Fabrice Melquiot, is having its US premiere at Trap Door, in David Bradby's lyrical translation. As far as can be determined, it centers on brother grave-robbers Ivan (Kevin Lucero Less) and Dan (David Steiger), their father Louis, who also dresses up as a woman named Lullaby (Bob Wilson), and the two women the brothers love (Cassandra Kaluza and Tiffany Joy Ross), all of whom are apparently dead, and their interactions with apparently living (and occasionally corpse-raping) poet Juste (Casey Chapman). (Full disclosure: Chapman is a friend.)

The ninety minutes of the play show the characters varied interactions and several versions of their past. There is no linear through-line that I could discern, and the play has not avoided the common trap for plays of its type. While there are a number of exciting scenes and arresting images, the play eventually gets repetitious, and feels about 15 minutes too long.

But there are many pleasures along the way. Director Max Truax, fresh from the dire Termen Vox Machina, has a much better script on which to work his magic, and the results are striking. The play has a physical language that is fascinating to watch--characters move almost like real people, only to suddenly crumple to the ground, corpses again. It's an image that's startling every time. The design team clearly shares Truax's vision, and Ewelina Dobiesz' filthy, rotting set, Richard Norwood's grotesque lighting, and Zsofia Otvos' deathly makeup are particularly vital in creating a world so believable you can practically smell it. The actors all give fully committed performances, finding the beauty, humor, and horror in Melquiot's writing.

I'm still not sure what the show was trying to say, if anything at all, and I wish the entire play had lived up to its best moments, but the combination of script and production still makes for an arresting show, and those with a love of the bizarre should definitely attend.