Play of the Week: In the Jungle of Cities

Brecht's one and only play to be set in his idea of Chicago is In the Jungle of Cities. It is a tale of greed and how money ruins both those who have it and those who don't. While you would think that this offering would be more popular among Chicago theaters, Ka-Tet Theatre is currently running the only production this blogger can remember - but that's not to say that I'm wrong. The play's overly complex language and plot makes it one of the less accessible Brechtian plays.

Ka-Tet's ambitious production takes the ideas of alienation to the extreme. Character not only don't alway look at each other when speaking, they often don't even touch each other both in violence and lust. While it is a very interesting concept, director Max Truax does not remain consistent with his choices. This production is an excellent staging of the play, however, the alienation not only alienates us from the actors but the actors from each other. If you are looking for a engaging story, this is not the play for you. But is you are interested in fascinating staging combined with stunningly beautiful design, this is the play for you. It is an intellectual treat.

Play of the Week: John Gabriel Borkman @ The Abbey Theatre

Ghostlight has just returned from a trip to Dublin Ireland where we took in a production of a little known Ibsen play at the Abbey Theatre. John Gabriel Borkman is a play about a man who after having his life destroyed by greed and ambition is given a second chance, but still consumed by his ruling passions and is unable to make the changes to save himself.

The Abbey Theatre's production featured the outstanding performances of Alan Rickman as Borkman and Fiona Shaw as his wife. But the show was dominated by Lindsay Duncan as Ella Rentheim; her performance was the emotional center of the play.

Also worth mentioning was the stunning scenic design. Both epic and modern at the same time the scene shifted from vast interiors to the wind-swept plains of Norway.

Thank you to the Abbey Theatre for breathing life into a play that is still relevant today and for taking a fresh new approach to an author whose work is usually middled in translation.


Happy Birthday:
November 12: Wallace Shawn (b. 1943), Anne Hathaway (b. 1982), Megan Mullaly (b. 1958)
November 13: Edwin Booth (1833-1893), Neil Flynn (b. 1960)

Play of the Week: Shining City

Conor McPherson has given us another wonderful script in his short ghost story Shining City. Ian is at a crossroads in his life. He recently left the priesthood to become a therapist. His first, and possibly only client, is a man who has seen the ghost of his dead wife. Through the play we find that the two men as both essentially coping with the same problem. Both are devastatingly lonely and the actions they have taken to deal with their own loneliness have undeniable affected the lives of those close to them. And to top all of that off, each of them is so guilty about what they did, that they cannot own the consequences and undo the damage.

Through the course of the play, more and more of their story comes out, and the more that the past is brought out in the light, the more each of them is able to deal with where they find themselves in the present.

Play of the Week: Antony and Cleopatra

Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra is so much more than an intrigue story of the Queen of Egypt. It's about two great lovers who have reached middle age and are still bickering as though they were teenagers. Their struggle puts Romeo and Juliet's fling to shame. Their love transcends nations and continents. Betrayal here isn't told through glances and liaisons, but through armies and passion greater than words. It truly is a story of life and death.

And when the plot turns to the misguided message that will lead to Antony's death (much like Romeo) because he thinks his lover has died, he misses his grand statement and actually botches his suicide. It's because he's human. Romeo and Juliet are the stuff of passionate poetry and tragedy that can be tied up neatly with a little bow. This is the stuff of real life and shows us the shortcomings that we see and accept, if we life long enough to experience them.

This play will never reach the fame that Romeo and Juliet has. But then again, Romeo and Juliet has become so idealized that few of us even remember that the two lovers die in the end. Antony and Cleopatra do not have the poetry that our two young star-crossed lovers had. But then again few of us do.

I had the pleasure to work on a production of Antony and Cleopatra a few years ago that took a lot of liberties with the script. I enjoyed them, but I could see how some people wouldn't. The one gesture that really resonated, however, was the staging of Cleopatra's suicide. It's quite a grand statement to kill yourself through willingly inflicted asp bites and quite difficult to stage effectively - let alone to make it seem anything less than a ridiculous spectacle that will completely take the audience out of the scene. But when our director/adapter brilliantly choose to use syringes of lethal poison and call them "worm" or "asp," everyone got the point and the effect was quite powerful.

Read this play again with the new idea of a middle age love story and then with the new gesture in the end - I think you'll quite enjoy it.


Happy Birthday:
Franz Werfel (1890-1945)

September 11:
Rainis (1865-1929) and Jennifer Tipton (born 1937)

September 12:
Sir Ian Holm (b. 1931)

Play of the Week: Late: a Cowboy Play

Last week Piven closed a production of one of Sarah Ruhl's earlier plays. While it is clear that this blogger has a preference toward Ms. Ruhl's work, this was not one of the better plays in her cannon. That, however, did not spoil the night as Piven's show was well played and particularly well acted.

The cast was lead by Polly Noonan, a good friend of Ruhl's and perhaps the best actor of her texts out there. This was not my first experience with Noonan (I saw her in both Eurydice and Dead Man's Cell Phone) but this was one of her best performances. Noonan is able to transcend the difficult text, maintain a breathy naiveté, and make the words sound like normal speech; no easy feat. While she always has had a strong command of the language, this time she perfected it.

While not one of her best. This play is definitely worth the read. It provides some nice context to Ruhl both as a person and to the rest of her work.


Happy Birthday:
Caryl Churchill (b. 1938)
Helen Wagner (1918-2010)
Sally Benson (1897-1972)

Play of the Week: Trust

No this isn't the Trust that Lookingglass produced this past season. This is the Trust by Paul Weitz that is currently running Off-Broadway at the 2nd Stage Theatre. Ghostlight just traveled to New York this past weekend to see the show and while we have moved away from writing about productions and reviewing them, we do want to put this play on everyone's radar. The production is quite good as it stars Northwestern alum Zach Braff along with Sutton Foster, Bobby Cavandale, and Ari Graynor. Performances all around are strong and the scenic design is stellar.

The play is very good too. A 30-something man has lost the meaning in his life after creating a hugely successful internet company and selling it off to become a millionaire. There are so many delightful and honest twists in this larger-than-life dark comedy that we do not want to give too much away, but encourage you to seek out the script when it eventually is published.

I know that I will see it out, especially as there is some anticipated script development after the Off-Broadway run. But the play is definitely a good little skit and should do well in Chicago when it is ready. Oh, and if you can't tell from the picture, Sutton Foster plays a dominatrix.





Happy Birthday - August 28th
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1794-1832)
Robertson Davies (1913-1995)

Play of the Week: The Bacchae

One of the most intriguing aspects of this play is the confrontation between Pentheus and Dionysus; a human interrogating a god. If you look at back-and-forth of the cross examination, much of it appears similar to the dialogue between Christ and Pilate as recorded in the Bible. Of course the denouement of the play and the resulting action are quite different from the ending to the Gospels and I would never compare Dionysus and his philosophies to the teachings of Jesus Christ, but there are some parallels there. And if you do sit down to read the two side-by-side, I ask you to muse about how the one may have influenced the other over the years. The Bacchae was around well before the Gospel writers penned their story - did they have the encounter in mind as they took artistic license with the story? Or has the translations of The Bacchae become more and more "Christian" over the years. Or are they both works independent of each other and the fact that they bear similarities to the other complete coincidences?

Let us know what you think.


Happy Birthday:
June 5: Frederico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936)
June 6: Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)

Play of the Week: The Elephant Man

“If mercy is cruel, what do you have for justice?”

Merrick’s question is a pointed and powerful one. So often we that claim to “know better” are creating double standards. Little things stand out and begin to hurt and sting. Things that degrade the soul and make us numb to the suffering around us. This is a question that applies not only to a single man, but to all man kind. How many examples of this can we see throughout history? This is the morality that Europe spread across the globe as it colonized and eradicated civilizations that were not strong enough to stand against its advances. This is going on right now with America’s involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq along with countless other places in the world. This is a question that refuses to go away.

This is a truly wonderful play. Perhaps the coolest thing they do is play Merrick - the Elephant Man - without any make-up. The audience is asked to project his deformities. By making the deformities imaginary we are relate to the central figure as a man rather than an actor in grotesque make-up.

Play of the Week: A Skull in Connemara

Like many Martin McDonagh plays, A Skull in Connemara has moments of extreme shock value that treads the fine line between dark humor and out and out inappropriateness. This time the story is about a man who is paid by the church to exhume bodies from the local bone-yard to prevent overcrowding. And for those who are not unfamilliar with McDonagh, you will not be surprised that there is a scene where the main characters get drunk and smash old bones and skulls with an over-sized hammer.

What makes this play better than some of his other plays (besides being a full length piece that only runs about 90 minutes) is the ambiguous ending. The gravedigger, Mick, has a cloudy past. Seven years ago his wife died in a car accident. Mick was drunk and the driver and showed the appropriate remorse, but there were still rumors as to whether or not he killed his wife before they even get in the car. The play never fully answers if Mick is guilty, but the other character's attempts to get any new information from him, even after he is forced to dig up his wife's corpse to make room in the yard, makes this play a very interesting read.


Happy Birthday: Paul Gross (b. 1959)

Play of the Week: Kate Crackernuts

A king had a daughter named Anne, and his queen had a daughter named Kate, who was less beautiful. The queen was jealous of Anne, but Kate loved her. The queen consulted with a hen-wife to ruin Anne's beauty, and after three tries, they enchanted Anne's head into a sheep's head. Kate wrapped Anne's head in a cloth, and they went out to seek their fortunes. They found a castle where the king had two sons, one of whom was sickening, and whoever watched him by night vanished. Kate asked for shelter for herself and her "sick" sister, and offered to watch.

At midnight, the sick prince rose and rode off. Kate sneaked onto his horse and collected nuts as they rode through the woods. He went into a green hill, where the fairies were dancing, and Kate added herself to the charm he used to get in. The second night, Kate found a fairy baby. It played with a wand, and she heard fairies say that three strokes of which would cure Anne. So she rolled nuts to distract the baby and get the wand, and cured her sister.

The third night, Kate said she would stay only if she could marry the prince, and that night, the baby played with a bird, three bites of which would cure the sick prince. She distracted the baby with the nuts again to get it. As soon as they returned to the castle, she cooked it, and the prince was cured by eating it.

Meanwhile his brother had seen Anne and fell in love with her, so they all married -- the sick brother to the well sister, and the well brother to the sick sister.


...And that's just the original fairytale. Now imagine the play set in modern times. The fairy ring becomes a rave club. The fairy's magic is replaced by drugs. And there is a headless sheep who guides us through the story while looking for his head. Playwright Sheila Callaghan does a wonderful job of blending the elements of the original tale with her own lyrical prose and links to a more familiar setting.


Happy Birthday: Gasparo Gozzi (1713-1786)

December 6: Tom Hulce (b. 1963) & Ira Gershwin (1896-1983)

Play of the Week: Playing With Fire

In honor of Halloween we are bringing you an excellent adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic horror novel, Frankenstein. Written by Barbara Field, Playing With Fire uses only six actors playing four characters (Frankenstein and the monster are both represented as part of the narrative and narrators themselves) to tell the monstrous tale. While this adaptation does take a lot of liberties with the original novel, they are changes that help both transpose the story to the stage while making it more interesting and relevant to a modern audience.

The story unfolds as a dialogue between Victor Frankenstein and the monster on Frankenstein's deathbed, as it is framed in the novel, but not literally depicted. From there Field goes on to set the two characters into sharp relief so the audience cannot but help asking themselves who really is the "monster." And from there we learn that the two characters essentially are the same and it is only their actions that are interchangeable.

This is an excellent adaptation that brings the depth back to the story that the Hollywood adaptations have sucked out over the years. The monster is much more human than the stiff-legged grunter portrayed by Boris Karloff and the internal conflict of Frankenstein is both human and terrifying. The psychological horror element of Shelley's original tale also comes through. If you are looking for a Halloween drama, this is one to sink your teeth into.



Happy Birthday: Richard Sheridan (1751-1816) & Zoe Akins (1886-1958)

Play of the Week: Dream Play

In a little known August Strindberg play, he examines the whole breath of the human experience. Set as a dream of the daughter of the god, Indra, who is sent to Earth to earn more about humanity and to determine whether or not the race should be allowed to live or perish. This premise sounds more like a episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation than a 1901 play. However, A Dream Play is one of the precursors of expressionism and surrealism that would go on the heavily influence 20th Century drama.

It's a very different play than most of us are used to going to see in the theatre right down the street. Read the text here and tell us what you think of this play.

Happy Birthday: Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953), Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) & Angela Lansbury (b. 1925)
October 17: Arthur Miller (1915-2005), Georg Buchner (1813-1837), & Sir Cameron Mackintosh (b. 1946)
October 18: Wendy Wasserstein (1950-2006)

Play of the Week: Marisol

Jose Rivera creates a post-apocalyptic world in this great play. Marisol is the story of a woman whose guardian angel goes off to fight against heaven and she has to now fend for herself. It is a story of self of reliance but also of overcoming both personal biases and perceptions of reality to make yourself whatever you want to be in the quest for happiness. Rivera does a beautiful for creating a surrealistic world that is roughly mirrors New York, but all the rules and familiar things have changed.

Both lyric and deadly, Marisol is a masterpiece that must read if you haven't already seen a performance.


Happy Birthday: Brian Blessed (b. 1937)
October 10: Helen Hayes (1900-1993) & Harold Pinter (b. 1930)

Play of the Week: The Cradle Will Rock

The Cradle Will Rock's story of how it made it to its opening night performance is perhaps more intersting than the plot of the play itself. Here is what Wikipedia has to say on the subject. I am trying to track down the narrative of Orson Welles (he directed the original production). His personal telling is quite thorough and interesting.

Originally set to open at the Maxine Elliott Theatre with elaborate sets and a full orchestra, the production was shut down due to "budget cuts" within the Federal Theatre Project—though it was widely believed that this was instead because of accusations that it is pro-communism. The theatre was padlocked and surrounded by armed servicemen, ostensibly to prevent anyone from stealing props or costumes, as all of this was considered U. S. Government property. They even impounded leading man Howard Da Silva's toupee.

On the spur of the moment, Welles, Houseman, and Blitzstein rented the much larger Venice Theatre and a piano, and planned for Blitzstein to sing/play/read the entire musical to the sold out house which had grown larger by inviting people off the street to attend for free. Blitzstein encouraged cast members to say their lines from the audience, to exercise their right of free speech.

Just after beginning the first number, Blitzstein was joined by Olive Stanton, the actor playing Moll, who joined in from the audience, since she (along with the rest of the cast) was forbidden by Actor's Equity to perform the piece "onstage". During the rest of the performance, various actors joined in with Blitzstein and performed the entire musical from the house. Actors sang across the theatre to one another.

Happy Birthday: Avery Brooks (b. 1948)

Play of the Week: The Coming World

Christopher Shin's drama explores how we communicate with each other; what we say, what we do, and what we don't say or do. Set against the backdrop of the early 2000's, the characters are struggling with new changes in technology: debit cards, DVD's and the Internet are changing the way we look at the world and the way we communicate with each other.

The most interesting aspect of the play is the casting. Two actors play three roles. The woman plays the same character throughout, so the story is seen through her eyes. But the real catalyst to the action are the two characters played by the man. He plays identical twins. One who is down on his luck, often unemployed, frequently on drugs, and ends up robbing the Blockbuster Video where the woman works. The other is a clean-cut, computer software programmer who has covered himself in home-made tattoos. The brothers couldn't be more opposite.

As the characters struggle to reach out and connect to one another, we are constantly reminded of their isolation. The play is set on a deserted New England beach that the playwright very specifically asked by represented only though a bare stage with minimal lights and no sound effects. The play becomes an intense character study that will give any seasoned actor and actress the challenge of really flexing his and her acting muscles.

September 26 Birthdays: T.S. Elliot (1888-1965) & Georgre Gershwin (1898-1937)

Play of the Week: Polaroid Stories

Naomi Iizuka's modern retelling of Ovid's Metamorphosis is a stunning journey through the underbelly of urban life. Set in the bad side of a nondescript city, Polaroid Stories takes us through the lives of several street children whose stories parallel the stories of the many different episodes of the Metamorphosis. Gods walk among the streets and magic is sometimes confused with drugs. Both mesmerizing beautiful, visceral, and lethal, this new version strips the story down to its essential.

The central theme of the play, much like the original poem, is about transformation. But in this sense the transformation is centered around creating a change, either in one's self, surroundings, or fortunes to attain happiness. It is a form of escapism. Everyone wants out of the ghetto whether it is through a change in stations, a better job opportunity in a distant city or a change in mental state induced by sex or drugs. Death is even a viable form of escape. Desperate measures are all these characters have left, so violence is often an answer to getting what they want.

Iizuka's writing is both poetic like the original and rough like that of the street. The final prose is something between a poem by e.e. cummings (whom Iizuka emulates by not using capital letters) and the lyrics of the most violent hip-hop album. The end result is a very affecting experience that will definitely relate to you on a instinctual level.


Happy Birthday: Harold Clurman (1901-1980), Agnes de Mille (1905-1993), & Anna Deavere Smith (b. 1950)
September 19: Jeremy Irons (1948)

Play of the Week: The Man in the Case

The Man in the Case
adapted by Wendy Wasserstein
after a short story by Anton Chekhov

Byelinkov and Varinka are but are the most unlikely couple. Today she has ridden her bicycle all over town reveling in the excitement of being engaged to her love and receiving compliments at marrying the most respected man in town. Byelinkov lives his life in fear of change and being different. Everything has its place and you could set your watch by his routine. Once Byelinkov finds out Varinka was riding a bicycle, he bristles at what he believes is a public as an act of impropriety and revolution. When he mounts the bike to return it and spare the humility of anyone else seeing her riding it, he falls awkwardly to the ground. She laughs at how adorable, but to him the laughter comes at the expense of his humiliation and is worse than mortal poison. He sends her away with the bicycle as he plans to never speak to her again.

Chekhov and Wasserstein a moral tale that warns us of inhabitations and fears that keep us from living the fullest lives in happiness. And while we all know a person who suffocates his or herself in cases like Byelinkov, we are being asked to look at ourselves and see how our own hang ups hinder us from living.


Happy Birthday: Rainis (1865-1929) and Jennifer Tipton (born 1937)
September 12: Sir Ian Holm (b. 1931)

Play of the Week: Escanaba in da Moonlight

If anyone has ever been to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, they will immediately identify with this play. The Superior State, as it is sometimes called, is a world of its own. The peninsula possesses some of the most beautiful, rugged, and remote country you will ever see. It is cold and lonely. The residents, locally referred to as Yoopers, enjoy deer hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, and other northerly activities. Indeed, the first day of deer season is more sacred than Christmas to some.

Jeff Daniel's homage Escanaba in da Moonlight, lovingly explores the opening night of deer season in a hunting cabin in the heart of the U.P. This comedy comes complete with all the Yooper stereotypes including the dialect that to the untrained ear sounds like a Minnesota accent, but has subtle changes thanks to the Finnish immigrants that worked in the copper and iron or mines.

The play is the right of passage. The youngest son has still yet to bag his first buck at the age of thirty-five. And if he doesn't accomplish that feat this season, he will wear the same of being the oldest family member in the family's history to have not attained this trophy. But after a night of spiritual quests and divine intervention, all is made right through the power of love.

This play is definitely not your normal theatrical fare. While not totally inaccessible, it definitely will appeal to certain regions more than others. It has a very special place in this blogger's heart as it reminds me of home.

Play of the Week: The Mistakes Madeline Made

What happens if you just stop showering? The Mistakes Madeline made is a twisted and hilarious coming-of-age story about a girl who develops Autophobia, the fear of bathing. Struggling with a soul-crushing job as a personal assistant, she wages a furious, funny war against all things complacent, pampered and clean. As her smell starts to overwhelm her coworkers and many causal lovers - a series of bad poets - the play raises the questions: Is dirty living a political art? And is clean living even possible in these times of unrest? An unlikely story of love and dirty people.
-Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Playwright Elizabeth Meriwether is a intelligent and witty new writer. Her work is both thought provoking and immensely funny. Look for this playwright to grow in importance over the coming years.


Happy Birthday: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1794-1832) & Robertson Davies (1913-1995)

Play of the Week: Carousel

Despite a beautiful score, Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel has had a complicated history. Despite it being well received and revived, the play centers around a character who beats his wife. Worst of all the play's climax centers around the question "how can a slap feel more like a kiss?" While it is obvious that the theme of the play points more "repenting your mistakes" than "beating your wife is ok," the production doesn't condemn the hero (or anti-hero) for his actions. He gets into heaven in the end having learned the errors of his ways.

But at the same time, how is our reading of the play affected by this one line? The rest of the play is full of an American spirit of hopefulness. Our hero is a carnival barker who cleans up his life and settles down with a girl he falls in love with. She and he may not be the perfect match, but how many of us are? Soon, however, money becomes an issue and he realizes that he cannot continue to go on the way he is, especially with a child on the way. It is a coming of age story that can speak to us all. Then there is another mistake. He decides to get his money through a robbery which goes wrong and rather than getting caught commits suicide leaving his wife alone. In the second act he is given a It's a Wonderful Life type second chance to go back to earth and right old wrongs before he is allowed into heaven.

So do we just ascribe the wife-beating theme to be the product of an earlier time? Is this a play that can still be relevant without condemning it out-of-hand? Are there ways to down-play this moment or by shying away from it are we condoning spousal abuse? What are some of your thoughts?


Happy Birthday: (August 15) Robert Bolt (1924-1995)