Jerry Springer—The Opera. Image by Chris Cosentino______
Warm weather is a natural incentive to athletic activity, whether the pleasures to be found involve participation or sideline support. Summer also means that theaters, both indoors and alfresco, frequently schedule productions incorporating extensive rough-house spectacle, with the 2007 summer season offering plenty of action-oriented drama to satisfy the adrenaline-snorting fans of all ages.
Promising the biggest bang for the buck is the Oak Park Festival Theatre's production of Robin Hood—or, to call it by its full title, A Fanciful Historie Of That Most Notable And Famous Outlaw Robyn Hood. Adapted by Scott Lynch-Giddings from the medieval legends, this outdoor romp features scraps and swordplay by award-winning fight choreographer Geoff Coates, and direction by Kevin Theis, the creative impetus behind the 1993 hit show, The Fair Maid Of The West. The cast includes Chicago audiences' favorite baddie, Steve Pickering, as the evil Sheriff of Nottingham and Signal Ensemble's Christopher Prentice as the Notable And Famous Outlaw himself.
Robin Hood: A Fanciful Historie Of The Notable And Famous Outlaw Robyn Hood. Playing July 21-Aug. 25 at Oak Park Festival Theatre in Austin Gardens, 100 Forest Avenue in Oak Park. For further information, phone 708-524-2050
Henry V. Playing June 27-Aug. 8 at the Ewing Manor playhouse in Bloomington, Ill. Phone 309-828-9814 or see www.thefestival.org .
The American Players Theatre 2007 agenda is curiously nonviolent, the only rough stuff being, of all things, a scuffle over a pistol in George Bernard Shaw's The Misalliance. 'In past years, our audiences have seen an array of breathtaking melees,' explains Producing Artistic Director David Frank, 'Our selections this year—including plays by Shakespeare, Shaw and Tennessee Williams—happen not to feature fisticuffs, but promise gripping drama and thought-provoking insight nevertheless.'
The Misalliance. Playing June 27-Oct. 6 at American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wis. Phone 608-588-2361 or see www.playinthewoods.org .
For action fans who would rather dispense with the fancy chat altogether, there is also the Bristol Renaissance Faire, whose roster of entertainment encompasses a rough-and-tumble Robyne Hoode vs. The Pirates, directed by Ron Scot Fry with slapstick stunts choreographed by Gary Boeck, as well as the comic fencing team of The Swordsmen—in real life, stage combat instructors Doug Mumaw and David Woolley.
At the center of this annual event, however, are the men and horses of the internationally-lauded Hanlon-Lees Action Theater, whose full-armored jousts were recently seen on the reality-TV series, The Girls Next Door, with Hugh Hefner himself in the role of Henry III come a-courting Elizabeth I. ( Hef won't be on hand in Wisconsin, but the swoonworthy Frenchman Sir William DeBracey, played by William Burch, will grace the tiltyard, along with Trisha Mack's whip-snapping Lady Gwendolyn of Fairfax serving as mistress-of-arms.
Hanlon-Lees Action Theater, The Swordsmen and Robyne Hoode vs. The Pirates. Playing July 7-Sept. 3 at Bristol Renaissance Faire, 12520 120th Ave. in Kenosha, Wis. Call 847-395-7773 or see www.renfair.com .
But what if you want to see bloodshed without surrendering any of your own to mosquitoes, ants and other critters associated with revels by sunshine or starlight? Playgoers preferring to get their sanguine jollies in air-conditioned comfort may also want to check out these indoor shows:
Currently running at Navy Pier is Chicago Shakespeare Theater's critically-praised Troilus And Cressida, boasting a Mel Gibson-sized stunt by Robin McFarquhar rumored to be so dazzling that I'm not allowed to tell you what it is. ( It involves spears—and that's all you're gonna get from me. )
Troilus And Cressida. Playing through June 24 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, 800 East Grand. Phone 312-595-5600.
How could you have a show titled Jerry Springer—The Opera and not have a brawl erupt somewhere in the course of the action? Bailiwick Repertory's fight choreographer Laura Skolnik of Asylum Stunts promises 'punches, kicks, flips, throws, hair-pulls, thrown chairs and one firearm. In the first act [ depicting a Springer show realistically ] , I figured the guests would likely not be trained fighters, but for the [ second-act ] full-cast battle in Purgatory, all bets are off! After you die, you automatically know jujitsu, right?'
Jerry Springer—The Opera. Playing through July 8 at the Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 West Belmont Avenue. For further information, phone 773-883-1090
Finally, let's not forget the adorable daredevils of 500 Clown—aka Adrian Danzig, Paul Kalina and Molly Brennan ( whose flying-ninja wirework in Curse Of The Crying Heart for The House Theatre Of Chicago won her a Jeff Citation in 2005 ) —reprising their hit shows, 500 Clown Macbeth and 500 Clown Frankenstein, running in repertory as part of the Visiting Company Initiative of Steppenwolf Theatre ( who pioneered its own brand of crash-and-bash onstage antics back in the 1970s ) .
500 Clown Macbeth and 500 Clown Frankenstein. Playing June 16-July 29 at the Steppenwolf Upstairs, 1650 N. Halsted. Phone 312-371-9751 or visit www.500clown.com .
So why wait for a free-for-all to break out at the softball game, or for a peaceful round of beach volleyball to devolve into killer-shark dodge-ball? Warn the kids ( that means you, too! ) to not try this at home, and let the professionals do the work instead!
