Playwright: Various authors. At: Theatre Seven of Chicago at the Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln. Phone: 773-404-7336; $15-$30. Runs through: July 10
The Chicago Landmark Project is divided, festival-style, into two "programs" of six short plays apiece, but in fact, the two parts taken together comprise a running time no longer than your average high-end night at the theater. Unlike most snapshot anthologies, however, the roster is not a simple medley of comedy sketches, snippets from plays-in-progress, group poetry-recitals and esprit de l'escalier ruminations (though elements of all these genres make their appearance).
Theatre Seven's project proposal was for a number of playwrights to each select a corner of their city as the subject of a 10-minute play. Introducing the geographical theme is Marisa Wegrzyn's speculation on the inventor of the State-and-Madison city grid pitching his idea to his wife ("You'll never be lost! The whole city is yours!"). From there, we proceed through Oz Park to a liquor store at 63rd and Garfield, then to Humboldt Park and Logan Square, stopping at a fashionable coffee shop in Hyde Park, a record shop in Lincoln Square, a vintage dress shop in Wicker Park and many other urban enclaves, concluding our tour amid the haunted ruins of Riverview.
As with most such pageants, the quality is far from uniform: some cultural references may lost on playgoers from outside the site under scrutiny. Jamil Khoury's discussion of Arab-American relations is no less didactic for being conducted by two attractive women in athleticwear, as is J. Nicole Brooks' analysis of urban decay as explained by a street artist to a West Coast tourist. The Red Orchid Youth Ensemble enlivens a lengthy sermon on the gospel according to L. Frank Baum, but adolescent fury cannot bridge the ellipses in Yolanda Nieves' muddy saga of family conflicts, and Robert Koon's father-daughter confidences never lose sight of who's guiding the conversation.
On the other hand, Brian Golden's chance meeting between a pair of U. of C. eggheadsone "out," one undecidedoffers an opportunity for a deftly-wrought exchange of academic double-entendres, and Laura Jacqmin's two buskers at a farmers' market forge a plea for unityand a few clever songsfrom the catalogue of wares for purchase, before Aaron Carter sends us home after our adventures with a ghostly reminder that even legendary fantasy-kingdoms hadand continues to havetheir shadowy side. Hey, would it be still be Chicago any other way?