Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Theater: Thyestes
by Catey Sullivan
2007-10-10

This article shared 3781 times since Wed Oct 10, 2007
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


Weber in Thyestes. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Playwright: Lucius Annaeus Seneca. At: Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis. Phone: 773-753-4472; $38-$54

Runs through: Oct. 21

May Zeus send me down the river Styx on a one-way Princess Cruise if it doesn't sometimes seem like the Court Theatre is intent on doing everything in its power to alienate its audience.

Take, for instance, the scene in Thyestes wherein Atreus, sporting David Gest eyebrows, Xtina Aguilera-red lipstick and a garishly clanking metal breastplate, opens up the plastic cooler he's been toting about and pulls out a hook from which dangles the dripping faces of his two young nephews. He's skinned the poor lads. As their uncle playfully smears their small, squishy faces over a table with a built-in Scrabble board, the boys' father noshes on their non-facial parts, giving slo-mo, full-tongue licks to the damp chunks of meat. Even the most liberal-minded among us will surely find such gratuitous use of a board game wholly offensive.

Thyestes is performed without an intermission, and I'd hazard a guess that the scant 70-minute running time isn't the only reason it's break-free. Given the chance, I'm thinking most of the audience would bail on a second act.

There's no denying the reality of the world's eternal brutality from Genesis through Sweeney Todd and beyond—the Greek tragedians knew as well as anybody that the history of the world, my sweet, is who gets eaten and who gets to eat. But when the context for the slaughter is naught but overwrought histrionics ( excuse the redundancy ) and pretentious affectations, the truth of the tale, the stunning heartbreak of a world ripped by violence without end amen, becomes lost in a heap of meaningless entrails.

Directed by JoAnne Akalaitis, Caryl Churchill's translation of Lucius Seneca's stark tragedy is as inaccessible as it is gory. If you don't know the story of Thyestes going in, you won't be any more knowledgeable about it heading out.

From the moment the Ghost of Tantalus starts his stylized crawling behind the partition high above the Scrabble table, all is sound and fury signifying nothing. On occasion, the characters accompa ifying with what looks like sign language. Sometimes, a mask comes into play. Every so often, a grainy video of what appears to be Thyestes and his children —only living in contemporary times rather than ancient ones—unspools, and we watch the kids and their dad playing on a swing set, romping in a meadow and so forth. What drives the outbreaks of gesturing, making and home movies? I know not. Verily, it was Greek to me.

As for the bloody, brutal story of Thyestes and the brother he could not share power with, we learn little of that legend other than that the genre of torture porn didn't start with the Saw franchise. Maybe Darren Lynn Bousman ( who helmed the last three Saw films ) can direct the Thyestes sequel.

THEATER REVIEW

Noir

Playwright: Blake Montgomery and cast

At: Building Stage, 412 N. Carpenter

Phone: 312-491-1369; $20

Runs through: Nov. 3

BY JONATHAN ABARBANEL

As its name suggests, Noir is a tribute to the shadowy tales of greed, lust, murder, cross and double-cross honored in an entire genre of detective fiction in print and, most notably, on film. Cinema noir doesn't have to be a detective story—The Sweet Smell of Success isn't, for example—but dick and noir are four-letter words that frequently go together.

As rendered here, Noir is iconic and generic. It's iconic in that situations, scenes and dialogue—about 90 percent of the show—are taken directly from noir classics including The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Gilda, The Lady from Shanghai, Double Indemnity, Out of the Past and a few more. It's generic in that the characters, for the most part, are not named or distinguished. There's the private eye, his Girl Friday and various femmes fatales. Two men play the gumshoe, and it's impossible to say if they are aspects of the same person or uneasy partners the likes of Miles Archer and Sam Spade. Whichever, they encounter numerous blind alleys, dark shadows, rainy nights ( real rain in the Building Stage production ) and dames ( played by four actresses ) . Like a bad dream that won't go away, it's always the same but different: murders, Mickey Finns and women with more curves than a roller coaster and more twists than a bowl of spaghetti.

Despite the familiar scenes and dialogue, Noir is a dreamlike abstraction of moments rather than a literal story; a performance piece played out with monochromatic set, lighting, costumes and pale makeup as close to movie black-and-white as possible. After all, Technicolor is one of the things that killed Cinema Noir. However, beyond the beautiful physical production—its lithe cast choreographed as much as directed—Noir doesn't offer much. It lacks the intellectual and emotional heft of earlier Building Stage achievements, such as Dustbowl Gothic and Moby Dick. Perhaps it's less fulfilling precisely because the Cinema Noir repertoire is so well known. This production doesn't interpret or comment on the genre, but only calls attention to its standard devices, the repeated patterns of storytelling that recur film after film.

Noir is a beautiful and stylish objet d'art, an elegant living shadowbox with costumes by Meghan Raham, all-important lighting by Lee Keenan ( assisted by Ryan Williams ) and scenic design by Raham, Keenan and director Blake Montgomery ( the founder/artistic director of Building Stage ) . The ubiquitous Kevin O'Donnell provides the smoky sound design, which compliments the smoke, fog and rain that surround the players. This show would be perfectly at home presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art rather than at a River West warehouse. At 75 minutes, it's a good prelude to a River West dinner; however, it's an amuse-bouche, not an entree.


This article shared 3781 times since Wed Oct 10, 2007
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Local queer opera composer premiering her first show, a coming-of-age tale with LGBTQ+ themes 2024-04-23
- A Lake View woman is debuting her first opera as a composer, a coming-of-age story with LGBTQ+ themes. Gillian Rae Perry, a fellow with the Chicago Opera Theater's Vanguard program for emerging artists, composed The Weight ...


Gay News

The importance of becoming Ernest: Out actor Christopher Sieber dishes about the Death Becomes Her musical 2024-04-20
- Out and proud actor Christopher Sieber is part of the team bringing Death Becomes Her to life as a stage musical in the Windy City this spring. Sieber plays Ernest Menville, who was originally portrayed by ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Celine Dion, 'The People's Joker,' Billy Porter, Patti LuPone, 'Strange Way' 2024-04-19
- I Am: Celine Dion will stream on Prime Video starting June 25, according to a press release. The film is described as follows: "Directed by Academy Award nominee Irene Taylor, I Am: Celine Dion gives us ...


Gay News

Kokandy Productions now accepting submissions for Chicago Musical Theater Fest returning Aug. 8-11 2024-04-18
--From a press release - CHICAGO (April 18, 2024) — Kokandy Productions is pleased to open submissions for the 2024 Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, returning this summer following a four-year hiatus. Kokandy is thrilled to ...


Gay News

THEATER Blue in the Right Way's 'Women Beware Women' offers feminist, trans take on a troubling Jacobean tragedy 2024-04-18
- "Problematic" is a great go-to adjective to describe Women Beware Women. This 1621 Jacobean tragedy is by English playwright Thomas Middleton, who is probably best remembered as a collaborator with William Shakespeare on their pessimistic tragedy ...


Gay News

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago announces programs for May 17-19 season finale 2024-04-17
--From a press release - CHICAGO — Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) announced program selections for Spring Series: Of Joy, the final installment of Season 46, Abundance. The engagement will include four unique works, once ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ film fest Queer Expression to feature Alexandra Billings in 'Queen Tut' 2024-04-12
--From a press release - CHICAGO — Pride Film Fest celebrates its second decade with a new name—QUEER EXPRESSION—and has announced its slate of LGBTQ+-themed feature, mid-length and short films for in-person and virtual events in April and May. QUEER EXPRESSI ...


Gay News

Open Space Arts's COCK offers a complex but compelling take on relationships 2024-04-08
By Brian Kirst - Premiering in 2009, Mike Bartlett's COCK was a comic revelation, exploring notions about fluidity and sexual labelling long before they became commonplace discussions. Granted, conversations about these issues will always ...


Gay News

Jeff Awards launches submission period for Impact Awards 2024-04-06
- The Jeff Awards announced the opening period for applications submissions for its 2024 honors to help inspire early career artists of color in the Greater Chicagoland area. Two recipients will be selected for awards of $10,000 ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Outfest, Chita Rivera, figure skaters, letter, playwright dies 2024-04-05
- For more than four decades, Outfest has been telling LGBTQ+ stories through the thousands of films screened during its annual Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival—but that event may have a different look this year because ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Dionne Warwick, OUTshine, Ariana DeBose, 'Showgirls,' 'Harlem' 2024-03-29
Video below - Iconic singer Dionne Warwick was honored for her decades-long advocacy work for people living with HIV/AIDS at a star-studded amfAR fundraising gala in Palm Beach, per the Palm Beach Daily News. Warwick received the "Award of ...


Gay News

WORLD Israel court, conversion therapy, death sentences, Georgia bill, fashion items 2024-03-29
- Israel's Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Population Authority must register female couples as mothers on the birth certificates of their children they have together, The Washington Blade reported. The decision was made following a petition ...


Gay News

City Lit Executive Artistic Director Brian Pastor talks theater, comics, queerness 2024-03-26
- City Lit Theater has announced its programming for the 2024-25 season—which will be the company's 44th. It will also be the first season to be programmed under the leadership of Brian Pastor (they/them), who will assume ...


Gay News

The Jeff Awards announces the 50th anniversary awards for non-equity theater 2024-03-26
--From a press release - A complete list of recipients can also be found online in the Non-Equity and News and Events sections at www.jeffawards.org. (March 25, 2024 - Chicago) — Celebrating its 50th anniversary awarding recognition for Non-Equity theater, the ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer musicians, Marvel situation, Elliot Page, Nicole Kidman 2024-03-21
- Queer musician Joy Oladokun released the single "I Wished on the Moon," from Jack Antonoff's official soundtrack for the new Apple TV+ series The New Look, per a press release. The soundtrack, ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor
Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.