Playwright: various authors. At: Theatre Seven of Chicago at the Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. Phone: 773-404-7336;$18-$25. Runs through: Sept. 11
"You don't move into Chicago—Chicago moves into you!" caution the voices haunting a newly arrived young student who soon finds himself afflicted with an illness from which he will emerge convinced that the benevolent intervention of his adopted home was responsible for his recovery. He's not the first urban immigrant whose faith is put to the test—before the evening is over, we will meet daredevil bicycle messengers and reckless automobile drivers, disgruntled waiters and compassionate baseball fans, lonely matrons and wide-eyed country boys. Some will be treated kindly by their foster city, and some not.
This kind of anthology drama is the stock-in-trade of the company calling itself Theatre Seven of Chicago (note the suffix). Whether authored by a single writer, as in Marisa Wegrzyn's Diversey Harbor, or collected from several narrators, as in The Chicago Landmark Project, its multiple vantage serves to amplify the diversity of experiences recounted by those dwelling within the Big Windy's municipal limits. None are the stuff of high tragedy: losing one's job, one's boyfriend, one's ball game—even one's unborn child or one's memory—are only single chapters in journeys still blessed with time for making fresh starts. Our knowing this, as the speakers do not, doesn't prevent each monologue engaging us immediately, nevertheless.
Evidence of the slate's hasty assembly to meet a deadline involving a company member's imminent departure is reflected in the generic bridging device of a suburban-raised teenager riding the El in search of adventure, as well as in the orchestrated movement and spoken-word harmonies augmenting the sometimes slim solo vocals. What the transitional material may lack in originality, however, it redeems in ensemble-based performance under the direction of Cassy Sanders and Margot Bordelon.
Now that the city's offices of Culture and Tourism have joined forces, isn't it high time the latter created a theater space along the Mag Mile—I hear there's an empty Borders for rent—specifically for plays delivering a panoramic view of Chicago from perspectives historical, geographical and up-close personal? (A Twist Of Water, Northwest Highway, the aforementioned Chicago Landmark Project and the ongoing El Stories series are just a few from this last season.) What better way to introduce visitors to the many faces of the metropolis at the crossroads of America?
