
|
WINDY CITY TIMES
|
|
|
Wolf
THEATER REVIEW
by Mary Shen Barnidge 2011-09-07
|
|
This article shared 2015 times since Wed Sep 7, 2011
|
|
Playwright: Paul Cosca. At: Brikenbrak Theatre Project at the Think Tank, 1770 W. Berteau Ave. Phone: 312-806-3506;$10. Runs through: Sept. 17
You never know what will be on the quiz, so you might want to take notes: Jacob Grimm is an overworked high school teacher struggling to guide his shallow students through the mysteries of Shakespeare and poetry in a small town far from PBS and Louder Than A Bomb. Sarah Riding is a precocious, but withdrawn, adolescent who wears a scarlet hoodie. Jake goes home to an agoraphobic wife. Sarah goes home to an abusive father. After a spontaneous two-voice recitation of T.S. Eliot's "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in a deserted classroom one night, Sarah invites Jake to a rendezvous in the woods. The next morning, Jake returns to his house reeking of liquor, just in time to hear that Sarah has been found murdered at their trysting place.
If this were a rural-noir police procedural, the dramatic question would focus on the crime: Who did it? How did it happen? Who will discover the killer? Paul Cosca's purpose is not a whodunit, however, but an existential study in which an innocent man riddled with suppressed guilt becomes so embroiled in the uncertainty engendered by this breakdown in the social order that he loses his ability to distinguish between truth and fantasy. (Aren't you glad you took those notes?) As the speculations mount, our hero begins to see Sarah's ghost, intruding Banquo-like at inopportune moments, and to despair of his peer support until his interrogation by the local sheriff is amplified into a full-blown CIA-torture scenario. Late in the story, Mrs. Grimm introduces a clue raising the possibility of this entire odyssey being a hallucination but, by then, we cannot help but suspect yet another red herring.
Cosca's play exhibits all the hallmarks of a work still in progress, its improvisational tone heightened by the playwright also shouldering the role of the ambivalent Grimm. The production inaugurating Brikenbrak Theatre Project's loft space on Ravenswood Alley is additionally encumbered with numerous set changes mandated by the script's teleplay-ish structure, but a valiant ensemble of actors overcome their spartan surroundings to immerse us, both intellectually and emotionally, in our surrogate-Hamlet's search for answers in a disorderly universe bereft of literary tidiness, where the facts may not even matter. What would it take to persuade Cosca to make his next effort a "Cold Case"-styled drama resolving the frustrating questions that continue haunt us weeks afterward? |
 |
|
 |
This article shared 2015 times since Wed Sep 7, 2011
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
| 
|  | About Face to run immersive comedy about climate-change activism 2022-05-27 - About Face Theatre brings its 27th season to a close with a world premiere comedy created by and starring the About Face Youth Theatre ensemble. Gayme Changers will run June 18-24 at The Den Theater, 1331 ...
| 
|  | THEATER Steppenwolf's gay-themed 'Choir Boy' to run June 16-July 24 2022-05-26 - Steppenwolf Theatre Company will run the Tony-nominated play Choir Boy. by Oscar-winning Steppenwolf ensemble member Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight), on June 16-July 24. Directed by Kent Gash, the production features ...
| 
|  | THEATER REVIEW Seagull 2022-05-25 - Title: Seagull. Playwright: Anton Chekhov At: Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.; Steppenwolf.org Tickets: $20-$88. Runs through: June 12 The final test of success for any undertaking lies in how well it accomplishes its intended purpose. ...
| 
|  | THEATER Lesbian-cruise drama 'Seven Days at Sea' running thru June 5 2022-05-25 - Light and Sound Productions is running the world premiere of Seven Days at Sea, written by Martha Hansen and directed by Margaret Knapp, through Sunday, June 5, at The Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway. The performance ...
| 
|  | THEATER Musical 'Get Out Alive' running July 8-Aug. 7 2022-05-23 - Haven will continue its 2021-22 season with Nikki Lynette's multidisciplinary afrogoth musical Get Out Alive, co-directed by Roger Ellis and Lucky Stiff, which features the writer and her personal journey with mental health. The production will ...
| 
|  | Billy Masters: Theater 2022-05-23 - "Well, thanks Colin. That's the end of my career. Because you know, that role really should have been mine."Rupert Everett tells Piers Morgan his reaction when he heard Colin Firth would play the lead in Tom ...
| 
|  | PREVIEW Here comes the sun: Summer plays are blooming indoors and outside 2022-05-22 - There were times when we thought that the sunshine would never return, but despite climate change and contagion, there's no stopping summer—and while we usually associate expanded daylight hours with outdoor activities, a number of theaters ...
| 
|  | SHOWBIZ Broadway, JoJo Siwa, WEHO Pride, 'Jurassic World,' Madonna 2022-05-22 - The Broadway League announced that all 41 Broadway theaters in New York City have extended the current mask requirement for audiences through at least June 30, Playbill noted. Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, ...
| 
|  | THEATER REVIEW The Chinese Lady 2022-05-22 - It began in 1834 as an advertising gimmick: In order to promote sales of their Far East Oriental imported goods, the Carnes Brothers procured their company a real-life spokesperson. This was the teenage Afong Moy, known ...
| 
|  | THEATER Season of Concern to present 'Jerry's Girls' on June 27 2022-05-21 - "Jerry's Girls: A Benefit for Season of Concern" will take place Monday, June 27, at 7:30 p.m. at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Season of Concern Chicago is dedicated to providing financial assistance to ...
| 
|  | Quiz program 'Wait, Wait' to start taping June 16 at the Studebaker 2022-05-16 - Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, NPR's weekly hour-long quiz program, will resume live audience recordings Thursday, June 16, in a new Chicago home: the historic Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building, 401 S. Michigan Ave. ...
| 
|  | SHOWBIZ Queer playwright, LGBTQ+ films, BMI Pop Awards, new superhero 2022-05-15 - Jeremy O. Harris, the queer Tony-nominated author of Slave Play, has been named the presiding playwright for the 2023 Yale Drama Series Prizeone of the theater world's most prestigious playwriting honors, Deadline noted. Harris joins the ...
| 
|  | THEATER 'The Secretaries: A Parable' running through June 11 2022-05-12 - First Floor Theater returns to live production with the world premiere of company member Omer Abbas Salem's The Secretaries: A Parable following the script's 2021 development as part of Goodman Theatre's Future Labs. The production will ...
| 
|  | THEATER Underscore's 'Notes & Letters' running through May 28 2022-05-12 - Underscore Theatre Company celebrates its 10th-anniversary season with the world premiere of the musical Notes & Letters, which features book, music and lyrics by Annabelle Lee Revak (she/her) and is ...
| 
|  | FILM 'The Adventures of Priscilla' to show nationwide on June 2 2022-05-11 - Iconic Events Releasing will kick off Pride Month with a special nationwide rerelease of MGM's classic 1994 Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Screenings will take place in select theaters nationwide on ...
| |
|
|
|
|