by Mariah Schultz
This weather may be wacky as ever, but there seems to be an early spring in the forecast with some warm, even sizzling plays happening in the Chicago theatre scene. Because I’ve been fortunate to sit in on so many plays, I decided to do something a bit different and instead of focusing on one specific show in depth, offer a glimpse on a variety of shows currently playing. Here is my rundown on what’s hot, what’s not, and what may be worth your time depending on if you enjoy your plays served lukewarm. Check out the plays featured for March below:
The Burn at Steppenwolf for Young Adults at Steppenwolf Theatre (Runs until March 10)
If your high school has never done a production of The Crucible, you probably need to do your research; or at least watch the SNL sketch “Crucible Cast Party” as a source of reference. Drawing from this beloved classic, Dawkins transports Miller into the modern age with The Burn. Witches now come in the form of high school girls and social media exists as our new, God like entity of judgement and obsession. “Witches” Tara (Birgundi Baker), Shauna (Dyllan Rodrigues-Miller), and Andy (Nina Ganet) [because mean girls always travel in packs of threes] taunt new girl Mercedes (Phoebe Gonzalez). The typical lame reasoning is easy to assume. Her teenage crimes include a lack of fashion, sucking up to their teacher (Erik Hellman), and her biggest offense: her devoutness to Christianity. All of this adds up to her being “weird”, “not normal”, and “crazy”. Ah, the eloquent language of high school. The play can be best summed up in an exchange between Mercedes and her teacher where Mercedes says, “There is always a reason to make fun of someone.” to which Erik retorts: “Correction. There is never a reason to make fun of someone.”
While The Burn provides a compelling premise, artificial dialogue, an unrealistic portrayal of students and teachers and their relationships, and a confusing ending sentiment leads to disappointment. It’s a prime example of what happens when a male playwright imagines what teenage girls talk about without conversing with them, or at least observing them. While there were some flickers of familiarity, never have I heard such profane overuse of “lol”s and “sorry not sorry”s to the point of nausea. The actresses delivering the material do their best with such annoyingly unrealistic dialogue. And when your dad-like, authority figure is telling his students that they suck and agreeing with a fellow student that another student might not be “normal”, it’s hard to stay engaged. The blurred boundaries of the teacher/student relationship are unintentional at times, often disingenuous, and overall absurdly bad.
Where the writing and plot suffer is made up for in the wonderful projection design of Rasean Davonte Johnson and mindblowing scenic design of Courtney O’Neill. Johnson and O’Neill’s integration of the online world with the physical setting of the school offered sensations of wonder and overwhelmingness, common feelings experienced when on social media or in a classroom. At times where the play seemed to struggle to connect these two spaces, the combination of set and projections had a strong unity filling in the details of how these two worlds feed off of one another. The design elements were able to provide a necessary connectedness to the story’s gaping plot holes.
Breach: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate at Victory Gardens Theater (Runs until March 11)
With a title like this, there’s an immediate hook for Antoinette Nwandu’s newest play. Nwandu, most notable for her gripping, intense Pass Over at Steppenwolf last summer, shows in this world premiere at Victory Gardens that she is just as skilled in comedy as tragedy. Breach follows Margaret (Caren Blackmore), who navigates a romantic relationship with the obnoxiously corporate, arrogant, meninist Nate and an unexpected love interest in her new, uplifting boss, Rasheed. Breach is quick to remind us that a woman is not just defined by her romantic relationships as it also showcases Margaret tending to her hilarious, sweet Aunt Sylvia and forming a budding friendship with the cleaning lady at her office, Carolina. It’s a cast of characters and each one brings to the table a fully fleshed backstory. It’s not your typical rom-com, and Nwandu cleverly plays with and makes us question these ridiculous, typical tropes. It’s a romantic comedy for 2018, one that is long overdue in this writer’s opinion.
With such strong material, it’s definitely challenging to deliver. Standout scenes include a lovely exchange between Aunt Sylvia (Linda Bright Clay) and Rasheed (Al’Jaleel McGhee) who form a deep, unexpected connection. Later in the show, a scene between Carolina (Karen Rodriguez) and Nate (Keith D. Gallagher) is as humorous as it is authentic when seeing two characters who have lived entirely different lives come together and share a moment of honesty, and much needed self-reflection. Characters you don’t expect to cross paths do, and it leads to some of the play’s strongest moments with the actors’ performances and the subtle, precise direction given to achieve this intimacy by Lisa Portes.
There are some moments that feel unclear, where the scene has ended, but we were still left watching the actors was definitely puzzling and at times frustrating. These lapses of a lack of clarity I can only pin down to seeing the performance during previews where sometimes the acting was slightly off or direction a bit hesitant. While it was a slow burn, it’s an evening well spent especially if you are looking for a play that makes you laugh as well as tests your expectations when it comes to romance.
Rose at Greenhouse Theater (Runs until March 11)
Returning to Greenhouse Theater Center after an acclaimed run last year comes Rose, a solo performance piece performed with excellent gravitas by Linda Reiter as the one and only, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Written by Laurence Leamer, the piece sets up Rose as talking to a writer who is helping her publish her autobiography. This gives us a clever way into being able to hear the hidden stories of the Camelot-esque Kennedy clan, the fall and rise of the closest thing we may have had to American royalty.
Reiter delivers a riveting performance from the get go that is guided with careful direction by Steve Scott. Together, they help drop in little breadcrumbs and reintroduce them when most needed to be able to sink our teeth into this play. Rose comes in putting on an air of performance as a warm, cheery, almost Mary Poppins like demeanor, abiding to her guest’s (and our) expectations. She seems ready to entertain, but throughout the night she more like slowly lets down her armor, everything she has endured across the years. But there are some battles we learn she is still forced to endure; with a husband who has been left nearly helpless due to a stroke just upstairs and her precious son, Teddy, who she frantically keeps waiting to come home. There is a strong possibility all Rose truly wants is just to talk to someone who is willing to listen.
Rose is a grand heaping of herstory that we need now more than ever. It’s a reexamination not only of the history we aren’t taught, but how we have praised the legacy of male politicians and fail to know or credit the women who stood by them who sacrificed far more for far less. Rose proves that a matriarch’s job is never done. Even when she has already sacrificed so much of herself, she must go on. She must keep giving, protecting and moving with our modern times.
The Wolves at Goodman Theatre (Now extended till March 18!)
If you’re looking to spend ninety minutes immersed in high-speed dialogue, physical intensity, and without a minute to catch your breath, then The Wolves is calling for you. This production marks its Chicago premiere, with a successful Off-Broadway run in 2016, and a returning run this past year at Lincoln Center. Sarah DeLappe’s delightful play offers an intimate view into the lives of nine high school girls who all play on the same soccer team. Conversations range from periods to Cambodian genocide to the often mentioned, but never seen new girl Louise Peterson, amidst other topics. DeLappe, along with the incredible direction of Vanessa Stalling, make sure this is not a play you want to sleep on. With high levels of physicality and incorporating actual drills and warm-ups from coaches of all-female soccer teams in the Chicagoland area, you won’t be able to keep your eyes off the field.
Whereas The Burn fails to capture the language and depiction of young female adolescence, The Wolves thrives because of it. These are not perfect young women by any means, but is there such a thing? These girls are at times ignorant, sometimes cruel, but they are also hilarious in their deliveries of unapologeticness and honesty. It’s seeing the development of growing pains in real time that is both hard to witness yet also delightfully nostalgic. It makes you feel as if you had stepped back in time in seeing your mother, your sibling, or yourself in these girls. And if that wasn’t enough, the wearing of Uggs and Aero shirts (detailed costume design by Noel Huntzinger) and pre-show music (cleverly crafted by Mikhail Fiksel) which features 2000s hits such as Macklemore’s “Can’t Hold Us” and Bieber’s “Somebody to Love”, will make your teenager self melt.
The ensemble work going on in this arena style stage at the Goodman is one of the most impressive I’ve seen in the city. It’s not every day you see nine women completely committed to bringing each other together while also pushing each other’s buttons, but it should be. Better hurry if you want to see this wonderfully, female empowering ride as most performances are close to or have already sold out and with such great work, you can see why.
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