Address: 302 West 45th Street
Together with the folks at Redmoon, Blair Thomas & Co. has a monopoly on puppet theater in Chicago. His stunning craftsmanship is currently display via "Cabaret of Desire", a surreal, melancholy collection of letters, poems, and vignettes (made especially for puppet theater) by Frederico Garcia Lorca. The entire project comes off as playful, macabre, and defiantly and wonderfully avant-garde. The piece is performed by a remarkable cast of five, who "double" as puppeteers, actors, stage crew, and musicians/singers.
Victory Gardens is currently presenting a very touching production of Sarah Ruhl's "Eurydice". It's a radical reinterpretation of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, which retains the essential themes of the power of love and the devastation of loss. For me, it's the best thing to be staged yet at their beautiful Biograph venue, and I think it's because the production understands the dimensions of the space (unlike previous shows, which almost seem to be intimidated by it). Although not technically a world premier (I had seen a workshop-like production of "Eurydice" at the Piven Workshop up in Evanston a couple of years ago), it is presents further evidence of Ms. Ruhl's considerable playwriting talents. And married to the visually poetic production by Sandy Shinner and Jessica Thebus, as well as the deeply-felt performances, the text comes to vivid theatrical life.
Joffrey Ballet's season under new artistic director Ashley Wheater opens with its exquisitely danced Fall Program. Works included are the revival of Robert Joffrey's winsome "Postcards", the Joffrey premier of Jerome Robbins' elegant "In the Night", and the world premier of Edwaard Liang's exciting "Age of Innocence". It's an eclectic lineup, but all play to the company's modern/classical sensibility.
"Red Angel" presented by the folks at LiveWire is a mixed bag. It starts out promisingly enough, with a young aspiring writer seducing a household name author. However, it loses focus as seemingly the same scene gets played out in different permutations. It's the most fully realized set I've seen at the tiny Side Studio yet, and the acting is all very thoughtful, bold even. However, this is a better production than the script deserves.
Stage Left's production of "After Ashley" is an above average comedy which manages to dramatically engage as well as make us laugh. The show deals with how father and son (Brian Plocharczyk in an inspired performance) deal with the death of the matriarch. The play is always interesting to watch because it's populated by smart, interesting characters who seem real. However, Stage Left is notorious for its "bare-bones" stagings, and this is one play that could benefit from just a bit more realism.
