Irish Theatre’s Little World Is a Tightly Wound Political Thriller
In a Little World of Our Own is a benign name for a tightly wound thriller that spins out of control in 80 minutes. The Irish Theatre’s new production of […]
Nancy S. Bishop is publisher and Stages editor of Third Coast Review. She’s a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com, and follow her on Twitter @nsbishop. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.
Euro Union Film Fest: Recaps Week of March 4-11
The Chicago European Union Film Festival just opened and runs through the end of March at the Gene Siskel Film Center. See Colin Smith’s preview. Each week, we’ll provide brief […]
New Country’s Music City Story Is Raucous Comedy With a Heart
New Country at the Den Theatre is great entertainment before or after a dinner at one of Wicker Park’s many Milwaukee Avenue restaurants. It’s a short, snappy comedy with […]
Raven Theatre’s A Loss of Roses: Quiet Portrait of 1933 Small-Town America
William Inge’s A Loss of Roses at Raven Theatre explores the lives of three people in a small Kansas town in Depression-era 1933. The play, directed by Cody Estle, […]
Goodman Takes on Bolaño’s 2666: It’s Extreme Theater and a Beautiful Mess
The Goodman Theatre’s new production of 2666, adapted from the massive novel by the late Roberto Bolaño, takes five stories and threads them loosely together with a couple of mysteries […]
The Flick at Steppenwolf: Reel Love Becomes Real Life in a Rundown Movie Theater
Annie Baker’s Pulitzer-winning script for The Flick, newly opened at Steppenwolf Theatre, gives us a chance to get to know three people, underpaid workers in a movie theater in Worcester […]
Pop Waits: It’s Punk Raucous Mixed with Melancholy
Pop Waits, the Neo-Futurists’ new production, directed by Halena Kays, is a punk rock operetta with some sweet and sad moments. Created by Malic White and Molly Brennan, Pop […]
Hypocrites Remount Tennessee Williams’ Memory Play, The Glass Menagerie
Hans Fleischmann developed a distinctive poetic vision for his production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, which ran for about six months in 2013 at Mary-Arrchie Theatre and then at […]
Mary-Arrchie Signs Off in Classic Chicago Style with Snarling, Hilarious Mamet
If you want to see classic Shakespeare without flying to London, you can drive up to Stratford, Ontario, to see a production of Macbeth or As You Like It this […]
02.03.59: The Day the Music Didn’t Die
It was 57 years ago, early in the morning of Sunday, Feb. 3, 1959, when a small plane crashed in a snowstorm soon after taking off from Clear Lake, Iowa. […]
Neil LaBute X 11: Profiles Theatre Proves the Value of Great Writing
An evening of Vices. An evening of Virtues. That’s how Profiles Theatre describes the collection of 11 short plays by Neil LaBute now being staged at the theater in […]
Oracle Rekindles Message in O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape 94 years later
Oracle Productions’ new play, The Hairy Ape, was one of Eugene O’Neill’s early works, written in 1922. It’s written in an expressionistic—rather than linear–style, which makes it suitable for director […]