Brecht Deserves a Better Revolution in The Last Days of the Commune at Prop Thtr
Bertolt Brecht is an interesting, if often didactic, playwright. And so it is with The Last Days of the Commune, a play that was incomplete when he died in 1956. […]
Lookingglass’ Hard Times a Dickensian Circus
Published in 1854, Charles Dickens’ Hard Times – For These Times satirizes English society in its depiction of economic and social hardship in a fictitious industrial town in Victorian England […]
(Not) My Best Friend’s Wedding: Level 11 Theatre’s Bachelorette
Matthew Nerber is our Guest Author on the Stages page. He is a performer and theater artist in Chicago, and a former literary contributor with the Generation, the University at Buffalo’s longest […]
The Skin of Our Teeth, an Apocalyptic Madhouse at Remy Bumppo
Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth is the story of the universal family, beset by war and catastrophes but enduring despite all. In a way, The Skin of Our Teeth (written […]
An Evening at the Talkhouse Is an Unnerving and Timely Must-See at A Red Orchid Theatre
A Red Orchid Theatre’s latest show An Evening at the Talkhouse is my kind of production. It’s a darkly funny one-act play running around 100 minutes. It’s funny in a […]
Names Matter in Steppenwolf’s The Crucible, a Fearsome Allegory for McCarthyism
It’s all about the names. Early in The Crucible, set in colonial Salem, young girls caught dancing in the woods name other girls who were involved to save themselves from […]
Writers Theatre Morphs Page to Stage in Quixote: On the Conquest of Self
We are the authors of our own lives, mostly figuratively, but exceedingly literally in Writers Theatre’s energetic production of Mónica Hoth and Claudio Valdés Kuri’s Quixote: On the Conquest of Self, translated […]
Steep Theatre’s The Invisible Hand: Greed and Violence in a Pakistan Prison Cell
The invisible hand in Steep Theatre’s new play does not refer to terrorism or ghostly acts of murder. Steep gives us a clue by including a quotation from Adam Smith’s […]
Donate: Marriott Lincolnshire’s Honeymoon in Vegas Cast Takes Donations for Las Vegas Victims
This weekend in Lincolnshire, the Marriott Lincolnshire wraps up its nearly tw-month-long run of Honeymoon in Vegas. When the musical arrived on the scene in 2015, it was praised for its […]
The Trojan Women by Three Crows Doesn’t Capitalize on Play’s Poetry or Anti-War Passion
Euripides’ The Trojan Women may be the greatest anti-war play ever written. And the timing is certainly right for an anti-war play. The new production of The Trojan Women by […]
Stages Monthly: What to See in Chicago Theaters in October
October is a crazy month for arts and culture in Chicago. We have plenty of theater openings, and in addition there are festivals such as Chicago Ideas Week, Open House […]
Victory Gardens Stages Stalwart Chicago Production of Fun Home
Director Gary Griffin has been having a field day in Chicago. In the past two theater seasons alone, he has had the task of shepherding several high-profile Broadway productions from […]