The new production of The Mannequins’ Ball at Trap Door Theatre is a whole lot of 1930s agitprop choreographed with music, singing and dancing. Nicole Weisner and Miguel Long direct 90 minutes […]
The production is a visual spectacle. Ten actors in colorful, period costumes and stylized makeup perform on the tiny stage, which is tricked out with a more elaborate set design […]
Bertolt Brecht’s 1939 play, Mother Courage and Her Children, is the greatest anti-war play of all time. Anti-war, anti-government and anti-capitalism, as we learn in the opening scene of this stirring […]
Two old friends, their bonds apparently fractured by despair at a collapsing world or something else entirely, meet again. One is artistic and the other is a practical man, a […]
Bowie in Warsaw isn’t really a play for David Bowie fans but it is an example of Trap Door Theatre’s ability to stage the work of Eastern European playwrights with Chicago […]
Joan and the Fire, Trap Door Theatre’s latest production, by Romanian playwright Matei Vișniec, takes us back to the Middle Ages to argue about history. The story is told by an […]
Princess Ivona inspires Trap Door Theatre to show us what it does best: Take a clever script and turn it into a carnival with exaggerated style and physical performance, while […]
I always get to shows early. I consider that to be a virtue and also very helpful in getting the vibe of a place. My early arrival habit paid off […]
Trap Door Theatre’s new production, And Away We Stared, is an example of “devised theater,” a mode of expression that’s been popular in the theater community for years. It‘s a […]
Matei Vişniec’s plays are a bit bewildering and disorienting. They‘re theater of the absurd with a twist. But Trap Door Theatre can be counted on to turn the work of […]
Virtual theater has come in many forms during the last eight pandemic months. Our most recent theater review was actor/clown Bill Irwin’s new version of his bravura performance of On […]
It may be theater…or perhaps film. But it’s not exactly a play. It’s a surreal symphony of exotic makeup and dynamic video editing with original music and voices that speak […]