Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” has long been the standard-bearer of the December theater season. But a subsequent and far less familiar novella is now receiving a bravura solo rendition courtesy of Remy Bumppo Theatre.
Remy Bumppo Theatre
Because Chicago is the storefront theater capital of this country, it’s worth looking at the situation now facing some of these small companies and how they are trying to deal with the global pandemic.
The all-female cast of Caryl Churchill’s play made a statement from the very start, and now, the eight bravura actresses in the current cast turn in a collection of blistering performances that suggest the intentional irony of using the word “girls” (rather than “women”) in the title.
Two groundbreaking novels – E.M. Forster’s “Howards End” and D. H. Lawrence’s “Sons and Lovers” – are currently receiving world premiere productions on Chicago stages. And despite their creation more than a century ago, they remain exceptionally timely.
Steven Dietz’s hauntingly beautiful play is inspired by James Joyce’s groundbreaking novel “Ulysses,” but it is no stage adaptation. Rather, it’s a gorgeous, exquisitely imagined contemporary riff on Joyce’s essential themes.
The harrowing realism of “The Father” finesses a remarkable feat of imagination that makes the audience experience the same disorientation, confusion and anger that accompany the protagonist’s own loss of clarity and memory.
It's being praised as one of the best performances currently on stage in Chicago. Hedy Weiss reviews Larry Yando in Angels in America and three more shows.
