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Summer People
Phone: 773-283-7071
Price: $15-$25
The most powerful impression created by this new play from Gift Theatre ensemble member Jenny Connell is that it probably would've worked better as a novel. The really interesting things that happen to Connell's stressed-out characters--a troubled GI newly returned from Iraq, a campground manager with a purple heart and PTSD from Vietnam, a bitter divorced mom and her two daughters--occur inside their heads, into which Connell's script never manages to reach effectively. Not that Connell doesn't try: most notably, she treats the ghosts haunting the GI as onstage characters. But even those phantasms seem opaque, lacking much to do other than hang around waiting for the inevitable paroxysm of violence. Despite a charming performance by Rae Gray as the divorcee's teenage daughter and an appropriately creepy one by Rob Belushi as the GI, Summer People fails to take us where the story is. --Tony Adler
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Gift Theatre Company
- Jefferson Park 4802 N. Milwaukee Ave.
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773-283-7071
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(based on 1 user review)
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I'm always a little wary going into very small theater spaces, especially with new, unfamiliar scripts, but the preshow jitters on my part were completely unnecessary in this case. Summer People had great performances all around, and the script worked well all around. My only complaint is that there seemed to be some unnecessary swearing to the point where I thought it was going to be somehow relevant in the show. Otherwise, I can't say enough good stuff about this show. When you combine top notch performances with a well written script and all the right technical aspects (from sets, to lighting and sound), you know you have a winner on your hands.
Posted by Gary Ward
on October 30, 2009 at 8:24 AM
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