Events Search – Closing (Theater and Galleries)
The Birdfeeder Doesn't Know
Sun-Wed 5/19-5/22: 7:30 PMTheater & Performance
A couple's relationship with their disabled son encounters rough patches as he grows up. $10
Homeward Bound
Through 5/22Galleries
New sculptures from Stacey Holloway. Viewing by appointment only. Reception Fri 3/22, 6-9 PM.
The Need to Paint
4/19-5/24.Galleries
An "exhibition in four parts," with work by Phyllis Bramson, Nick Ostoff, Mario Romano, and Carly Silverman. Reception Fri 4/19, 5-8 PM.
Big Love
Through 5/25: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 4 PMTheater & Performance
This young couple walked by me as I headed up the street after seeing Charles Mee's Big Love at Strawdog Theatre. They were probably in their late teens, early 20s. The boy put the girl in a headlock and kissed the part in her hair. She laughed, but in a fakey, uncertain way, like she hadn't quite decided whether she should be pissed or pleased. Still, when he let go, she stuck with him. And there you have it: the paradoxical, not to say creepy, glory of love. A headlock and a kiss. Big Love draws wisdom from that paradox. An oddball yet deadly serious update on Aeschylus's The Suppliants, it tells the tale of 50 (yes, 50) Greek sisters whose father has promised them in marriage to their 50 male cousins. Rather than go through with the wedding, the sisters commandeer a yacht and head for Italy, where—still in their bridal gowns—they ask asylum of wealthy Piero. Soon enough, the 50 cousins show up at Piero's estate as well. What follows is a comic, tragic, utterly terrific battle that makes The Taming of the Shrew look like the kid's stuff it essentially is. Matt Hawkins's staging is also terrific. The precisely choreographed cast of 30 (yes, 30) play for keeps—especially those in featured roles, such as the fierce Michaela Petro, the convincingly dangerous Shane Kenyon, the girly-girlish Sarah Goeden, and Stacy Stoltz and John Ferrick as gender warriors who find themselves caught behind enemy lines. Paul Fagen and Cheryl Roy float through in delightful character roles, and Mike Mroch's apparently simple set discloses its value as the show goes along. All in all, this Big Love is a marvel of big ensemble work in a tiny space. —Tony Adler $28
Next Fall
Through 5/25: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 2 PMTheater & Performance
Adam loves Luke. Luke loves Adam. Luke also loves Jesus. Adam worries about which of them Luke loves more. Luke worries about Adam's immortal soul. Next Fall, making its Chicago premiere at AstonRep, looks back on their sometimes prickly five-year relationship. At times, like when the subjects of prayer, sin, and the Rapture come up, it risks becoming a play of ideas, with more speechifying than conversation. Fortunately, Geoffrey Nauffts's script leaves room for ambiguity and gives the characters personalities as well as points of view. The cast give them life and humor—particularly Ryan Hamlin and Mark Jacob Chaitin, who play Adam and Luke, and Lona Livingston and Jim Morley, who play Luke's parents. The result is charming, funny, and, ultimately, moving. —Aimee Levitt $15-20
The Circus Collages of C.T. McClusky
Through 5/25:Galleries
The complete collection of McClusky's collages, which he made from household objects and that depict his life as a traveling circus clown. Reception Fri 1/11, 5-8 PM.
756 N. Milwaukee Ave.
River West
312-243-9088How To End Poverty in 90 Minutes
Through 5/25: various times, see websiteTheater & Performance
A multidisciplinary performance, including elements of lecture and physical theater, that poses the question: "How do you attack the poverty problem in America?" $10-$25
Just Another Love Story: The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Through 5/25: Fri-Sat 8 PMTheater & Performance
An LGBTQ reimagining of Shakespeare's classic romance. $20
Monstrosity
5/10-5/25:Galleries
A group show featuring several students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, including curator Peyton Rack. Viewing by appointment only. Reception Fri 5/10, 5-10 PM.
The Night of the Iguana
Through 5/25: Thu 7:30 PM, Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PMTheater & Performance
A reverend struggles with his faith during a night in a tropical Mexican hotel. $32 suggested donation
The Pianist of Willesden Lane
Through 5/25: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PMTheater & Performance
Hershey Felder has created niche for himself, building a series of biographical solo pieces around legendary composers. His 2011 Maestro, for instance, had him acting the part—and playing the music—of Leonard Bernstein. Now Felder has extended that MO to another performer. In this show developed under his tutelage, Mona Golabek takes on the role of her own mother, pianist Lisa Jura. Per the formula, Golabek's Jura tells how her life as a Viennese child prodigy came to an end with the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, how she was evacuated to London through the Kindertransport program, and how she kept her ambitions alive despite the hardships of the war. She punctuates the recitation with passages from Grieg, Beethoven, and others. Golabek is a marvelous pianist—bright, strong, agile, and emotive. But as an actress, she's, well, a marvelous pianist. Physically and vocally unsophisticated, she lacks the chops to handle a character who ages from 13 to about 20 in the course of the story. What's more, the story itself isn't that remarkable in the lore of the Holocaust. All Golabek has to say is "Jewish," "Vienna," and "1938," and we've pretty much got the gist. Her obvious urge to valorize her mother doesn't help, either. Ironically, Golabek seems to have a much more intriguing story in the romance and marriage of her parents—but she only gets to that toward the end and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. —Tony Adler $49
Pictures at an Exhibition
Through 5/25:Galleries
Group show featuring "a diverse collection of selected fine art." Reception Thu 2/21, 6-9 PM.
The Revelettes 60s Go Go Spectacular
Through 5/25: Sat 10:30 PMTheater & Performance
This 60s pop-rock revue began with a casual ten-minute game of bingo that nobody managed to win, not that anyone seemed to care—prizes were given out to any go-go-getter who would claim them. Then emcee Andy Somma announced what appeared to be the premise of the evening's performance: "If you think about it, the next few years are just going to be the 50th anniversary of what happened in the 60s." The Revelettes took the stage in white pleather boots, first for a dance tribute to the late Annette Funicello, then to perform kitschy cult classics like "Do the Trog" and "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." The Reveltones covered some retro chart toppers as well, proving their groovy panache with renditions of "Goldfinger" and "Song of a Preacher Man." Nothing special, all in all, but at least I went home with a consolation prize. —Hannah Gold $15
The Brig
Through 5/26: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 7 PMTheater & Performance
Kenneth H. Brown's meticulous depiction of a day in a Marine prison camp caused a sensation when it premiered at New York's Living Theater in 1963. The guards' unrelenting, systematic dehumanization of their fellow Marine prisoners is appalling, especially since the abuse seems intended to instill loyalty to the Corps. And Brown's near-total eschewal of plot—the maltreatment goes on until it simply stops—removes any comforting fictive filter between audience and action. Wisely, director Jennifer Markowitz does nothing to make her Mary-Arrchie production enjoyable. Her actors endure an hour of exhausting physical drills while we watch from various uncomfortable locations. As movement theater, it's grotesquely beautiful; as a glimpse into the darkest recesses of male psychology, it's sickening. —Justin Hayford $25
Mascot
Through 5/26: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PMTheater & Performance
The tale Chris Bower tells in this one-hander, about an unhinged father determined to make his son into a high school football star, could stand on its own as a fascinating short story. But brought to the stage by director Kevlyn Hayes and actor Matt Test, the piece is powerful, darkly funny—and ultimately sad. Test plays a computer repair guy who's allowed his inner demons to rule, and ruin, his life. Estranged from his son and forbidden by court order to be near his wife—who goes to all the football games—he's drawn inexorably to repeated self-destructive encounters with them, and with the authorities. Hayes's clever, graceful staging finds myriad onstage metaphors for the protagonist's disintegrating mental state. —Jack Helbig $15
