Performing Arts Search
Head of Passes
Through 6/9: Tue-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat-Sun 3 and 7:30 PMTheater & Performance
With his trilogy "The Brother/Sister Plays," Tarell Alvin McCraney announced himself as a talented young writer wielding a big vision. He also staked out a territory. The Plays—which Steppenwolf Theatre Company staged, beautifully, in 2010—are set in the Louisiana bayou country, among black folk who live on land easily mistaken for water, and who survive at the pleasure of hurricanes. Perhaps more important, they map out a spiritual homeland—gritty, even sordid, yet mythic in its resonances. Ex-cons and pregnant teenagers bear the names of Yoruba deities.
McCraney's new Head of Passes locates itself along similar geographic and metaphysical coordinates. The title refers to the marshlands surrounding the spot at the southernmost edge of Louisiana, where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico. The community of the play is modest, mostly black, and as deeply rooted as it can be given the spongy terrain and periodically apocalyptic weather. As he did with "The Brother/Sister Plays," McCraney denotes the time period, suggestively, as the "distant present." Continue reading >> $20-$78
Next Up
Through 6/16: various times, see websiteTheater & Performance
Three repertory productions presented in collaboration with Northwestern University's MFA programs. $20
1624 N. Halsted St.
Old Town
312-335-1650The Onion Live
Through 6/5: 7:15 PMImprov/Sketch
A sketch revue produced by the popular news satire.
$15
REACH
Second Sunday of every month, 7 p.m.Improv/Sketch
Each monthly REACH — "Risky, Eclectic Artists Comedy Hour" — features performances themed around sex, race, violence, and LGBT issues. $13
Second City E.T.C.
Open run: Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 11 PM, Sun 7 PM, also Tue 8/2-8/30 and Wed 7/6-8/31, 8 PM, 312-337-3992Improv/Sketch
Second City E.T.C.'s 35th revue, Sky's the Limit (Weather Permitting), is directed by Matt Hovde. $22-$27
Second City: Let Them Eat Chaos
Open run: Tue-Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 11 PM, Sun 7 PMImprov/Sketch
Second City's wacko lineage can be traced all the way back to the beginning, when, as Professor Walther von der Vogelweide, Severn Darden spun out triumphantly eccentric lectures on subjects like the intellectual capacities of fish. By 1971, his bizarre had metamorphosed into John Belushi's berserk, and there's been room for a loose cannon or two in Second City troupes ever since. The clearest recent heir to Darden's padded throne was Tim Robinson, who had no compunction about manipulating audience volunteers as if he were a demonic eight-year-old playing with his sister's Barbie doll collection. But Robinson moved on to SNL last fall, and his nearest rivals for wacko supremacy—Tim Baltz of the strange dances and Asian-American-girl-cum-big-black-mama Mary Sohn—are gone, too. Continue reading >> $22-$27
The Second City's Improv All-Stars
Mondays, 8 PMImprov/Sketch
The Second City's top performers present their interactive improv every week, directed by Mick Napier. $16
The Sklar Brothers
5/30-6/1: Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 10:30 PMStand-Up
The Thursday show is a live taping of the podcast Sklarbro Country. $20
We're All in This Room Together
Open run: Tue-Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 11 PM, Sun 7 PMImprov/Sketch
Second City's 36th Revue. $23-$28
What the Tour Guide Didn't Tell You: A Chicago Revue
Tue 8 PM, Sat-Sun 4 PMImprov/Sketch
There's more to Chicago than Italian beef and the Magnificent Mile, as illustrated by this sketch show. $28
