A CHORUS OF EXILE IN AN
ARCHITECTURE OF ISOLATION

Theatre Y’s North American premiere immerses
its audience in complicity and unease

Makai Walker

Before we get into the merits of Elfriede Jelinek’s Charges (The Supplicants), now at Theatre Y in its North American premiere, we need to talk about Steven Stoll’s set: a series of connected triangular inserts—think serrated teeth pointing inward to create a circle—each containing a single seat, with a cutout panel providing the view of the performance arena. Thanks to this design, even as the audience filters into the space, the work of the performance has already begun. The immediate effect is to isolate each audience member, foregoing the security and assurance that comes from being part of a crowd. We are all individual voyeurs here.

Michael Awe, Kyndal Keith, Arlene Arnone, Makai Walker

Charges (The Supplicants) was first produced in 2014. Inspired by the 2012 refugee protests in Vienna, the Nobel Laureate’s play borrows heavily from the ancient Greek theatrical tradition, featuring characters who mostly perform as a chorus. The play focuses on the plight of a group of immigrants and opens with a superb performance piece in which a faceless group of people wade ashore onto an unnamed new land in hope of a fresh start. Speaking both collectively and individually, their faces are gradually revealed as their stories emerge. Gitta Honegger’s translation achieves a remarkable balance between naked poetry and plain speech as the characters declaim, recount the horrors they have endured, and beg for a sliver of compassion. What follows is an intense, gripping, and deeply disconcerting theatrical experience.

Matt Fleming, Eric Roberts, Kris Tori

Directors Héctor Alvarez and Melissa Lorraine have a fully committed sixteen-person ensemble at their disposal, and one of their masterstrokes is instructing the actors to lock eyes with individual audience members during their monologues—and not look away. This production demands engagement. We may be physically separated from the refugees by the walls between us, but we cannot deny their existence or our responsibility to them. I much prefer the original title of the play, Die Schutzbefohlenen, which translates to “those entrusted to protection”; it better suits the tenor of this production, which does not beg so much as insist on being acknowledged.

Eric Roberts and Ensemble

Kimberly Sutton’s sound design is equally striking, both before and during the performance. The pre-show soundtrack contributes as much to the sense of unease and claustrophobia as the set itself, and the wave sounds during the opening sequence are especially evocative. This is a rare production in which the technical elements—lights (Quinn Chisenhall), set, and sound—are as integral to the success of the show as the script and the actors. Every element fits into place with unnerving precision.

Makai Walker and Ensemble

Over the course of an hour, the supplicants plead for help, beg for understanding, ask for sympathy, and try desperately to cling to whatever dignity remains before relinquishing even that. They become performing seals for our benefit, degrading themselves to prove their worth—not only to society at large, but to us as individuals, because it is as individuals we sit there, shielded and separated, peering through our designated frames, evaluating who is and is not worthy of our beneficence, secure in our privilege and sense of superiority.

Ensemble

When the play finally pulls the rug out from under us—indulging our basest assumptions—the result is a stunned audience left standing in the dark, uncertain whether to applaud or slip out in silence.

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photos by Karl Soderstrom

Charges (The Supplicants)
Theatre Y
3611 W Cermak Rd
ends on March 29, 2026 EXTENDED to April 12, 2026
April 3 & 4 at 7; April 7 thru 11 at 7; April 12 at 5
for tickets (free; limited seating), visit Theatre Y
(performances are free thanks to members who donate as little as $5/month)

for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago

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