WINDOWS NEEDS MORE
SPIT AND POLISH

An appealing young cast can’t
overcome a world-premiere script
that remains frustratingly unformed

Lucabella Sangin

On a couch in a small apartment sits a sullen young woman. Piles of snack bags and junk food remnants surround her. She doesn’t move, except to adjust the blanket on her lap. Behind her is a black scrim with artfully appliquéd windows of different sizes. Through two of these we can see other people gesticulating and moving. The woman doesn’t react much; she just sits there watching them.

David Lipschutz, Lucabella Sangin, Ashley Kramer

Windows, presented by PrideArts at the Center on Halsted, is a world premiere from playwright Matt Schutz. It was developed in PrideArts’ Queery Playwrights Lab and went through multiple rounds of winnowing and refinement before being chosen for a full production.

Lucabella Sangin, Vinita Dixit

Written by Matt Schutz and directed by Taylor Pasche, Windows centers on three young people. Olivia (Lucabella Sangin) is a former soccer star whose budding career was cruelly cut short by a brutal accident on the field, which left her with a shattered leg and no prospects that she can see. Unable to fend for herself, she moves into the apartment shared by her girlfriend Natalie (Vinita Dixit) and Natalie’s best friend Clay (River Ruiz).

Vinita Dixit, Lucabella Sangin, River Ruiz

Following her accident, Olivia has sunk into depression which, in her case, manifests as extreme lethargy. She barely eats, and when she does, it’s the same food, ordered from the same restaurant. She refuses to clean, which enrages Clay, or do her physical therapy, which enrages Natalie.

(front) Lucabella Sangin, (back) Ashley Kramer, David Lipschutz.

Schutz keeps his goals modest, aiming more for a snapshot of Gen Z life than anything especially profound. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem here is that the three characters are defined almost entirely by their work ambitions. Clay is obsessed with being promoted to middle management by his employer. Likewise, Natalie is obsessed with getting an incompetent coworker fired so she can man the front of the shop where she works. This is almost all the two characters talk about in between haranguing or pleading with Olivia to clean up and get off the couch.

River Ruiz, David Lipschutz, Ashley Kramer, Lucabella Sangin, Vinita Dixit

And then there’s Olivia. Sangin is a winsome performer, with fine comic timing and a flinty intelligence that she deploys to excellent effect. But despite her best efforts, she can’t overcome the script’s biggest problem: Olivia is a particularly unlikable protagonist. She’s self-centered, self-pitying, spiteful, and cruel. And her interactions with Natalie are so repetitive they start to drag the play down. Dixit looks to be a good actress, but it’s hard to tell when she’s playing a one-note part—a nag. Where Windows really clicks is in the scenes between Olivia and Clay. Ruiz and Sangin have a sweet chemistry, and when Olivia relaxes her guard with Clay, the show achieves a delicate beauty that eludes the rest of the production. Unfortunately, almost every one of those scenes ends in the same way: in order to move the action forward, Olivia resorts to nastiness—occasionally Clay does as well—and the status quo is restored.

Vinita Dixit, Lucabella Sangin

Ultimately, how you feel about Windows will come down to how you feel about its central gimmick. In order to pass her time, Olivia watches her neighbors through the windows, inventing elaborate, outlandish motivations and stories to explain their behavior. All of these neighbors are played by two actors, David Lipschutz and Ashley Kramer. Their performances are deliberately pitched at a level that makes telenovelas seem restrained. I was modestly amused at the first scene, but the conceit yields fewer rewards as the play proceeds. All of Olivia’s inventions end in heartbreak or disaster, and these tragic endings are the only times that Sangin’s performance stutters; I don’t blame the actor because to call them “a bit on the nose” would be an understatement, and I can’t imagine anyone pulling that off. Lipschutz and Kramer are fine as the neighbors, but both have their best moments while playing other characters in our trio’s lives: Lipschutz is delightfully unpleasant as an awful ex-boyfriend of Clay’s, and Kramer’s Emily—a neurotic, newly single coworker of Natalie’s who comes over for game night—is the linchpin of a manic comic set piece that is the highlight of the play.

Lucabella Sangin, River Ruiz

Windows gets a lot of things right, mostly pertaining to Clay—his bisexuality is dealt with in a most refreshing fashion—and his relationship with Olivia. It also captures Gen Z’s very specific blend of neurosis and laissez-faire—two attitudes that should contradict each other but don’t here. But it is also frustratingly unformed, with characters that aren’t quite there yet, and a plot that too frequently takes convenient shortcuts—thanks to a talk with a magical delivery woman, Olivia’s attitude changes just in time for the final scene.

There’s good stuff here. It just needs a bit more work.

Vinita Dixit, Lucabella Sangin

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

photos by Logan and Candice Conner, Oomphotography

Windows
PrideArts
Hoover-Leppen Theatre at Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St. in Chicago
Thu.–Sat. 7; Sun. 3
ends on August 23, 2026
for tickets ($30–$35), call 773.661.0770 or visit PrideArts

for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦