GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS

Five headlines become five new plays,
with one terrific entry leading the edition

Jackalope Theatre Company’s 17th Annual Living Newspaper Festival, currently being performed at the Jackalope Theatre in the Broadway Armory, is an anthology show. Conceived as a discovery showcase for writing talent, the festival comprises five new plays. The plays run about ten minutes each and are all inspired by newspaper reports from the previous year.

The set is simply the performance space with every visible inch covered with newspapers. On the back is a cool projection of the Jackalope logo, with extremely unsettling eyes. The projection, as well as the excellent sound design, is by Steve Labedz. A few pieces of furniture are moved on and off for the individual plays.

The show begins with an old-fashioned newsreel, and we are introduced via projected video to news anchors Leslie Tucker (Mary Williamson) and Wes Needham (Forrest Morris). They serve as connective tissue between the plays, discussing the story that inspires each one along with other assorted bits of news. The dialogue for the news segments is written by Ike Holter and is gleefully off-kilter and occasionally vicious. He’s clearly not a fan of Lauren Gunderson, but it’s always funny, and the two actors are terrific.

Anthologies, whether in literature, film or on stage, are usually a mixed bag, and The 17th Annual Living Newspaper Festival is no exception. Jumping right in, from least to most successful:

The Turning
by Netta Walker
directed by Sydney Charles
featuring Jalbelly Guzman and Morgan Lavenstein

Inspired by “Pete Hegseth removes all women and some Black service members from navy promotion list.”

The weakest entry by far. The Turning takes place in the near future after the United States has gone through a civil war and the wrong guys have won. Covering a conversation in a forest between an escapee and a rebel, there’s nothing here that we haven’t seen or read in The Handmaid’s Tale or its other imitators.

Let Them Eat Cake
by Anelga Hajjar
directed by Kaiser Ahmed
featuring Yourtana Sulaiman, Chris Chmelik and Claudia Quesada

Inspired by “GLP-1 drugs are changing how Americans eat. Food companies are racing to catch up.”

Let Them Eat Cake picks a terrific article, which frets over how the millions of Americans losing weight on GLP-1 drugs will have a negative effect on sales of junk food, and completely ignores what makes it interesting, focusing instead on rehashing bromides about body image and self-love and inventing side effects of GLP-1 drugs for comic relief. Further negative points for a character so over-the-top in her nastiness that she comes across like a cartoon villain. The play is frequently very funny thanks to a sharp turn from Sulaiman, so at least there’s that.

Picture Day
by Madie Doppelt
directed by Breon Arzell
featuring Miriam Lee, Niko Kourtis and Reilly Oh

Inspired by “Epstein-Linked Rumors Ignite Panic Over School Photos in Coulee Dam.”

Now we’re getting somewhere. In a small town, an unsubstantiated rumor connecting a local school photography company to Jeffrey Epstein drives the local parent population into a frenzy. Evoking Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden, Doppelt sets up a tense little play featuring a couple who kidnap the school photographer with the intent to torture him into revealing the truth. The play drifts off the path into discussions of otherness and isolation that detract from its setup, but there are good bones here, and the performances are strong. Of the five scripts presented here, this is the one that’s most likely to work as a full-length.

The Day the Night Came Down
by Ike Holter
directed by Stephanie Diaz
featuring Laura Lodewyck and Pedro Jimenez

Inspired by “Newly declassified FBI documents detail UFO sighting by Anoka officers, and one of them filmed it.”

A frustrating piece, even in its brevity. In The Day the Night Came Down, while on night patrol, three policemen see a UFO behind a Domino’s Pizza. Shaken, they report the encounter to their superiors, only to be warned against speaking of it to anyone. Holter’s script has much to say about truth and the meaning it gives one’s life, but ten minutes is too short a span for a topic this weighty, and the exchange comes off as rushed and compressed. But these are two well-constructed characters, and given the few minutes they have, Lodewyck and Jimenez invest them with a surprising amount of depth.

Fellow Mortals
by Aurora Real de Asua
directed by Janyce Caraballo
featuring Sierra Phan, Katie Bevil and Z Mowry

Inspired by “Mouse study shows repeated cloning causes grave genetic mutations.”

The best ten minutes of the night. Real de Asua’s script is a delightfully surreal work that takes the bones of the newspaper report and spins it into absurdist comedy. Featuring three characters trapped in a cage, this is a perfectly paced and precisely thought-out piece of theatre. There’s more here thematically than it initially would seem, but remarkably, none of the themes are overtly articulated. The writer trusts the audience to get it. Color me impressed.

So we’ve got one great play, two good ones, one that’s okay and one that’s a dud. For an anthology, that’s a pretty good score. Add in the hilarious newscasters, and I’d say The 17th Annual Living Newspaper Festival is a success.

More of this sort of thing, please.

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photos by Joel Maisonet/Maisonet Photography

The 17th Annual Living Newspaper Festival
Jackalope Theatre Company
Jackalope Theatre in the Broadway Armory, 5917 N. Broadway in Chicago
Fri–Sat at 7:30; Sun at 2; Mon at 7:30
ends on August 24, 2026
90 minutes, no intermission
for tickets ($20–$35), call 773.340.2543 or visit Jackalope

for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago

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