C.J. Fernandes

FIVE MONOLOGUES IN SEARCH OF A PLAY A sharp, funny satire of academia wrestles with difficult questions—and nearly gets derailed by its sexual detours They’re back! After a four-year hiatus, during which time I’m sure some serious soul-searching was conducted, Victory Gardens Theater returns to the Chicago theater scene with The Humanities, a world premiere…

AN EASY PILL TO SWALLOW The opening production of TimeLine’s first full season in its gorgeous new home in Uptown, the world premiere of Jessica Huang’s The Birth of the Pill, gets off to an inauspicious start. On Regina García’s lovely set, all warm earth tones and tourmaline tiles, a young woman, Ramona Delgado (María…

NO MIRACLE HERE Moments of brilliance cannot make this uneven García Márquez adaptation cohere It has been raining for several days, and in a small house, a husband (Dan Cobbler) and wife (Laura Nelson) are freaking out about the health of their child. He has a fever that will not abate, and the wife believes…

SCRATCH IT Silverman’s Jacobean reworking is hilarious, dark, and exhilarating How does one determine if an adaptation is a success? Does it require rigorous fidelity to the source material? What if it honors the spirit of the material but not its text? Or what if it just uses the bare bones of its source as…

THE CASE AGAINST AN EASY OUT A darkly funny, anxiety-inducing thriller loses its footing in the final stretch In the skies over Texas, a pregnant young woman called Nessa faints on a plane en route to New York. The plane is diverted to Dallas/Fort Worth, and she is rushed to the emergency room, where she…

HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE JOAN CRAWFORD Four Joans, three Christinas, and a torrent of gags make this trip to hell devilishly funny Beginning her film career as a body double for Norma Shearer, the Hollywood star she went on to overshadow in the classic MGM comedy The Women (1939), Joan Crawford’s success owed as…

KOKANDY GETS THE PICTURE A splendid revival turns this cranky critic into a dewy-eyed theatre kid again “Work is what you do for others, Liebchen. Art is what you do for yourself.” In a sense, I guess it’s appropriate that Sunday in the Park with George, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Pulitzer-winning musical, should be staged…

CITY LIT SADDLES UP A WINNER A terrific central trio and striking stagecraft make Mark Pracht’s world-premiere adaptation a winner The venerable City Lit opens its 46th season with Shane, a world premiere from multi-hyphenate Mark Pracht. Based on the novel by Jack Schaefer, which was previously adapted into a highly regarded 1953 film with…

TEENAGE WASTELAND Growing up is hell in Tim Venable’s funny, disturbing and morally murky gearshift play In the late 1990s, filmmaker P.T. Anderson coined the term “gearshift movie” to describe a film that switches up its tone/theme in an instant. If we were to extend that term to the theatre, Tim Venable’s Adolescent Salvation would…

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…

DYING TO BREAK THE CYCLE Three generations speak across time in a harrowing, beautifully orchestrated exploration of trauma and inheritance To a theatre-lover, going to a first production from a theatre company is like being on a blind date. You don’t know what to expect. You’re slightly nervous, slightly apprehensive, slightly excited, but most of…

WINDOWS NEEDS MORE SPIT AND POLISH An appealing young cast can’t overcome a world-premiere script that remains frustratingly unformed 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…

SOUND AND FURY, SIGNIFYING PLENTY A sound artist steps out of the booth with a powerful, deeply personal work that, in production, may be better heard than seen Over five thousand shows: that’s how many productions Ryn Hardiman has sound engineered for the Neo-Futurists, an avant-garde group of performers who delight in violating the rules…

A CRACK IN THE ORDINARY Four remarkable performances make the leap from surrealism to domestic drama worthwhile Marina Carr’s Marble, now in its Chicago premiere at the Copernicus Center as part of The Gift Theatre‘s 25th Anniversary “Homecoming” season, opens with a delicious premise. Two old friends, Ben (John Gawlik) and Art (Paul D’Addario), are…

CRAM SESSION, CRASH COURSE Natalie Margolin’s sharply observed comedy captures the fleeting intensity of college friendships Natalie Margolin’s All Nighter, which opened Off-Broadway in 2025, makes its Midwest premiere at Rivendell Theatre in a production from The Village Theater. The play unfolds over one long night in a study hall at a small liberal arts…

ALL ABOARD THE S.S. SEX FARCE These gender-liberated pirates need to boink more and bicker less On the deck of the pirate ship Revenge, a buxom young lass leads a blindfolded young man to a chair. Asking him to trust her, she ties him up and then promptly walks off with a bag of money…

GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT SHOW David Lindsay-Abaire’s poignant drama delivers a powerful reminder that luck, circumstance, and class often shape lives as much as talent or determination In an alley behind a Dollar General store in South Boston, a middle-aged woman is embroiled in an argument with her manager. Margie has been late to work for…

YESTERDAY’S REBELS Time has softened the musical’s edges, but not its beating heart In 1968, a rock musical featuring a ragtag group of hippies took Broadway by storm. With book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, a score by Galt MacDermot, and featuring a large cast of mostly unknowns, minimal dialogue and no…