Paul Kubicki

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN PERFORMANCE ART AND DRAMA Without ever denigrating the work of Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick, I have to say I never quite got part three of his trilogy of play/art-show/performance pieces, Nickel History: The Nation of Heat. The work is largely autobiographical, with Fitzpatrick and Stan Klein, Fitzpatrick’s fellow artist and longtime friend, contemplating…

THE ARTISTIC HOME PROVIDES GOOD DRAMA, BUT CAN’T FIX A TROUBLED PLAY Apparently in The American Plan, the name of the game is deception, but no one seems to think they’re playing. In Richard Greenberg’s drama (which, as the title suggests, unsubtly comments on the falseness of the American Dream), all of the characters are…

DEAD WRITER’S PRODUCES DEAD THEATRE I’ll admit, I was skeptical from the start walking into the Greenhouse Theatre’s production of Noel Coward’s The Vortex, the inaugural production of the Dead Writer’s Theater Collective (DWTC). Why? The newly formed DWTC states that their plays are presented “as we interpret the authors would have intended their works…

IT’S  ABSURD HOW AMAZING TRAP DOOR THEATRE IS… OR IS IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND? For those of you skeptical of avant-garde theatre, I’d like to kindly direct your attention over to the Trap Door Theatre. This season has been a big one for them, with a strong slew of productions that have gotten raved by…

GREEK TRAGEDY IN THE ‘HOOD Luis Alfaro’s slant on the Oedipus myth is at no point more transparent than the opening of his play, when several Latinos in orange jumpsuits sit behind bars, nodding their heads as James and Bobby Purify’s lyrics blare from a prisoner’s boombox: “I’ll do funny things if you want me…

IF YOU LET IT, FERVENCY AND JOY COMPENSATE FOR TROUBLING SCRIPT A joyful noise is rising out of the Goodman Theatre this summer. With hearty vibrato and a religious fervor rivaled only by televangelists, writer/director Regina Taylor’s revamped hit Crowns is shaking the rafters, and will have you nodding and tapping and humming for the…

WATKINS HAS US IN THE PALM OF HIS HANDS I had one reservation headed into The House Theatre of Chicago’s The Magic Parlour: almost every magic show I had ever been to has been obnoxiously showy, laughably cheap, or both. I grew up seeing magicians at birthday parties, went to magic shops and learned card…

A LUKEWARM PRODUCTION OF A HOT SCRIPT This July, Pastime Theatre is ripping off their clothes and inviting audiences to join in on the fun. “Naked July: Art Stripped Down” is a theatre festival, part in celebration of the human body, part in celebration of the opening of Pastime’s new space – which, oddly enough,…

THE YODELING ROCKS, THE SHOW DOES NOT Before Adam Guettel was declared the next Sondheim by many for his beautiful, swelling Light in the Piazza score, he drew on the rich folk sounds of Kentucky for the tale of Floyd Collins. This lesser-known musical is the true-life story about a passionate Kentucky spelunker whose foot…

LET ME GO, LOVER I’ll be the first to admit as a twenty-something that  I don’t know what it’s like to feel like your sex life has passed you by – something I’m told that many couples experience in their later years. Harold Pinter’s one-act The Lover seeks to explore one middle-aged couple’s attempt to spice…

MR. SANDMAN, BRING ME A NIGHTMARE There is something passing strange at the Oracle Theatre, and you won’t want to miss it. In Oracle’s The Sandman, dreams are not to be trusted, illusion and reality are constantly confused, and childhood fairytales prove to be fatal. Bob Fisher’s stage adaptation of E.T.A Hoffman’s 1816 fantastical, somewhat…

SHANGHAIED It takes a rare courage to brave Chicago’s Navy Pier during the summer. A combination of lines and advertisements threaten to ensnare you and your wallet with just a simple misstep. And amongst all this, Chicagoans like myself will be confronted with the Kafka-esque fear of feeling like one of them’”by “them,” I of…

A FRAGILE PRODUCTION STILL RESONATES Stepping from the bustling, sunny streets of Lincoln Park into Steppenwolf’s Garage Theatre feels like traveling back almost a century into the sepia-toned vision of disillusionment and despair that marked the Depression era. The dark, claustrophobic space is perfectly suited for The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams’ portrait of a family…

A TRIUMPHANT FLY TO BUZZ ABOUT I won’t try to tell you the plot of Anger/Fly, other than that a fly lands in soup and the world ends. In Theatre of the Absurd, plot is rarely the point – and even if it is, it’s nearly unintelligible. The setting and the characters, too, are lost….

SHOULD YOU GO TO HELL? Sarte said that Hell is other people, but playwright Ethan Coen proposes that watching other people experience hell is supposed to be hysterical. Coen’s Almost An Evening is the inaugural show in Circle Theatre’s new, more intimate space, and while J. Christopher Brown’s production can be devilishly fun at times,…

[title of review] The Northlight Theatre decided to step off of the beaten path this season, putting on the relatively unknown cult musical [title of show]. The simple premise has two writers, Jeff and Hunter, who are trying to write a show about themselves writing a show ([title of show] refers to the New York…