A LOT OF BLOOD WILL OUT Blood will have blood. It also sells tickets. And the theater’s thirstiest sanguinary spectacle remains the unspeakable Scottish tragedy. The darkest doings the Bard could imagine infest  Macbeth —  regicide, betrayal, the slaughter of innocents. Restraint is lost on his tale of sound and fury. But, unlike life, it does  not  signify nothing….

A ROTTEN KIND OF GUN CONTROL It’s an inhuman term, “collateral damage.” Usually it’s reserved for supposedly dispensable victims, necessary sacrifices for a nobler cause. But what if the bigger picture ain’t noble? Then, as Arthur Miller hauntingly says in the passive voice, “Attention must be paid.” In  the inaugural offering from TimeLine Theatre Company’s Playwright…

A PLAY THAT POOPS ON ITSELF The animal realm (we won’t say kingdom) fairly teems with same-sex survival. In all, over 1,500 species experiment with  alternative lifestyles: Sapphic seagulls, flaming flamingos, bisexual bottle-nosed dolphins, gender-bending giraffes, white whales, and — in  Birds of a Feather  — two gay birds. This Chicago premiere from Greenhouse Theater Center both celebrates…

A GLOBAL FLASHPOINT BECOMES A THEATRICAL FLASHFLOOD Until the Flood  lasts only 70 minutes. But its concentrated running time delivers a devastating drama. A ton of truth-telling now on tour, this 2016 one-act is the creation of actor, poet and oral historian Dael Orlandersmith. She becomes the partisans, witnesses, survivors and, above all, inhabitants of a…

“KICK ME” CHARACTERS Born to be bad, Nicky Silver is an acerbic gay playwright who has employed his outsider status to skewer the American family (Pterodactyls), relationships (The Food Chain), and stereotypes (Fat Men in Skirts). His works aren’t done that often anymore, maybe because even bitterness has a shelf life. But it’s a worthy…