A domestic cocktail party goes hilariously and horrifically awry exposing the obsessions, prejudices and petty competitiveness of the party-goers. A sort of suburban comedy of manners, and satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s and ring so true today. The play, developed through lengthy improvisations in which Mike Leigh explored characters in all their beautiful flawed glory, provides a tremendous opportunity for the entire creative team.
Armin is a cannibal. It's a secret he's kept ever since he was a child -- to find another person that would never leave him. He never thought it would be possible, until Bernd stepped into his life. A willing victim was the only missing piece and now he has it.
Agamemnon is Chapter One of Jeremy Menekseoglu’s Agon Trilogy.
The Greeks have been triumphant in the Trojan War and are now returning home with the spoils. The great General Agamemnon sets his sights on Cassandra, the Trojan Princess cursed with the power to see the future but which no one ever believes. He finds her in the temple of Athena being molested by one of his soldiers. After rescuing her and having her tormentor executed, Agamemnon imprisons her on his boat, claiming to want only her gratitude. What follows is a harrowing story of betrayal, barbarity and banishment to the monkey house.
AjaxAntigone combines two of Sophocles’ earliest tragedies and confronts the topical issues of post-traumatic stress disorder, along with familial and national restoration. Ajax is the greatest Greek warrior, brought to his knees by a madness sent from the gods. Antigone is history's greatest rebel, railing against the king who disgraced her family. Their stories told simultaneously address the timeless crisis of post-war environments from two diverse viewpoints.
“This is the future” begins this darkly comic fable about urban developers, criminals, law enforcement, and even a witch, all fighting for the soul and vision of a city. Set in an urban landscape ripe for redevelopment, the parable blends off-kilter characters, fast-paced storytelling, and stinging social satire in a tale of greed, corruption, and civic responsibility. Theatre Mir’s production marks the Chicago professional premiere of this work by George F. Walker, one of Canada’s most prolific and celebrated playwrights.
On the banks of a steamy bayou, the tiny community of San Pere, Louisiana springs to life with stories of love, sexuality and coming-of-age. Influenced by lively Afro-Caribbean folklore, The Brother/Sister Plays explore the struggles that arise when the quest for self identity is at odds with community values.
Chess is a Cold War musical, first premiering in the 1980s, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by former ABBA members, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. Among the notable hit songs from the cult musical are One Night in Bangkok and I Know Him So Well.
Dancing at Lughnasa is Brian Friel's joyous memory piece recounting the yearnings and sublimation of love by the five Mundy sisters. Living out a mundane existence in the rural village of Ballybeg in 1936, the family’s reputation is precariously balanced between the shame of the youngest sister’s illegitimate son, Michael, and their pride for the eldest brother, Father Jack.
Theatre meets science as a diverse group of playwrights each agree to take a genealogical DNA test in this identity-defying collection of short plays. For this adventurous project, Silk Road commissioned seven playwrights, each rooted in distinct immigrant narratives and cross-cultural experiences, to revisit their assumptions about identity politics and the perennial "who am I" question. Self, family, community, ethnicity, race, history, geography--it's all up for grabs! Come see where the DNA Trail leads to.
11:11 tells the story of the first day at Camp Methuselah Pines and the team of young Christian camp counselors who unknowingly drug themselves. As the evening unravels, secrets are shared, temptations explored, and a group of friends realize they don't have the same understanding of the same God. Inspired by the experiences of the playwrights and ensemble, '11:11' asks an age-old question of a new generation: why are we willing to fight for something we cannot see or define?
The Fantasticks tells the familiar tale of a Boy, a Girl, Two Feuding Fathers, and the Wall between them. A timeless exploration of the bittersweet lessons taught by young love, the show is also renowned for its classic songs, including “Try to Remember” and “Soon It’s Gonna Rain.” The show’s minimalist and representational nature fits perfectly with PTE's commitment to using simplicity of design to inspire imagination and bring the audience into the world of the play.
This Tony Award-winning musical has captured the hearts of people all over the world. It is the bittersweet tale of a family coping with a changing world. Tevye, a Jewish dairyman, and his family live in a small village in 1905 Tsarist Russia. With the help of the local matchmaker, Tevye and his wife are in search of acceptable husbands for their three lively daughters. While their daughters are determined to break tradition and marry the men they love, Tevye begins to face bigger issues as Jews are being persecuted in his homeland. A hopeful celebration of the human spirit, Fiddler on the Roof features an unforgettable score with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein.
The hilarious harlots of Off Off Broadzway are skipping the foreplay and heading straight for the morning after pill with their latest musical sketch comedy show! This burlesque-inspired comedy revue features the five Broadz and one confused little ringmaster who never fail to entertain the audience with their anything-goes humor. Taking the glitz, glam and daddy issues of burlesque and combining it with their bawdy comedy and their razor sharp tongues makes for a non-reveal show that reveals that a well placed joke can be more tantalizing then a striptease. Off Off Broadzway can guarantee foul mouths and free boners for the fellas!
Steppenwolf's Visiting Company Initiative is pleased to present Garage Rep, three productions from some of Chicago’s most innovative theatre companies, presented in rotating repertory.
Pulitzer nominee and Obie winner Dael Orlandersmith’s one-woman show about a young girl in Harlem for whom writing and literature provide an escape from a lifetime of poverty and abuse.
The plot unfolds in a crummy apartment with windows that look out into trash-filled alleys. Pepper LaRoo and Velveeta Fitzgerald are inseparable drag queen roommates that dream of hitting it big and leaving the frugal life behind. When things start looking up for one of them, their relationship is put to the test and the girls are forced to rethink their understanding of glamour and the importance of sisterhood.
Zach and Abbie are an American couple desperate to have a child. Beena is a 19 year old Indian woman struggling to escape an abusive marriage and provide for her son. When financial concerns convince Abbie to hire a surrogate in India, the two women’s lives become tangled with surprising and dangerous consequences. Here Where it’s Safe is a new play by award-winning playwright and Stage Left ensemble member M.E.H. Lewis (Burying the Bones, Fellow Travellers) that asks what comes of the choices we make, and what happens when we run out of choices.
As a picture says a thousand words, this production tells a thousand stories and inspires a thousand ideas. Greg Allen taps his roots as a darkroom photographer with this inventive homage to the photo. A photography centered experiment with themes of vision, objectivity and identity, this physical history of photography and cinema uses active imagery to discuss how how we frame the world and ourselves.
Bernadette, a Romanian teenage girl abandoned after birth by her mother, a Roma (Gypsy) woman, grows up in a series of Romanian orphanages. She forges a relationship with her soul-mate Clip who teaches her how to excise parasitic relationships, to “kill” or turn her back forever, even on the maternal bond, in order to realize her own extraordinary identity.
I Love You, Soledad! An Ode to a Very Special CNN Correspondent is a one-person comedy show that follows a media-obsessed young man’s quest to meet renowned news anchor, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, and his discovery of the evil forces at work behind America’s top news media outlet, CNN. Written and performed by Albert Huber and directed by Will Litton, I Love You, Soledad! is a humorous commentary on the isolating effects that constant media access has on our culture.
Tony Kushner brings his sophisticated style and breathtaking language to the French Baroque's most powerful romance. A father's attempt to find his estranged son raises the curtain on a world of theatrical magic, outrageous humor, and true, complicated love.
jedIraq: Meghan's First War
In 2007, Dustin Meghan, a self-absorbed college journalist is busy working away on his latest article in a coffee shop when he is interrupted by a person he will never forget. The innocent looking girl tells him of her plan to travel to war-torn Iraq and write him back letters about the things he learns there. When asked why she would ever consider doing something so dangerous, she gives him the only reply she knows, "Because I can't stand doing nothing." What follows is a journey of understanding and risk that forces open Dustin's mind while simultaneously tying him in knots. As his articles are swept up in unexpected fame, he is left battling his own feelings of helplessness and compassion for strangers; a battle that pushes him to a decision that will ultimatley determine how he lives the rest of his life.
Killer Joe focuses on the Smith family, a greedy, vindictive clan of Texans who hatch a plan to murder their estranged matriarch to cash in on her insurance policy. Unable to bring themselves to do the deed, they hire Killer Joe Cooper, a full-time cop and part-time contract killer. Once he steps into their trailer, their simple plan quickly spirals out of control.
Food...Sex...Aliens....The Legend of Ginger Bred is the story of Ginger Bred a rock n' roll ex-porn star junkie who resurrects her past on the night of a major electrical storm. Ginger and her band take you on a bizarre odyssey from East Texas to Hollywood in this off-beat camp musical roller-coaster ride.
Subtitled After Hippolytus and first produced by Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1977, Living Quarters recasts the mythology of Theseus, Hippolytus, and Phaedra into an isolated Donegal homestead.Commandant Frank Butler returns home to Ireland as a hero after saving nine United Nations peacekeepers from enemy fire during a siege in the Middle East. Reunited to celebrate Frank's triumph are three daughters and a son by his first marriage and the young wife Frank married days before his deployment. But the revelation of secrets kept while Frank was away threatens to divide the Butler house forever.
In this raw, provocative world premiere, Sam attempts to drink away his past and exorcise his demons on an Indian reservation in South Dakota, where he has been trying to forget his role in a tragic accident involving his family. When a visitor from his past arrives on the reservation, Sam is forced to face his guilt and take a harrowing look at the man he has become. The Long Red Road is a searing play about the way one person's anguish can tear a family apart.
A Love Lost Life tells of the bonds and barriers between fathers and sons manifesting in Brando's own efforts to understand fatherhood. The 90-minute biopic reveals his feelings towards his father and his confusion about being a father to his own children. Brando's final years inspired the author's title and focus. And although Marlon Brando was a famously private man, what is indisputably known about him is that he changed the way actors act.
Set in the uncertain economic climate at the beginning of the 21st century, “Lower Debt” tells the story of an everyman who leaves his white-collar existence, and ends up in a tent city among residents who are all looking for another way to live. This ensemble-based multimedia play explores the themes of community, ownership, loss and hope while asking the question, “How did we end up here?”
Recipient of a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award nomination for Best Play in 1982, ’Master Harold’ ... and the Boys is considered Athol Fugard’s masterpiece, valued for both its universal themes of humanity and its skilled theater craft. Set in South Africa during the 1950s era of apartheid, it depicts how institutionalized racism can become absorbed by those who live under it. A white 17-year-old spends time with two African workers he has known all his life, and through their conversations on one rainy day we see what unites and divides them. The play’s beautiful and haunting dialogue and message of hope also inspire the recognition that there is much work to be done to bring people of different races together.
Medieval Times is an exciting, family-friendly dinner attraction inspired by an 11th century feast and tournament. Guests are served a four-course banquet and cheer for one of six knights as they compete in the joust and other tests of skill. Expect lots of jousting, swordsmanship, thrilling hand-to-hand combat, and displays of extraordinary horsemanship as part of an exciting story set in Medieval Spain.
The small town of Elroy, South Carolina is thrust into the evangelical spotlight when what seems to be the image of Jesus appears on a refrigerator in a trailer park. The discovery by Lou Ann Hightower, her husband Dwayne, and her best friend Betsy, sets into motion a frenzy of conflict, communion and good old fashioned commerce.
On December 4, 1956, an auspicious twist of fate brought together Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. The place was Sun Records’ storefront studio in Memphis. The man who made it happen was the “Father of Rock-n-Roll,” Sam Phillips, who discovered them all. The four legends-to-be united for the only time in their careers for an impromptu recording session that embodied the birth of rock ‘n’ roll and has come to be known as one of the greatest rock jam sessions of all time.
Mimesophobia dodges between Hollywood and Hyde Park to track one family’s private tragedy as it becomes absorbed by the public eye. While Cassy, the devastated daughter, reconstructs her murdered sister’s diary, two screenwriters desperately try to spin the tragedy into cinematic gold. Meanwhile, a deranged academic meditates on the American obsession with violence. In the middle of the dark and savagely funny collage lies the question: what compels us to open doors we know are better left unopened?
A coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst, and alienation comedy. With special guest improv group CounterProductive Lover. Mountain Brook High School resembles any other high school - it's filled with angst, cliques, misinformed passions. Except this high school is an improv show!
Dorothy is locked in a lifeless marriage of empty domestic ritual until a fugitive Reptile-man from another world arrives on her doorstep. With him, she finds forbidden love and experiences a rebirth of her spirit, even as her grasp on reality falters. Travel with Dorothy through the fragile pathways of the human psyche as she dares to live - and love - unconventionally, in this remarkable story acclaimed as one of the greatest post-war American novels.
Noises Off follows the on and off stage antics of an inept acting troupe as they stumble from bumbling dress rehearsal to disastrous closing night. Everything that can go wrong does, as actors desperately try to hang on to their lines, their performances, and the furniture. Add a slippery plate of sardines and a slew of slamming doors and you have the most sidesplitting backstage comedy ever put on paper.
Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and grappling with the challenges of aging, a Holocaust survivor bears witness to his past in this beautiful exploration on the elusive nature of memory. This moving one-man show is written and directed by Emilie Beck, who returns to Piven after her 2008 award-winning production, Because They Have No Words. The piece was written specifically for the playwright’s father, Piven Ensemble Member Bernard Beck.
You're invited to a marvelous party at Writers' Theatre! Weaving together songs and literary delights, Oh Coward! celebrates one of the theater’s greatest entertainers, Noel Coward. His effervescent music and charming quips combine for an unforgettable evening of the most memorable tunes of the 20th century.
It’s Harlem in the Spring of 1943. Elizabeth and Quilly, sisters of a certain age, are quietly nursing their loneliness and healing from heartache when their lives together change abruptly. Husband Witherspoon, a handsome young border, moves to New York from the country in search of his fiancée, and ends up finding love in the most unlikely of places. Told with heartwarming sincerity, humor and a touch of poetry, The Old Settler paints a poignant picture of two women testing the bonds of family and finding the strength and forgiveness only family can offer.
In an Oregon mental hospital, Nurse Ratched runs a perfectly disciplined ward. The patients follow her every rule and keep no secrets. Enter Randall P. McMurphy, just transferred from prison, with a love for gambling, sex, and confrontation. McMurphy bets his new friends that he can unravel Ratched in one week. Told through the foggy haze of Chief Bromden’s hallucinations, the play raises the need to question authority and to attack the subtle institutional dulling of the human spirit. The novel, written in 1962, was one of the first steps taken in a life full of rebellion, by its Merry Prankster author, Ken Kesey. Ensemble member John Kelly Connolly makes his directorial debut.
After years of maintaining a close, platonic friendship, David and Beth begin an inescapable love-affair with heartbreaking consequences. Through a series of theatrical, voyeuristic scenes which all take place on or around a single bed, we see the painfully intense unraveling of both troubled marriages and, eventually, the construction of a very fragile but authentic new beginning for everyone concerned. Written by one of the most promising young playwrights of this generation, Craig Wright’s Orange Flower Water is an unsparing but ultimately hopeful examination of the unremitting need that humans beings have for one another.
It's 1959 in Buffalo, New York - Elvis, drive-ins, and The Honeymooners made life fun and simple. Not for the Pazinski household though! Polish-Catholics Chet and Ellen live above their tavern with their four teenagers, each questioning family values in their own mischievous ways. And when wise-cracking 12-year-old Rudy questions the Roman Catholic Church to ruler-cracking Sister Clarissa before his confirmation, the outcome is a hilarious yet touching comedy that would even make the Cleavers at a loss for good advice! Rating: PG, some mild adult language
A spellbinding drama with pitch dark humor about a writer accused of perpetrating the very acts depicted in his murderous stories. Featuring Redtwist’s Associate Artistic Director, Andrew Jessop, as the writer, and Jeff Award-winner (for Equus), Peter Oyloe, as his slow-witted brother. Tom Hickey, from Strawdog, and Redtwister, Johnny Garcia, are the good and bad cops respectively.
The Rant is a gripping drama exploring racial bias and the perilous path to justice. When an African-American autistic boy is gunned down by police in the Bronx, an investigator sets out to expose the officer’s crime only to learn that the truth itself is a sort of bias. She must wade through prejudice, deceit, and a volley of anonymous threats to find where culpability and truth really lie.
Rent tells the story of the trials and tribulations faced by a close-knit group of friends living in New York City’s East Village. The characters struggle with the threat of homelessness, demons of drug addiction, questions of artistic integrity, and survival in the face of the AIDS epidemic.
Winner of the 1999 Tony Award for Best Play and a Pulitzer Prize nominee, Side Man tells the story of Clifford and his father Gene, a brilliant musician whose career fades with the decline of jazz and the coming of rock & roll. With Gene unwilling or able to get a full time job, Clifford and his mother struggle to support each other and survive in his absence. We see the family fall apart as Gene puts his love of jazz before his family. Sharp dialogue and dimestore philosophy from the musicians in Gene’s band and the storytelling as told by son Clifford propel this amazing play.
: This Pulitzer Prize-winning comedic classic recounts the numerous travails of an average American nuclear family from New Jersey who survive some not-so-average circumstances, including the Ice Age, the Great Flood, the Napoleonic War to name a few. The play is a testament to the resiliency and fortitude of the human spirit from one of America's most celebrated playwrights.
In a fanciful and far-off kingdom, the vengeful sorceress Magenta places a wicked curse on the beautiful Princess Amber. Only a kiss from her one true love can unlock the spell and wake this Sleeping Beauty before it is too late. Will Prince Hunter overcome his fears as he scales the mountains, sails the dark sea and battles a dragon to prove his love to Princess Amber? Children are invited to participate in the magic throughout this captivating and colorful fairy tale, featuring a soaring score and lively choreography.
Something is bumping off young, hope-filled, American teens—something that leaves behind bright green goo. Official United States Scientist—Smittie—knows exactly what this something is: a Boogeranious Lifeform Originating from Bylopsia-X25. At the American University of Science College, where he became a scientist, they just called it… a BLOB. But the President and his men believe that any threat of this magnitude can mean only one thing: Communists. Communists that… goo green. Irish Communists! In response to this growing danger, the President sends Smittie on the most important mission of his life: to protect the president’s one and only daughter—Midge—from these Commumicks and bring her back to the Pentagon safely. Can Midge and Smittie defeat the BLOB before it destroys the very spirit of America?
In the future, on a space ship orbiting a star set to explode at any minute, three clones named Marika are throwing a theme party. At the party there's an angst-y psychic, a fighter pilot & his party animal best friend, a time traveler in search of the girl of his dreams, a shape-shifter, a bounty hunter, an escaped convict, and the galaxy's last living rock lobster. In the style of 1980s teen movies (and set to the tune of new-wave dance hits), these characters are all trying to find their match, their identity, and real human connections in a world of technology... all before the star explodes.
While hope and change won't stop you from getting sick, they may help you pay the hospital bills. And if you believe that, we have a great policy to sell you. We're sick of the flu, sick of the health care system, and sick of the cameras catching us running the red lights. Although technology & Twitter have supposedly made us a smaller world, people have never felt farther apart. Taming of the Flu connects with everyone: put-upon Chicago cabbies, Canadian ex-patriots and even a visit with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni.
Ensemble Member David Schwimmer directs the World Premiere of his visceral new script about how a seemingly innocent encounter threatens to unravel the fabric of a normal American household. Lookingglass examines how families navigate today’s uncharted technological landscape. When children have the freedom to interact with complete strangers online, where is the line that parents must draw between fostering independence and protecting from harm?
The stakes are high in this thrilling courtroom drama where a jury of twelve men are deciding the fate of a teenager accused of murdering his abusive father. When prejudices are tested and all the evidence is weighed this jury of peers must face the shocking truth. Raven Guest Artist and Founding Member of Congo Square Theatre Ensemble, Aaron Todd Douglas directs this ultimate courtroom drama.
Based on the true and unsolved murders of three members of the Peak Family of Grand Island, Nebraska, Vanishing Points follows Beth, a college art student, through the aftermath of her family’s violent deaths.
In 2040, the future of a divided nation is in the hands of a single man as he manipulates the fate of twin daughters, heirs to an American political dynasty. Separated at birth, they now find themselves caught on opposite sides of an escalating U.S. conflict. Following in the footsteps of the speculative fiction of Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick, Wilson Wants It All draws inspiration from the narrative core of A Tale of Two Cities, the 1993 feature film Dave, and the mythology of the Kennedy Camelot era.
