Theatre News Wire

Raven Theatre, Chicago's newest Equity-affiliated theatre, will continue its 2021-22 Season with Jonathan Harvey's sweet and charming coming-of-age play Beautiful Thing, directed by Mikael Burke. This touching story of two boys living in London discovering how they fit into the world around them will play February 9 - March 27, 2022 on Raven's 85-seat East Stage, 6157 N. Clark St. (at Granville) in Chicago. Single tickets and a variety of 2021-22 subscription packages are currently available at raventheatre.com or by calling (773) 338-2177.

The cast includes Delaney Feener, Peter Ferneding, Shariba Rivers, Donovan Session and Brennan Urbi.

Anonymous among the thousands living in the working-class flats of southeast London, two boys struggle to carve out their own space in a constricting world. Driven away by his erratic family, Ste seeks order and purpose in sports and academics, building the idealized life he hasn't lived. Jamie, instead, turns his back on structure, preferring independence and sharp wit to scholastic honors. With the pressures of their divergent lives mounting, the boys find solace with one another. Ste's nightly refuge at Jamie's house evolves into something more, something transformative: something beautiful. After redefining gay representation nearly 30 years ago, Beautiful Thing brings the warmth of first love back to Chicago.

Comments director Mikael Burke, "When I first encountered this funny, moving story of queer first-love, I was eleven years old, and struggling with my own sexuality. I grew up in a conservative Christian family where being gay was a punishable offense. But this story was exactly the medicine I didn't know I needed. This was the first time in my life that I'd heard about or seen a queer romance that didn't come at an incredible cost. Seeing queer people living their truth without losing their entire world, and in fact being loved and supported by their world, gave me the strength to live truthfully in my own. And while in a lot of ways, we live in a very different world than 30 years ago when this play premiered - in so many ways, nothing has changed. This play is a love letter to the outsiders looking for their way in this world, and the people who love them. It asks us all of us how we learn to love others the way they need to be loved, and how we learn to love ourselves the way we need to be loved? This play is a beautiful thing that I can't wait to bring back to Chicago."