Theatre News Wire

Chicago's Shattered Globe Theatre announced its 2023-24 season today, embarking on a bold journey through the rocky waters of our world today, while showcasing three diverse and provocative perspectives with a gritty classic, comedic absurdism, and magical realism.

First, a classic launches Shattered Globe Theatre's 33rd season, Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge. This is the story of Eddie, a longshoreman, who visits a lawyer, Alfieri, with a problem. Eddie's teenage niece, an orphan who he raised as his own daughter, has fallen in love with a newly arrived Italian immigrant. They want to marry, but Eddie must stop them. Because things are not what they seem.

SGT Ensemble Member Louis Contey returns to tackle this timeless story about desire, the decay of old values, and yearning for what is lost when you've left home to build something new. Contey's 1993 production of Miller's masterpiece is one of the shows that first put Shattered Globe on the map. Ensemble Member Eileen Niccolai, who played Beatrice in 1993, also returns to reprise her role. Performances are September 8-October 21. 

Next, batten down the hatches for Flood, SGT's Chicago premiere comedy about the end of the world. Flood marks the Chicago debut of playwright Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, in a production directed by Kenneth Prestininzi.

Imagine a contemporary hi-rise apartment on the 19th floor. All Edith wants is to sit and have some tea with her husband, someday, when he's done building his masterpiece. "It's not too much to ask, is it?" The kids don't call enough, and when they do, they seem full of accusations. Meanwhile, outside their apartment, the waters are rising. And rising. And rising.

Flood is theatre of the absurd, charting the relationship between two parents and their adult children for a comedic dive into love, companionship, gender and generational divides. Performances are January 25-March 9, 2024.

For its 33rd season finale, SGT presents Jump, a Midwest premiere bridging heartbreak and hope by Charly Evon Simpson, directed by Shattered Globe's associate artistic director, AmBer Montgomery.

Meet Fay and Hopkins. Fay gives Hopkins hope. Hopkins helps Fay grieve her mother and the loss of her childhood home. Flickering lights, vapes that fall from the sky, and love that recycles leap into a play fueled by magical realism, for a touching story about hope and the promise of human connection. Performances are April 19-June 1, 2024. 

"A View from the Bridge, Flood and Jump sail back and forth and between generations to explore themes of family, refuge, and hope," said Shattered Globe Producing Artistic Director Sandy Shinner. "These are visceral, human themes which we're all grappling with more now than ever, and Shattered Globe looks forward to exploring them with the expansive possibilities that come with intimate, ensemble-driven theatre."

All three productions in Shattered Globe's 2023-24 season will be presented at the company's resident home, Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood.