"They are running everything but no one knows who THEY actually are?" Using the text of Stanislaw Witkiewicz, They examines who THEY are and if the secret government really exists. They tragically examines how the beauty in love and art is poisoned by the toxic remedy of normalization and the destruction of freedom and imagination.
"...The connections Witkiewicz draws among diverse subjects--not to mention his ability to deflate them all--is at once grim, silly, and prophetic. Trouble is, the cast under adapter/director Beata Pilch push their performances so far into heavy-handed freneticism that the production becomes difficult to watch at just 80 minutes. Carl Wisniewski's Callisto is the worst example. On the other hand, Mary-Kate Arnold manages to give some fire to Callisto's long-suffering lover, Spika." Read Full Review
Tony Adler
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...For this production, Trap Door's space is filled with an actual painting exhibit by artists whose catalogue may be perused by patrons. Hosting the exhibit is Spika, Countess Tremendosa (Mary-Kate Arnold), the mistress of the in-universe mastermind behind the gallery, the great Callisto Balandash (Carl Wisniewski). An interview with Balandash is playing on a TV monitor. In it, he informs his interviewer that art studies him, not the other way around, among other blunt assessments of his own genius." Read Full Review
Jacob Davis
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...Trap Door, now in its 24th season, always creates startling theater, which is exciting, sometimes bizarre, but never boring. They specialize in avant-garde, expressionistic plays, mostly by eastern European playwrights. Witkiewicz (1885-1939) was considered a brilliant figure of the European avant garde. He was a poet, painter, playwright, an expert on drugs, an advocate for nonrealistic theater, and a critic of mass culture and totalitarianism." Read Full Review
Nancy Bishop
This show has been Jeff Recommended*
*The designation of "Jeff Recommended" is given to a production when at least ONE ELEMENT of the show was deemed outstanding by the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee.
