Rhino in Winter
Offered as an adjunct to the annual summer Rhinoceros Theater Festival, this showcase of fringe entertainment features mostly new work by the Curious Theatre Branch, Theater for the Age of Gold, and other ensembles and individuals. The fest runs through March 15 at the Lunar Cabaret, 2827 N. Lincoln; for reservations and information, call 773-327-6666. Tickets are $10 per show or “pay what you can” for all theater events, and $5 (“no debate”) for music events.
The Reader lists festival offerings on a week-by-week basis (audiences are advised to call the festival for updates); following is the schedule for February 5 through 12.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5
“Do I Contradict Myself? Very Well, I Contradict Myself”
Monologuist Beau O’Reilly and poet John Starrs perform the poetry of Allen Ginsberg and Walt Whitman as part of the festival’s “Thursday Beat Night.” 8 PM.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6
Happy Hour
Monologuist Anne Van der Vort performs “a satirical triptych that describes the consequences of unacceptable behavior in the upper reaches of our society.” 8 PM.
Fridge Strings: Nocturne w/Fruit & Grandmother
Amanda Clower’s one-woman show finds a late-night refrigeraider examining her relationships with her mother and grandmother. Jenny Magnus directs for Flying Girl. “[S]ometimes Clower gets stuck in her metaphors. . . . Mostly, however, this 40-minute late-night show works; Clower’s sleep-talking rings true, and her shocks of recognition make [her character’s] obsessions wakingly real,” said Reader critic Lawrence Bommer when he reviewed the piece’s original run. 10 PM.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7
The Strange
The Curious Theatre Branch presents Jenny Magnus and Amy Warren in Magnus’s new play about “drunkenness and dreams, mimetics and idea infection, and innocence and experience.” 8 PM.
Man to Man
This program of two plays by Mark Guarino includes The Cool Down, about two childhood friends testing their boundaries of their past, and When What, about two lost people. 10 PM.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8
Partners, Glaucoma, and Franky
These three plays, by Salem Collo-Julin, Abby Sher, and Sue Ann Jewers respectively, were written in a Curious School Writing Workshop. 2 PM.
The Hidden Chronicles and The Guillermo Gregorio Trio
The festival’s “Sundays at 7” series features “The Hidden Chronicles,” a program of “art songs from the cabaret closet” by Beau O’Reilly and Michael Greenberg. Also featured is the Guillermo Gregorio Trio. 7 PM.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9
Man to Man
See listing for 10 PM Saturday, February 7. 8 PM.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12
“Do I Contradict Myself? Very Well, I Contradict Myself”
See listing for Thursday, February 5. 8 PM
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): The Strange theater still photo by Christopher Dimock.