Author Archives: Rebecca L. Ford

THE FANTASTICKS, Metropolis Performing Arts Centre. Perhaps this musical, which ran continuously in a tiny downtown Manhattan theater from the eve of the Kennedy administration until after 9/11, is such a favorite because it speaks to generations of young people who throng–or long to throng–to the big city, to spin the wheel in the carnival […]

NOTES FROM THE BOTTLETREE, Ma’at Production Association of Afrikan Centered Theatre, at Victory Gardens Theater. MPAACT’s metier seems to be moving family dramas that examine the sense of duty, longing, and pride felt by the adult daughters of dysfunctional fathers. In Addae Moon’s new play, blocked artist Jules (Alana Arenas) must deal with the death […]

PROOF, Goodman Theatre. David Auburn’s 2001 Pulitzer-winning play opens on the 25th birthday of Catherine, daughter of a schizophrenic former University of Chicago mathematics professor who revolutionized his field, then declined into dementia. She’s put her own life on hold to care for him and now, on the eve of his funeral, must face the […]

THE FEW, Hermit Arts, at Prop Thtr. Creating a lead character who stands out like a 3-D animation, writer-director Idris Goodwin has created a brilliant, intimate dark comedy. Jonathan Putman as Elvis Portman brings the work to life with his Drew Carey horn-rims, tics, and neuroses and his Unabomber gift for interpersonal interaction. Elvis, a […]

CROWNS, Goodman Theater. What joyful noise is made by Regina Taylor’s soulful ensemble of six sisters with “hattitude” (and one man). Taylor adapted and directs her own musical version of Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats, a book of Michael Cunningham photographs accompanied by Craig Marberry’s oral histories. The women reveal their stories […]

THE BIG VOICE: GOD OR MERMAN?–A MUSICAL COMEDY IN TWO LIVES, at Theatre Building Chicago. Notwithstanding the minimalist set, it’s a little misleading to present this funny, fully realized award-winning musical comedy under the auspices of a workshop program. In fact, writer-composer-performers Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin, who are partners in life as well as […]

WHY BLACK MEN PLAY BASKETBALL, ETA Creative Arts Foundation. In Brian Quenton Thorne’s contemporary allegory, basketball represents the journey of life as ten men express themselves and challenge and support one another on the court. The script urges African-Americans to continue to move forward. Stay in the game. Get over the bad calls. Hustle or […]

BLUE/ORANGE, Northlight Theatre. In his Olivier Award-winning play, Joe Penhall twists seemingly harmless remarks into wounding barbs. As in a Mamet script, the characters twirl around like bath toys on a sea of ambiguity, bobbing into an undertow of unspoken agendas and deliberate misunderstandings. Chris is a young man of African descent who’s been committed […]

GOOD BOYS, Chicago Theatre Company. This play by the pseudonymous “Jane Martin” examines the aftermath of a Columbine-style high school shooting. The father of the sole black victim tracks down the father of the white shooter-suicide in a Florida park eight years after the event. The black father–Thomas Thurman (Phillip Edward Van Lear), a minister–wants […]

DEVOTION, at ImprovOlympic. Written and performed by husband-and-wife team Brian and Emily Wilson, this comedy revue riffs on the vagaries of meeting, marrying, and settling in. The perky couple add texture to their performance with music, warbling rhythm-and-blues ballads, playing guitar, and generally using songs as emotional triggers. On an unspoken level, Devotion seems to […]

THE SISTERS FROM BELZONI, ETA Creative Arts Foundation. At two and a half hours, Creola Thomas’s earnest play cries out for editing. Yet it rings true, portraying the limited options and desperate escape mechanisms available to black women in stifling, insular communities. Director Mignon McPherson Nance gives the work a depth that distinguishes it from […]

Sost, Ma’at Production Association of Afrikan Centered Theatre, at Victory Gardens Theater. Shepsu Aakhu’s new play is interesting not for its writing, staging, or production values but because it pulls back the curtain on an unknown way of life. Sost–which means “three” in the Amharic language–follows the lives of three Ethiopian sisters who all immigrated […]

Reckless, New Leaf Theatre, at the Lincoln Park Cultural Center. Director Brandon Ray does a marvelous job with Craig Lucas’s fast-paced, morbid comedy. Bubbly chatterbox housewife Rachel plunges into the snow wearing her bathrobe and slippers on Christmas Eve. She leaves home in a hurry when she learns her husband has hired a hit man […]

Spunk, Congo Square Theatre Company, at the Storefront Theater. As adapted by George C. Wolfe from three Zora Neale Hurston short stories, “Spunk” is an agreeable evening of ensemble storytelling enlivened by the blues accompaniment of Guitar Man (Ron Reid) and the vocal accents of Blues Speak Woman (a scrumptious Aimee K. Bryant), whose singing […]