A.C. Smith Archives - Chicago Reader

A traditional Victorian dining room set. A young Black man is seated at the table center. On either side of him are two older Black women, both gesturing toward him and talking.

Elderberry wine in new bottles

by Kelly Kleiman September 14, 2022September 14, 2022

Long before the term “meta” entered common parlance there was Arsenic and Old Lace, a 1939 play by Joseph Kesselring about how plays are ridiculous. It’s also a play about the difference between reality and appearance, embodied by the saintly Brewster sisters and their killer elderberry wine. Arsenic and Old Lace Through 10/2: Wed-Fri 7:30 […]

A diner set. A young Black waitress in a yellow uniform stands next to a Black man seated at a table in the forefroung. We see three other Black men behind them; one in a booth on the left, a younger Black man standing by the register, and a man behind the register.

Theater Review

Diner dialogues

by Kelly Kleiman May 25, 2022May 25, 2022

This is an impeccable production of a play whose weaknesses outweigh its considerable strengths. It’s the 1960s episode of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, tracing a century of life in the African American Hill District, and urban renewal shadows everything. (Jack Magaw’s set presents this vividly.) The diner where the play takes place is nearly empty […]

Three Black men and two Black woman stand in a line. The man on the left holds a large staff in front of the young man in the center while an older Black woman speaks to the younger man.

Theater Review

Gem of the Ocean opens the world of August Wilson

by Kerry Reid February 2, 2022February 9, 2022

August Wilson’s Century Cycle (also known as the Pittsburgh Cycle, though Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is set in Chicago) remains one of the monumental achievements in American drama. Chuck Smith’s current Goodman revival of Gem of the Ocean, chronologically the first in Wilson’s decade-by-decade exploration of Black American history in the 20th century, takes us […]