Artistic Home Archives - Chicago Reader

A bearded white man wearing a vertically striped black-and-white shirt with a belt and black trousers stands center, holding a vodka bottle up in one hand, with a gun held in his other hand down by his side. He is surrounded by nine other people of various races, ages and genders, who are looking on at him from benches and porches. He appears to be in a courtyard of some kind. At the rear we see a couple of people in "peasant" garb with musical stringed instruments. At the right is a seated woman in a black dress, wearing a scarf around her eyes like a blindfold. She is bent over at the waist. At the left are men in overcoats, and one who appears dressed as a soldier.

Soviet slapstick

by Emily McClanathan March 30, 2023March 30, 2023

Heading into opening night of Dying for It at Artistic Home, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Moira Buffini’s adaptation of The Suicide, a 1928 satire by Soviet playwright Nikolai Erdman that was banned by Joseph Stalin. Frankly, the subject matter sounded a bit niche—or maybe I was just feeling rusty on Soviet history […]

In the center we see a person in knee-length red boots and a costume vaguely suggestive of armor, standing with a sword upraised and mischievous grin on their face. They are surrounded by five other actors, who are all thrusting swords toward them. In the back is another person in a gold-and-red gown, standing with arms outstretched and looking excited by the action.

Theater Review

Bardfoolery

by Kimzyn Campbell November 15, 2022November 15, 2022

Reminiscent of Shakespeare’s first play The Two Gentlemen of Verona, the new Shakespeare-inspired comedy titled Malapert Love by first-time playwright Siah Berlatsky would make the bard proud. Letters and sonnets are written by servants, plagiarized to woo a fleeting infatuation. Identities are swapped, fools are poets and poets are fools, friends become lovers, and the […]

Arts & Culture

Siah Berlatsky shakes up Shakespeare

by Kerry Reid June 24, 2022July 8, 2022

Siah Berlatsky just graduated this month from ChiArts, but though she’s taking a gap year before college, the 18-year-old playwright-director-actor isn’t letting the grass grow under her feet. In August, she’ll be part of Artistic Home’s outdoor developmental series, “Summer on the Patio,” with her Elizabethan-style gender-bending rom-com, Malapert Love, which she also directs. (“Malapert,” […]

A woman in a sundress stands left, her hands coering her ears. To her right, a man holding a guitar is jumping in the air. They are in front of a wall made of wooden slats, with an open trunk set behind them on the right.

Theater Review

Reunion and regret

by Josh Flanders May 12, 2022May 12, 2022

Like several post-pandemic shows in Chicago, the Artistic Home’s production of The Pavilion, written by Craig Wright and directed by Julian Hester, is about an intimate relationship between two people over time. It is also about the creation of the universe, being tethered to the past, and literally burning down sentimentality. High school sweethearts Peter […]

Eurydice in white dress on left, and the Nasty Interesting Man on right in shorts and patterned shirt with cap. In background, three figures in white robes.

Theater Review

Artistic Home returns from pandemic hell with Eurydice

by KT Hawbaker November 10, 2021November 10, 2021

The Artistic Home’s production of Eurydice is, to use a word dropped throughout the show, interesting. On one of the first cold Saturday nights of the year, I left the production (directed by Kathy Scambiattera) ambivalent. Sarah Ruhl’s upheaval of the ancient myth is gorgeous and juicy, layered with a disdain for macho mythology and […]