Our Town Archives - Chicago Reader

Before hipster coffee ruined your neighborhood

Before Bow Truss and Dollop there was Don’s Coffee Club, a Rogers Park haunt where it didn’t matter what you wanted.

But Thornton Wilder’s classic play taps into the greatest equalizer of them all.

Close quarters, minuscule budgets, and structural limitations can work wonders when it comes to creating intimacy and forcing invention.

A monstrous revival and a collaboration between Writers Theatre and Second City are among this week’s theater and performance best bets.

Film

In the epic At Berkeley, Frederick Wiseman turns his lens on higher education in the age of George W. Bush.

More on “I’ll Die Tomorrow” star Michael Shannon’s music, theater and film career.

Theo Ubique’s Evita and the Hypocrites’ Our Town take top honors.

Chicago director’s “wonderfully intimate” Our Town praised by the Times.

The Hypocrites’ 2008 staging of Our Town heads to New York this week, and Lookingglass’s new version of the same play opens here.