Ron OJ Parson Archives - Chicago Reader

A woman in a long red dress and fur-trimmed cloak stands left. On the right is a man in a gold gown and a crown, carrying an evergreen branch.

Court’s The Lion in Winter slices through the surface

by Kelly Kleiman November 15, 2023November 15, 2023

The arch dialogue in James Goldman’s 1966 drama The Lion in Winter (turned into a 1968 film starring Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole) about the eventful Christmas of 1183 at the English court hasn’t aged well—it calls too much attention to its own cleverness while often failing to advance either the plot or our understanding […]

A Black woman wearing an old-fashioned baseball uniform stand center stage. Her right arm is raised straight above her head, holding a baseball. The set around her suggests an old ball field, with a scoreboard suspended in the back and faded advertisements for Pepsi and other products on the low walls flanking the playing area.

Theater Review

A league of her own

by Kerry Reid February 10, 2023February 10, 2023

Like theater, baseball has no set time clock by which the action must unfold. It takes as long as it takes to finish the nine innings. That can lead to longueurs, or it can raise the stakes. It all depends on the quality of the play and the players. Fortunately, Lydia Diamond’s 2019 play Toni […]

In the foreground on the left, a white man in white shirt, suspenders, and tan trousers faces a Black woman in a 1950s-style blue dress. Behind them on the left we see a Black man, also in shirt, trousers, and suspenders, and a white woman in a brown suit dress, looking at the argument unfolding between the two characters in the foreground.

Theater Review

She sees you, white American theater

by Kerry Reid November 17, 2022August 31, 2023

Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind made its off-Broadway debut in 1955, but it never made the leap to the Great White Way (emphasis most definitely on “White”). The white producers demanded that Childress give her story about racism in the American theater a happier ending depicting racial harmony. (Pause for irony.) Childress refused at first, […]

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.

Theater Review

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 Black woman with blonde hair and wearing a light sequined gown stands at the microphone center, her arms outstretched. Behind her sits a band of Black musicians.

Theater Review

Fields of glory

by Catey Sullivan July 6, 2022July 6, 2022

In Pearl’s Rollin’ With the Blues, Felicia P. Fields gets a showcase for her indomitable vocals. The Tony nominee (for The Color Purple) is a bona fide star in the land of musical theater, her voice an irresistible mix of low-down growling blues and clarion-clear belt. As the titular chanteuse in Writers Theatre’s world premiere […]

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 […]

Two Black women sit together in a chair. The woman on the left wears an evening dress, while the one on the right is in a less formal dress. They are looking at a book.

Theater Review

History is Relentless

by Kerry Reid February 2, 2022February 17, 2022

The year 1919 is having a theatrical moment this season in Chicago, even with Steppenwolf postponing the world premiere of Eve L. Ewing’s 1919 (which was originally slated to open this week as part of the Steppenwolf for Young Adults series) until fall of 2022. That watershed year in American history comes to complicated and […]