KILLING GAME, Two Planks Theatre Company, at the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ, Baird Hall. Now that Eugene Ionesco is finally dead, the truth can be told: he was a bore. Even the best plays in his much-vaunted theater of the absurd–The Bald Soprano, Exit the King, and The Rhinoceros–wear out their welcome long […]
Tag: Vol. 23 No. 45
Issue of Aug. 18 – 24, 1994
Posted inNews & Politics
Explosive Journalism
To the Editor: Bravo! Bravo! I am writing in reference to the article from the August 5, 1994, issue of your newspaper on “Building Boom.” It was truly about time that most of those buildings which were noted in the article were decapitated, at least in print. I am most pleased with the cover photo […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Bard Lite
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING OTHELLO THE TAMING OF THE SHREW Shenandoah Shakespeare Express at the Theatre Building I like the idea of a national Shakespeare company based in Virginia. After all, the state’s named in honor of England’s “virgin queen,” Elizabeth, whose admiration was key to Shakespeare’s success. And Shakespeare’s plays, so perplexing to us […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Hole
It took them more than a hundred years to dig it out. Now they’re filling it back up.
Posted inArts & Culture
Charles Brown
Charles Brown is one of the pioneers of the smooth west-coast blues style that emerged during the 40s. Like other California hipsters–Johnny and Oscar Moore, Lloyd Glenn, Floyd Dixon–Brown took the jump blues that migrated west from Texas during and after the war and fused it with an elegant romanticism. Classically trained (his first public […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Blow Up Comiskey Park
To the Editors: I’m sure the Reader has received plenty of suggested additions to the list of bad architecture compiled in Cate Plys’s “Building Boom” piece (August 5). I was disappointed to see that none of the architects that were surveyed wanted to blow up new Comiskey Park. Most White Sox fans center their complaints […]
Posted inFilm
Incest Without Guilt
** SPANKING THE MONKEY (Worth seeing) Directed and written by David O. Russell With Jeremy Davies, Alberta Watson, Benjamin Hendrickson, and Carla Gallo. In Spanking the Monkey, writer-director David O. Russell has pulled off no small feat–he’s made a film about incest that shifts nimbly back and forth between comedy and drama. Raymond Aibelli (Jeremy […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Jazz Dance World Congress
Jazz dance is a distinctly American form, a melting-pot stew of influences: Irish/African tap, Russian/French ballet, African tribal dances. Thoroughly blended and well spiced, it’s been served up for decades on Broadway. But recently, in a curious reversal of the integration process, jazz dance has become a popular American export, a form other cultures are […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Deathwatch
DEATHWATCH Chicago Art Theatre at Cafe Voltaire In the 1967 preface to his Ouevres completes IV, Jean Genet wrote of his first dramatic work, Deathwatch, “I would . . . like for this play never to be staged.” He was a smart cookie. Though the prose is accomplished and lyrical, Deathwatch rarely gets beyond petty […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Daley’s Tree Thing
In the July 29 Letters, a City Hall spokesman doubts Ben Joravsky’s statement–in a July 15 Neighborhood News story about a citizen exposing the damage that asphalt machines inflict on trees–that “‘many’ environmentalists disparage Mayor Daley’s tree-planting efforts.” Terry Levin, the Streets and San man at the spin doctor wheel, is entitled to an opinion, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Calendar Photo Caption
Lawyer and eclectic-music aficionado Andrew S. Mine, who grew up in Hyde Park, has been taking photos for years and developing them in his basement; you might remember his work from a group exhibit at Mad Bar last March. A solo exhibit of his work is up at Cafe Ennui, 6981 N. Sheridan, through September […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Willy DeVille
Willy DeVille is an ace songwriter out of time. In the late 70s and early 80s he fronted Mink DeVille, a tough-as-nails New York outfit that made music that harked back to rock ‘n’ roll’s roots: Phil Spector-ish vignettes of urban romance and no-nonsense, streetwise rock ‘n’ roll with a strong R & B current. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Confounded Films
Dear editors, Apparently, not only does Jonathan Rosenbaum have to make corrections in his reviews, but he has to make them in his corrections as well [“Compression Editing,” Letters, July 22]. Mr. Rosenbaum must have a unique editing machine that can put actors and scenes from one movie into another. Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Throes
Doorika, Chicago’s true champions of the avant-garde, have consistently thrown conventional theatrical logic to the wind in their highly inventive and suggestive theater pieces. In their 1990 masterpiece and Chicago debut, North of the Lake on the Seventh Day, performed in Tthe then-gutted World Tattoo Gallery, several scenes were staged 100 feet behind the audience. […]