Chicago trip...

[skynyc]

I had an opportunity to sneak away to the Windy City, and was able to catch three shows out there.

 

First, I was thrilled to catch the return of Clybourne Park to Steppenwolf, where the Pulitzer Prize winning play began before coming to NY's Playwright's Horizons. I missed it on 42nd Street and am sorry I cannot send you all to see this extraordinary "comedy" about the gentrification of a neighborhood. The first act takes place in 1960 and shows Russ and Bev, a man and wife in their late 50s who are moving from their home of many years. As the play progresses we learn their reasons, but the crux of the play is the they have sold their home to an African American family...the first in this historically German/Scandinavian neighborhood. The neighborhood priest and the owner of a nearby home both pay calls on Bev and Russ to declare their displeasure with this integration. Meanwhile Bev's housekeeper, an African American who is trying to leave at the end of her day, must endure the discussion which shows the rationale that racists so enthusiastically display. The act ends unresolved, with some interesting threads.

 

Act II is interesting as the curtain rises on the same set...fifty years later and very much showing the worse for wear. The wooden banisters and woodwork is broken or missing, spray painting on the walls, and holes in the plaster. The house is again for sale, this time as a yuppie couple is attempting to buy the property to tear it down and build a McMansion. During the second act we learn that the local neighborhood association, led by an African-American couple is trying to preserve the flavor of the neighborhood...and is opposing the construction of a new house with another floor which will be out of place with the rest of the block. As the issues of race become more apparent, and virulent, the acts parallels to the first act are impressive and extraordinary. Humorous and thought-provoking, I promise to notify this board if this amazing show makes another New York appearance.

 

My second show was an interpretive piece called The Great Fire, about the conflagration that destroyed Chicago in 1871. Sort of like a KEn Burns documentary on stage, it featured many readings of actual accounts and was interesting for most of its 90 minutes. Particularly fascinating is that it was produced by the Looking Glass Theater Company whose new performance space is in the waterworks building, whose exterior survived, but whose wooden roof collapsed in the fire.

 

My third show will get a separate post...