“Wastwater” by Simon Stephens at Steep Theater

We’re going to see Stephens’ play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time while in London, so wanted to see this 2011 collection of three dark vignettes situated in Sipson, a relic of a town in the flight path of Heathrow.  Stephens is Associate Playwright for Steep; that’s the quality of professionals this tiny theater attracts.  The vignettes are loosely connected, dealing with foster children, sexual brutality, white slavery, pedophilia and those involved.  Not so bright and sunny, good writing and fine acting, but not a significant arc of drama.  But we will continue to toad-kiss frequently at this theater. 

"Images of America: Bridgeport" byJoAnne Gazarek Bloom, Maureen F. Sullivan, and Daniel Pogorzelski (Arcadia Publishing, 2012)

This vintage photo album with history-laden captions and introductions evokes the characteristics that made/make Chicago great: ethnic diversity, successful businesses built on hard work and in often unclean conditions and political moxie.  Bridgeport was not a pretty place.  Even the final chapter which promises, an “abundance of truly impressive architecture”, showed dour buildings and reminded me of how unappealing the 50’s and 60’s were.
But this is a fun read through the history of one of Chicago’s 77 communities.  The early years and the creation of the I&M Canal, which ran through Bridgeport and Stearns’ Quarry, in the heart of Bridgeport, which supplied the limestone that built Chicago, were my favorite parts.

Chicago Theater Catch-up: Four of Lesser Nobility and One Big Fabulous Prince

We’ve seen so much theater lately that it isn’t possible to devote a full post to each production.  So here’s the abbreviated scoop.

C. S. Lewis: The Most Reluctant Convert written by Max McLean, starring Max McLean and produced by Fellowship for Performing Arts – This one-man show, taken from the writings of Lewis, narrates his intellectual struggle with spiritually, belief in God and organized religion.  Nominally raised as an Episcopalian, he became a professed atheist.  When teaching at Oxford (still in his early 20’s) his companions in the English Department were some of the well-known intellectual Catholics, including J.R. Tolkien.  Through his own exploration, he rationalizes that the life of a man cannot be completely without value or purpose, becomes a deist, then a Catholic.  And there it ends.  McLean has made a career of crafting the words of Lewis into stage productions.  We enjoyed The Screwtape Letters several years ago.  A worthy production, a minor prince.

Douglass created by American Vicarious and directed by Christopher McElroen – I was startled when the title character walked onto the stage and was an African-American.  I thought this was a play about Stephen A. Douglas, the politician and debater who espoused the states’ rights and slavery.  No, this was Frederick Douglass, former slave who became a unique emancipator prior to the Civil War.  This is a well-told docudrama that shows the narrow path Douglass chose between radical Blacks, who advocated a return to Africa, radical Whites, who favored full emancipation, but never thought through the results, opportunists who were eager to exploit educated Blacks for nefarious purposes and those few both black and white who, like Douglass, favored a slow approach to change.  A worthy production, but not a prince.

Our Lady of 121st Street by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Sarah Moeller, produced by Eclipse Theatre Company, written in 2002 – This is our third Guirgis play and his earliest for us.  It’s a series of vignettes, conversations (usually angry ones) with two or three of the show’s 12 characters.  It reminded me instantly of Balm in Gilead by Lanford Wilson, except that in Blam, everyone is talking at once and the featured conversation is spotlighted and all other conversations tone down.  In Our Lady, the conversations are sequential, but because of the excellent set combining a bar, a funeral parlor and a confessional, most of the actors are able to remain present on the stage, but not engaged.  Excellent acting, even though the play itself lacks a dramatic arc.  A prince.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, produced by The Dead Writer’s Collective – who present the works of dead writers exactly as they were produced during the writer’s life.  And this production clocked in at almost three delightful hours.  All the characters were played in “earnest”, no hamming.  The ensemble was all matched in diligence and style.  Enhancing it were stunning costumes and a tiny set that appeared to be a pop-up style Victorian greeting card.  Just as in the days of Oscar, this was a prince. 

Company, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth, produced by The Writer’s Theater of Glencoe and directed by William Brown, was splendid.  We’ve always loved this musical, chock full of memorable songs and story lines.  But this production was the best ever.  For the first time, I felt this was homage to marriage, not a sad story of a man who can’t find a mate.  Brown adapted the book, originally produced in 1970, so it did not feel dated.  The changes were flawless and only enhanced the emotional impact.  The only drawback was the performers were miked – which would not have been a problem except the sound engineer was asleep.  When the big solo numbers came, the sound was way too loud, uncomfortably so.  Ah well, those with low hearing were grateful.  This show was a Grand Prince!

 

 

"Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition" by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, written in 1542, translated by Fanny Bandelier, published in 2002 by Penguin Books


Oh my! Shipwrecked on the west coast of Florida in 1527, Cabeza de Vaca and three other survivors spent the next nine years seeking “Christians” in the midst of Indians as they traversed the U.S., ending in New Spain, what is now Arizona.  There were none.  This small band was the first.  In the beginning, they were reviled and enslaved.  By the end, they were worshipped as healers and gods.  In Arizona, they were discovered by a group of Spanish soldiers on an expedition to capture Indian slaves.

A rare first-hand account and an easy, short read -- a “must” read if you are interested in American history – and how completely populated the entire south of the now U.S. was with native tribes.  

 

"A Doubter’s Almanac: A Novel" by Ethan Canin, (Random House, 2016)


What a roller coaster ride this book is!  The first half tells the tale of a brilliant, self-absorbed, alcohol addicted, misogynistic, mathematician, Milo Andret, who goes from child wonder to adult ass.  The second half is told from the POV of the son, Hans, yet another mathematician, addicted to pills, but with manners, morals and the wisdom to make and save real money.  It is his role to try to explain his father to the reader.  It almost works, but the bow at the end is tied a bit too prettily.  
None the less, I loved this book.  I made me think about choices we make.  Helena, Milo’s secretary and then wife, when asked by her son why she stayed in the marriage so long and without apparent bitterness replied, “We make choices, then we make them the right choices”.  When I discussed this with my niece, Tracy, a teacher of mathematics, she enlightened me how that phrase describes the world of quantum physics and mathematics.  That every second in the universe is based on decisions and we can’t have a “do-over”; everything moves forward (or in whatever direction) as a result of each decision.  I hadn’t expected Helena to be describing her life in her husband’s terms – but it is so fitting.  And a good take away for anyone who agonizes over life choices.  

 

"City on Fire" by Garth Risk Halbergs (Knopf,2016) - A long read...

Weighing in at 911 pages, this book can’t hold a candle to A Little Life (see previous review).  I listened to it – 38 hours!  City on Fire is a monumental first novel from a young writer, with a bright future.  It’s all about New York City, from 1960 to approximately 1990, most of it focused around 1977 and the New York blackout.  (Side note – I was stranded in an airplane at the end of the runway at LaGuardia when the lights went out.  I buddied up with some other industrious travelers, found a cab to take us to a nearby motel, helped to empty their bar and slept in a sort of ok bed, rather than the floor at the airport.  Made it to Miami the next morning.)

The saga is multi-generational, multi-class – stretching from middle class Long Island, to the drugs and anarchy of Hell’s Kitchen and Alphabet City, to the rich and bereft in the Upper East Side and Wall Street.  As with any good fiction, these element all link together in epic fashion, most of it plausible.  The “fires” of the title are set in abandoned buildings in the Bronx by the punks who want to show up the injustice of the haves vs the have nots.  What they end up doing is devaluing the properties even further so financiers (Wall Street and Upper East Side) can have huge blocks of property condemned for blight.  Then they step in, buy it for pennies and build anew.  Ah, the naiveté of the young.