Sarah Sapperstein’s Maggie the Cat commands your attention with her act one monologues in MadKap Productions’s mounting of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Skokie Theatre, directed by Steve Scott. Sapperstein’s costars take her energy and roll with it for the entirety of this show, in which a southern family unravels (and winds back up again) the lies they’ve told themselves and each other. 

Kent Joseph and Caleb Gibson as Big Daddy and Brick, respectively, take the narrative reins in subsequent acts, as Big Daddy tries to get to the bottom of Brick’s alcoholism and the nature of Brick’s relationship with his late buddy Skipper, a relationship that Brick of course hasn’t figured out too well either.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Through 11/20: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Wed 11/16 1:30 PM, Skokie Theatre, 7924 Lincoln, Skokie, 847-677-7761, skokietheatre.org, $38 ($34 students/seniors)

Joseph exudes Big Daddy’s menace, disgust, and cruelty when he’s both exasperated with his family’s phony birthday and reminding everyone of his control over the family purse strings. But his walls start to crack as he needles Brick more and pokes at truths about both his son and himself. With his character hobbling on one leg throughout the show, Gibson aptly shows us Brick’s sorrow and desire for hiding, seeking solace only in liquor as the long evening unfolds. Add in the delusional Big Mama (Ann James, also excellent) and the schemes of Brick’s brother Gooper (Reid Harrison O’Connell) and sister-in-law Mae (Emilie Yount), and you have all the makings for a sultry, captivating southern evening that will take your mind off the November chill.

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Sarah Sapperstein’s Maggie the Cat commands your attention with her act one monologues in MadKap Productions’s mounting of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Skokie Theatre, directed by Steve Scott. Sapperstein’s costars take her energy and roll with it for the entirety of this show, in which a southern family unravels (and winds back up again) the lies they’ve told themselves and each other. 

Kent Joseph and Caleb Gibson as Big Daddy and Brick, respectively, take the narrative reins in subsequent acts, as Big Daddy tries to get to the bottom of Brick’s alcoholism and the nature of Brick’s relationship with his late buddy Skipper, a relationship that Brick of course hasn’t figured out too well either.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Through 11/20: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Wed 11/16 1:30 PM, Skokie Theatre, 7924 Lincoln, Skokie, 847-677-7761, skokietheatre.org, $38 ($34 students/seniors)

Joseph exudes Big Daddy’s menace, disgust, and cruelty when he’s both exasperated with his family’s phony birthday and reminding everyone of his control over the family purse strings. But his walls start to crack as he needles Brick more and pokes at truths about both his son and himself. With his character hobbling on one leg throughout the show, Gibson aptly shows us Brick’s sorrow and desire for hiding, seeking solace only in liquor as the long evening unfolds. Add in the delusional Big Mama (Ann James, also excellent) and the schemes of Brick’s brother Gooper (Reid Harrison O’Connell) and sister-in-law Mae (Emilie Yount), and you have all the makings for a sultry, captivating southern evening that will take your mind off the November chill.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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René Magritte’s 1929 painting La Trahison des images is best known for the text it contains: painted in a curlicue script beneath the curved image of a pipe are the words, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” The paradox brings us not to the depth of the pipe but the surface, gleaming with a plastic finish, nothing but paint. (Of course, the words are also only paint; our cultural indoctrination makes us misread them as meaningful.)

This Is Not a PipeThrough 11/19: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1650 W. Foster, danztheatre.org, $13-$20 (children under 15 free)

The simplicity of this “icon of modern art” has made it an easy joke to repeat. And repetition is at the core of Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble’s 2006 This Is Not a Pipe, directed and devised by Ellyzabeth Adler with the assistance of Hannah Blau. Black suits, blue skies, bowler hats, and apples easily transport viewers to the surrealist world Magritte created. “Molly!” choirs the ensemble like a Meisner repetition exercise, until it vanishes. A duet by Mia Hilt and Mary Iris Loncto questions whether identity is the reason the same steps look different on different dancers. Sigmund Freud (Jenise Y. Sheppard) appears, accusing women of penis envy, before being revealed (by removal of beard and suit) as a woman. “I am enough!” and other self-affirmations become the new chorus before the backdrop falls away, revealing a blood-red rose, from which a woman (Wannapa P-Eubanks), shrouded in a tight red veil and scarlet wedding gown, emerges. However, in a work that claims to resist a one-to-one interpretation of symbols, This Is Not a Pipe can’t resist a commitment to the surface.

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René Magritte’s 1929 painting La Trahison des images is best known for the text it contains: painted in a curlicue script beneath the curved image of a pipe are the words, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” The paradox brings us not to the depth of the pipe but the surface, gleaming with a plastic finish, nothing but paint. (Of course, the words are also only paint; our cultural indoctrination makes us misread them as meaningful.)

This Is Not a PipeThrough 11/19: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1650 W. Foster, danztheatre.org, $13-$20 (children under 15 free)

The simplicity of this “icon of modern art” has made it an easy joke to repeat. And repetition is at the core of Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble’s 2006 This Is Not a Pipe, directed and devised by Ellyzabeth Adler with the assistance of Hannah Blau. Black suits, blue skies, bowler hats, and apples easily transport viewers to the surrealist world Magritte created. “Molly!” choirs the ensemble like a Meisner repetition exercise, until it vanishes. A duet by Mia Hilt and Mary Iris Loncto questions whether identity is the reason the same steps look different on different dancers. Sigmund Freud (Jenise Y. Sheppard) appears, accusing women of penis envy, before being revealed (by removal of beard and suit) as a woman. “I am enough!” and other self-affirmations become the new chorus before the backdrop falls away, revealing a blood-red rose, from which a woman (Wannapa P-Eubanks), shrouded in a tight red veil and scarlet wedding gown, emerges. However, in a work that claims to resist a one-to-one interpretation of symbols, This Is Not a Pipe can’t resist a commitment to the surface.

Read More

Sarah Sapperstein’s Maggie the Cat commands your attention with her act one monologues in MadKap Productions’s mounting of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Skokie Theatre, directed by Steve Scott. Sapperstein’s costars take her energy and roll with it for the entirety of this show, in which a southern family unravels (and winds back up again) the lies they’ve told themselves and each other. 

Kent Joseph and Caleb Gibson as Big Daddy and Brick, respectively, take the narrative reins in subsequent acts, as Big Daddy tries to get to the bottom of Brick’s alcoholism and the nature of Brick’s relationship with his late buddy Skipper, a relationship that Brick of course hasn’t figured out too well either.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Through 11/20: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Wed 11/16 1:30 PM, Skokie Theatre, 7924 Lincoln, Skokie, 847-677-7761, skokietheatre.org, $38 ($34 students/seniors)

Joseph exudes Big Daddy’s menace, disgust, and cruelty when he’s both exasperated with his family’s phony birthday and reminding everyone of his control over the family purse strings. But his walls start to crack as he needles Brick more and pokes at truths about both his son and himself. With his character hobbling on one leg throughout the show, Gibson aptly shows us Brick’s sorrow and desire for hiding, seeking solace only in liquor as the long evening unfolds. Add in the delusional Big Mama (Ann James, also excellent) and the schemes of Brick’s brother Gooper (Reid Harrison O’Connell) and sister-in-law Mae (Emilie Yount), and you have all the makings for a sultry, captivating southern evening that will take your mind off the November chill.

Read More

Sarah Sapperstein’s Maggie the Cat commands your attention with her act one monologues in MadKap Productions’s mounting of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Skokie Theatre, directed by Steve Scott. Sapperstein’s costars take her energy and roll with it for the entirety of this show, in which a southern family unravels (and winds back up again) the lies they’ve told themselves and each other. 

Kent Joseph and Caleb Gibson as Big Daddy and Brick, respectively, take the narrative reins in subsequent acts, as Big Daddy tries to get to the bottom of Brick’s alcoholism and the nature of Brick’s relationship with his late buddy Skipper, a relationship that Brick of course hasn’t figured out too well either.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Through 11/20: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Wed 11/16 1:30 PM, Skokie Theatre, 7924 Lincoln, Skokie, 847-677-7761, skokietheatre.org, $38 ($34 students/seniors)

Joseph exudes Big Daddy’s menace, disgust, and cruelty when he’s both exasperated with his family’s phony birthday and reminding everyone of his control over the family purse strings. But his walls start to crack as he needles Brick more and pokes at truths about both his son and himself. With his character hobbling on one leg throughout the show, Gibson aptly shows us Brick’s sorrow and desire for hiding, seeking solace only in liquor as the long evening unfolds. Add in the delusional Big Mama (Ann James, also excellent) and the schemes of Brick’s brother Gooper (Reid Harrison O’Connell) and sister-in-law Mae (Emilie Yount), and you have all the makings for a sultry, captivating southern evening that will take your mind off the November chill.

Read More

In Cat McKay’s queer comedy Plaid as Hell, Cass (Reagan James) hopes that a weekend away in the Wisconsin woods will be a fitting opportunity for her best friend Emilie (Cayla Jones) to bond with her new girlfriend Jessica (Ashley Yates)—who Emilie hasn’t been so keen on getting to know, thanks to an unrequited crush on Cass. Their friend Kelly (Alice Wu) is tired of being caught in the middle. If the knotty interpersonal dynamic isn’t enough to jumble the weekend, there’s also a serial killer at large. While the killer’s whereabouts provide massive suspense, the frank humor and raw vulnerability the women display as they come to terms with their ordeal, and their feelings toward each other, are just as powerful. 

Plaid as Hell Through 11/19: Wed-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; open captions Sat-Sun 11/12-11/13 and Wed-Thu 11/16-11/17, sensory friendly performance Sun 11/13; livestreaming Wed-Fri 11/16-11/18, Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard, babeswithblades.org, $35 ($28 students/seniors), $30 streaming, recommended 18+

Presented by Babes With Blades Theatre Company, Plaid as Hell exemplifies the company’s mission to “develop and present scripts focused on complex, dynamic (often combative) characters who continue to be underrepresented on theatre stages based on gender.” The four women contain multitudes, and their highly realistic relationships with one another reflect their unique perspectives, shortcomings, and strengths. Under the direction of Christina Casano, each actor finds depth in moments of lightness and of devastation. The intricate stage combat, by BWBTC ensemble member Maureen Yasko,demonstrates the characters’ imminent danger without ever being gratuitous.

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In Cat McKay’s queer comedy Plaid as Hell, Cass (Reagan James) hopes that a weekend away in the Wisconsin woods will be a fitting opportunity for her best friend Emilie (Cayla Jones) to bond with her new girlfriend Jessica (Ashley Yates)—who Emilie hasn’t been so keen on getting to know, thanks to an unrequited crush on Cass. Their friend Kelly (Alice Wu) is tired of being caught in the middle. If the knotty interpersonal dynamic isn’t enough to jumble the weekend, there’s also a serial killer at large. While the killer’s whereabouts provide massive suspense, the frank humor and raw vulnerability the women display as they come to terms with their ordeal, and their feelings toward each other, are just as powerful. 

Plaid as Hell Through 11/19: Wed-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; open captions Sat-Sun 11/12-11/13 and Wed-Thu 11/16-11/17, sensory friendly performance Sun 11/13; livestreaming Wed-Fri 11/16-11/18, Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard, babeswithblades.org, $35 ($28 students/seniors), $30 streaming, recommended 18+

Presented by Babes With Blades Theatre Company, Plaid as Hell exemplifies the company’s mission to “develop and present scripts focused on complex, dynamic (often combative) characters who continue to be underrepresented on theatre stages based on gender.” The four women contain multitudes, and their highly realistic relationships with one another reflect their unique perspectives, shortcomings, and strengths. Under the direction of Christina Casano, each actor finds depth in moments of lightness and of devastation. The intricate stage combat, by BWBTC ensemble member Maureen Yasko,demonstrates the characters’ imminent danger without ever being gratuitous.

Read More