🎭 TheaterReview SteppenwolfThtr ensemble member Kate Arrington’s new play is honest and riveting. | ✍️ kerryreid
During the years that I’ve seen Kate Arrington onstage at Steppenwolf, “chameleonic” is the adjective that most often comes to mind. From show to show, she never seems to play the same type, slipping into the skin of characters so seamlessly that I have at times had trouble recognizing her initially. Which, paradoxically, makes her all the more memorable and absorbing to watch onstage.at Steppenwolf’s Ensemble Theater, directed by founding ensemble member Terry Kinney.
The genius in Arrington’s writing, even when we might wish for a scene to hold on for a few more moments toward a recognizable emotional resolution, is that she understands that these characters can’t help but observe and experience at the same time. Which is what we all do—they just happen to have the quips in their quivers to meld the two. “I was wondering who would be the pretentious, overwrought voice of our generation,” Sunny says to Nick shortly after he introduces himself formally. .
Nick is one of three sons in a successful literary family. Sunny is the daughter of a woman who died giving birth to her. And their own daughter, Jo , is the keeper of the family legends. She roams the edges of the playing area with her iPad always at the ready, taking notes and finally filling us in on her dead grandmother, whose own desires to live in New York and pursue a life more cosmopolitan than what Mobile, Alabama, had to offer were thwarted in the most tragic way.
There’s also Caroline Neff’s Macassidy, assistant to Nick’s literary agent who becomes much more. Neff’s capacity for offhanded honesty is put to great use here, and it’s also fun to see Greer, another chameleonic talent often seen onscreen in supporting roles, turn Sunny into a complex and complicated woman . Barford’s Nick is right in the actor’s wheelhouse: a self-deprecating but proud man who is just on the edge of losing his good humor, as revealed through flashes of wounded self-pity.
The first act is probably the most accessible, with the familiar conflicts about whose career gets to dominate a marriage and the changes parenthood brings to romance being foregrounded. But I found myself more drawn in by the second act, where we see Jo’s attempts to contextualize her parents and their own inherited trauma . It’s occasionally confounding, but Arrington’ssettles neither for easy resolution nor comforting recrimination.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Pianist Pandelis Karayorgis renews his Chicago connections and makes some new ones - Chicago ReaderWhat keeps his music in the present tense is the dialogic rapport he’s developed with other musicians, especially those active in the Boston area (where he’s lived since leaving Athens, Greece, in 1985) and in Chicago. | ✍️ Bill Meyer
Read more »
NBC 5, Telemundo Chicago and NBC Sports Chicago to offer live multi-platform coverage of NASCAR's street race weekendChicago sports history will be made this weekend as the world’s very best and most popular auto racers will be in fierce competition at the inaugural “NASCAR Chicago Street Race Weekend” and NBCUniversal Local Chicago’s trio of properties — NBC 5 Chicago/Telemundo Chicago/NBC Sports Chicago — will be THE home for everything NASCAR providing fans with extensive multi-platform coverage of this momentous sporting event beginning tomorrow (Thursday, June 29) through Sunday, July 2.
Read more »
Chicago leaders outline safety plans for Chicago NASCAR Street Race, Fourth of July weekendBetween the inaugural Chicago NASCAR street race and the Fourth of July holiday, it's shaping up to be a crazy busy weekend in downtown Chicago.
Read more »
Café Nova has a strategy for Sri Lankan food in Chicago and beyond - Chicago ReaderThe first Sri Lankan Panda Express quietly opened in Rogers Park late last March. That’s what Kiso Sivarasa and his partners hoped when they launched Café Nova on the ground floor of Loyola University’s Granada Center, just a few doors down from Subway and across Sheridan from Taco Bell and Potbelly. “We want to grow […]
Read more »
Punky Chicago four-piece Rotundos deliver a fast-acting shot of DIY rock energy - Chicago ReaderRising Chicago four-piece Rotundos make lo-fi rock with the kind of freewheeling glee that feeds any good DIY scene. | ✍️ imleor
Read more »
Prop 8 plaintiffs celebrate 10 years of marriage equality in California, say the fight continues'We had to fight for something that we won 10 years ago and we continue to fight now for further protections and further equality,' said Paul Katami, who along his husband Jeff, were plaintiffs in the case challenging California's Prop 8 which put a halt to same-sex marriage in 2008.
Read more »