Review: With a remarkable ‘Angels in America' from Invictus, off-Loop theater roars back in Chicago

Chicago Tribune

22-07-2025

The extraordinary Invictus Theatre Company summer production of Tony Kushner's 'Angels in America' is a throwback to the long-lost glory days of Chicago's non-Equity theater scene, a time when a lack of resources, let alone experience, did not prevent hungry companies of young artists from taking audacious risks on epic works.
Director Charles Askenaizer's new multi-hour, rotating-repertory stagings of the constituent 'Millennium Approaches' and 'Perestroika' in the former Windy City Playhouse, amidst the auto repair shops on Irving Park Road, stand up well against director David Cromer's unforgettable off-Loop 1998 staging for The Journeymen. In the case of 'Millennium,' the better of the two productions here, it also compares well with the first national tour of 'Angels' that debuted at the Royal George Theatre — and blew everyone lucky enough to see it halfway to Salt Lake City.
I'd go so far as to say this is the most powerful non-Equity production, all in all, I've seen since before the pandemic either wrecked or compromised so many of our small Chicago theater companies. Add in the fascination of experiencing Kushner's fin-de-siecle masterwork set mostly in New York, mostly in the time of AIDS, in the context of current geopolitical events, hitherto unanticipated, the chance to wrestle with the irony of the final hopeful moments of 'Peristroika' being intertwined with the coming of Glasnost (what could possible go wrong?) and a growing sense of American unity (what could possible go wrong?), and the brain gets so many fresh yet familiar stimuli that the hours pass by like minutes.
That has a lot to do with Askenaizer's pacing, which moves the action expeditiously without sacrificing the work's inherent play for grandeur. Going in this weekend, and this took most of the weekend, I frankly had expected a pared-down staging, but that's absolutely not the vibe here, thanks to both the scale of the performances and the possibilities explored by the set designer Kevin Rolfs, who seems to have conceived the play as taking place in the rubble of American democracy, Kushner's Angel offering our one last hope. The lighting, from Brandon Wardell, is remarkably complex for this kind of space. As merely one example of some of his breathtaking cues, Wardell uses uplighting to sculpt Nicki Rossi, who plays said Angel with huge wings designed by Jessie Gowens, in such a way as to get you wondering whether she's a fever dream, the seat of judgement or merely an inert statue. The presence of God is a vital part of 'Angels' but you can never know if s/he is really there. You won't know here. But you must wonder.
Casting is close to everything in 'Angels,' of course, and within a uniformly strong ensemble, I thought there were three performances that root the show and make sense of arcs and journeys that often get lost in productions of this play. One is from Anne Trodden, who plays Harper, a young Mormon woman betrayed by her closeted conservative husband, Joe. Not only does Trodden, who put me in mind of both Mary Louise Parker and Kate Fry, reflect this character's mental fragility without resorting to cliché, she builds a deeply vulnerable and empathetic character. Harper, you might know, takes a long and winding journey toward self-determined resolve, and you are with her here every step of the way. Joe Bushell's wound-tight Joe, a man who hath ever but slenderly known himself, matches her every step of the way, staying silent at the wrong times, raging when he should be listening. Yet he too remains empathetic.
And then there's Ryan Hake as Prior Walter, the play's spiritual seeker and moral conscience. Prior offers up one of the year's great Chicago performances, deeply immersed in a character who has to withstand the irritating Louis (Grant Carriker, hyperarticulating as required) and confront the inadequacy of all humans, except perhaps the loving Belize (Miguel Long) and the redemptive Hannah (Renae Stone).
As Roy Cohn, Michael D. Graham plunges some real depths. I lost a few of Roy's acerbic lines, as is occasionally true elsewhere, especially in 'Peristroika.' A few problems with textual articulation is the one correctable flaw here. But everything else is so raw and real, you might not notice or care.
After years of watching these plays, I've come to think that some directors don't understand the importance not just of each scene but of how you get from one to the next, as imperfect humans barely in their 30s are forced to confront the reality of death without trusting religiosity. They're all in a constant crisis, which is easy to forget since they have so much to say. So they know that every new encounter with anyone or anything will bring either balm or fresh horrors. They never know which. It terrifies them.
That understanding is what impressed me the most in Askenaizer's two productions this past weekend. The transitions are extraordinarily well staged and, well, what is life but a series of transitions?
Review: 'Angels in America' (4 stars)
When: Through Sept. 7 with 'Millennium Approaches' and 'Perestroika' in rotating repertory
Where: Invictus Theatre Company at the Windy City Playhouse, 3014 W. Irving Park Road
Running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes (each part)
Tickets: $25-$38 (each part) at invictustheatreco.com