Review: ‘Cygnus' at Gift Theatre is a ‘Succession' writer's powerful evocation of trauma and recovery

Chicago Tribune

23-02-2025

A dynamic, multi-layered and courageous central performance from Angela Morris is just one reason to head up Milwaukee Avenue to Gift Theatre for the world premiere of 'Cygnus,' a challenging but exceptionally rich new play from Susan Soon He Stanton, an Emmy-winning writer for HBO's 'Succession.'
Not that 'Cygnus,' a surreal voyage inside the recovering psyche of a traumatized young woman, is anything like that satirical chronicle of a Murdoch-like family. Unsurprisingly. I've found that when writers have big TV successes, they are emboldened to be as adventurous as possible when they return to the live theater, especially if working in Chicago at a company with a long history of fearless experimentation.
'Cygnus' certainly makes some nods to Tony Kushner's 'Angels in America' with its main character, Cydney (Morris), believing she has a guardian angel, wings and all. But in searching for helpful comparatives for fans of new American drama, I came up with Noah Haidle's 2013 play 'Smokefall,' which I also very much like. Both these plays combine elements of American realism — much of 'Cygnus' is set in a living room and the three-character play deals with Cydney's relationship with her Mama (Rengin Altay) and her (possible) boyfriend Jason (Jeff Rodriguez) — while at the same time departing from that format, testing what an audience will be willing to believe as logical in that setting. And both explore physical manifestations of psychological trauma. At times, fans of the British writer Sarah Kane might also see some similarities. The central character's name is, perhaps, revealing in the lexicographic sense.
Stanton, I think, here wants to explore the aftermath of an awful experience, or experiences, and explore the human body and mind's tactics for healing and, being as none of us are solo operators, the concurrent impact of that journey on those in the person's orbit.
Families being as they are, of course, love and culpability, or perceived culpability, often are linked and that's surely the case here.
Director Brittany Burch has forged a production very much in the Gift Theatre tradition of immersive daring, although that company's bigger current home at Filament Theatre allows for more expansive experimentation. Here, Burch and her set designer, Joonhee Park, create two distinct staging environments as Cydney's heart and corpus flow between them.
Morris gets very solid support from the rest of this small cast, but this is her show and her performance pulses with life and unpredictability. As you might guess from 'Succession,' Stanton is a verbose kind of writer and Morris spits out this rich and poetic language with pace and fortitude and yet enough vulnerability that you don't just believe in the character she is playing, you pull for her and her goofy friend, too.
The production has a lot of recorded sound and this has its issues; some of the language therein is inaudible, which is a shame, albeit something easily corrected. There are also a few dips and let-ups in the show's vital energy.
But otherwise, 'Cygnus' is one of the most sophisticated small shows of the Chicago year so far and represents off-Loop theater otherwise firing on all cylinders. There is much wisdom in here on how mothers and daughters communicate, or miscommunicate, but also a driving sense of hope. Especially with a starring role this attractive to performers, there's no question this play will have a future. I doubt any subsequent production will feature a performance exceeding this one in Chicago right now.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
When: Through March 16
Where: Gift Theatre at the Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes