Latest news with #ARedOrchidTheatre
Chicago Tribune
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin' at A Red Orchid Theatre is based on an intriguing true story
One Joseph Stalin was one too many. The new play now at A Red Orchid Theatre is about the existential angst that flows from an acting role only a Soviet apparatchik could truly love: standing in for a murderous dictator with myriad enemies. Apparently, there were at least four Stalin doubles in reality, all employed to throw off those who might do harm to the main man. Much work went into their preparation (hair, weight, mannerisms, gait and so on), to ensure the physical likeness was as deceptive as possible. The gig was hazardous and the run could be brief: At least one of the fake Stalins was killed by a roadside bomb as his cortege was passing Red Square. In 'Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin,' playwright Dianne Nora imagines a training session for one of those doubles, with characters based on the real-life figures of Aleksei Dikiy (a Stanislavski-trained actor who played Stalin in propaganda films) and Dikiy's trainee Felix Dadaev, a former dancer and juggler who was chosen in part for the job because he'd been left for dead on a battlefield and thus had little personal identity to be in potential conflict with Stalin. Dikiy kept silent for years about his Stalin act but eventually fessed up in a 2008 autobiography, presumably feeling enough time had passed that no one would be coming to take him out. Dado's production at A Red Orchid Theatre went through some major problems (differences of process, I was told) that culminated in one actor leaving the production late into rehearsals, necessitating the cancellation of opening night, given that this is a two-person show. John Judd became the pinch hitter as Dikiy, working opposite Esteban Andres Cruz. I suspect that if these two experienced actors had worked together from the beginning, the two would have gelled more than was the case when I saw the show last weekend, when the show's energy seemed to operate only in fits and starts and the stakes never rose to the ideal level. I also was confused as to why the director dado had not worried a little more about actual physical resemblance to Stalin, given that this is a play about that very thing. Cruz has some lovely long hair but I'm not sure that would aid in fooling a potential assassin. Perhaps I'm being too literal there and the play absolutely explores some interesting broader issues, especially for people who work in the arts. Most interesting to me, at least, are the scenes that deal with the idea of maintaining professional and educational integrity in the face of both coercion (Dikiy had already been to Siberia) and moral bankruptcy. I saw glimmers of that conflict, which is hardly limited to playing Stalin, flash across Judd's face at times as he found his way into this role. Cruz, meanwhile, puts his heart into this struggling but still youthful character, but I think the piece really needs to reveal more of his difficult transformation. Achieving that in this kind of play, though, requires more of a surrogate parental relationship between these two characters and that needs two actors who more clearly occupy the same world and find a mutual way to drive on through its thickets. Review: 'Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin' (2.5 stars) When: Through June 22 Where: A Red Orchid, 1531 N. Wells St. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes Tickets: $35-$50 at 312-943-8722 and
Chicago Tribune
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Years ago, Brett Neveu's ‘Eric LaRue' unnerved Chicago audiences. Now it's a Michael Shannon movie.
Temperamentally different as they are, the playwright, screenwriter and Northwestern University professor Brett Neveu, a peppy, zigzaggy thinker and talker, has a lot in common with the formidable actor, musician and first-time film director Michael Shannon. The commonalities begin with a propensity to juggle more projects, more or less simultaneously, than would seem humanly plausible. Their joint collaborations spring from the Chicago storefront theater mainstay A Red Orchid Theatre. That was where Neveu's play 'Eric LaRue,' a tense, mordantly comic drama about what Shannon calls 'the aftermath of the aftermath' of a school shooting, had its world premiere 23 years ago. Shannon didn't direct it, but he co-founded Red Orchid and found himself going back to see the company's show several times, he said. 'At that time Brett was just starting out as a playwright. I mean, we were all so young.' A few hundred school shootings later, Shannon makes his film directorial debut with 'Eric LaRue,' starring Judy Greer as Janice LaRue, the mother of a killer of three fellow students. Everyone in the presumably Midwestern town, based somewhat on Neveu's Iowa hometown of Newton, wants Janice to snap out of it. Move on. Redirect her grief somehow. The play and the film hinge on a well-meaning but terrible idea. Not one but two different religious leaders in town, representing their respective, rival church communities, vie for the spiritual honor of bringing together Janice and the mothers of her son's victims in the same room, for an honest conversation about how they're feeling about the tragedy. Shannon's now a resident of Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife and fellow actor Kate Arrington (who's excellent in the role of one of the seething mothers) and their daughters. Neveu lives in Lindenhurst, Illinois, with his wife, artist Kristen Neveu, and their daughter. 'Eric LaRue' premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival and took two long years to find a distributor (Magnolia Pictures, ultimately). Partly it's a matter of forbidding subject matter, though Neveu's writing doesn't fit conventional notions of how stories like this are treated. Partly, too, 'Eric LaRue' took two years because the world and its screen industries — in nearly every economically and ideologically perplexed respect — don't know where they are or how to proceed right now. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length. Q: Michael, 'Eric LaRue' strikes me as eternally topical but not really primarily so. Also, it's an eternal hard sell, and a generation older than it was when A Red Orchid Theatre first produced it. Shannon: Yeah. It was the play we did right after we did Tracy Letts' 'Bug' in 2001. Guy Van Swearingen (the theater's co-founder, along with Shannon and Lawrence Grimm) got to know Brett, called him up after Kirsten Fitzgerald (now the Red Orchid artistic director) did a reading at Chicago Dramatists. Guy was crazy about it. I had nothing to do with the Red Orchid production, except for going back to see it, like, seven or eight times. Q: Brett, I remember having a wildly mixed response to the play right after I got to Chicago, 20-plus years ago. I'm not sure I really got what you were up to. The film adaptation makes me realize it's topical but in ways that seem to have transcended what we usually think of as topicality. You wrote it not long after the 1999 Columbine school shooting, right? Neveu: When we did it, back in the day, we had discussions around that idea of making sure it wasn't just topical in a way that would, you know, fade quickly. I tend to write about things that are bugging me, and try to write stories that aren't being told. Or told enough. But lately, just in the last few months, people seem to be gravitating towards what's in the background of 'Eric LaRue,' with what we've seen in the new series 'The Pitt' and what happens in the British series 'Adolescence.' I don't want to give it all away, but those really wrenching situations. But people are responding. They're watching. I don't think audiences necessarily turn away from tough subject matter. These are real issues on our minds. Q: In 'Eric LaRue' there's a queasy absurdity to a lot of what Janice endures from her husband, her pastor and just about everyone she knows. Have you heard from folks who basically say, How dare you mine this tragedy for even a speck of black humor? Neveu: There've been a few questions, but they're more open-minded, I think. They want to know why something in it strikes them funny in certain places. People are smart, they know that in dark situations, there's a pressure valve, and it's connected to a kind of absurdity. Michael and I think about this a lot. Q: Michael, after you made 'The Shape of Water' with Guillermo del Toro, you told me you were taking more and more of an interest on set in what was going on with camera decisions, the design of a boom shot, all of it. And now you've made your first film as director. Shannon: Well, my interest in photography predates my film career. When I was a teenager I'd take a lot of pictures. My mom still has a lot of them, the black-and-white pictures I took. To me it's terribly exciting to be in this space of figuring out where the camera should be, and what lens should be on it. I see the utility in it, the value of it. I can't say I'm following in the footsteps of any particular director I've worked with. If anything, I'm inspired by someone I never had the pleasure of working with: Mr. David Lynch, no longer with us. I see some of his influence in 'Eric LaRue.' Q: I see that in how you chose to hold a reaction shot a little longer than usual, two, three seconds. Which is longer than 99% of the films would hold it. Shannon: Yeah. I was very meticulous about that in the edit. It was all about frames. I was like, 'OK, take three frames off. OK, put two back on.' If I could've split a frame in half, I would've done it. The rhythm of this film is not a happy accident. You can ask my editor. I trust my editor implicitly. But he'll tell you, I was like a hawk. Q: This material can be crushingly sad, but there's zero melodrama in it. It's not what people are used to seeing with this subject. Shannon: I appreciate hearing that. That was important to me. Q: Brett, what's next? With you, that question usually leads to a pretty complicated answer. Neveu: I'm working on a film project called 'Brilliant Blue,' with nonprofessional actors, high school students, mostly, and a professional crew. It's a training and mentoring research project, part of my tenure track at Northwestern. And it's my directing debut! My daughter's doing production design on it, and a lot of her friends are in it. What else … I'm working on a script called 'Better World' with Michael and Judy, and also with Michael Patrick Thornton. I'm doing a documentary about my dad called 'Infinite Lives,' and his being the world's oldest consecutive video game player. Then, let's see, we're doing my play 'Revolution' at the Flea Theater in New York, it premiered at A Red Orchid in 2023. And I've got a new musical called 'Behind a Clear Blue Sky' with Jason Narducy. We wrote the musical 'Verboten' for the House Theatre right before COVID. Jason and Michael just got back from doing R.E.M. shows on tour. There's more, but that's enough for now. You know how I work. I throw a bunch of things against the wall, and this time seven of them kinda stuck. Q: Michael, you're doing Eugene O'Neill's 'Moon for the Misbegotten' in London at the Almeida this summer, and what else? Shannon: I've got 'Nuremberg' coming out, with Rami Malek, Russell Crowe, John Slattery and me. I've got 'Death by Lightning,' which is a Netflix series, coming out. I play President (James A.) Garfield in that one. Nick Offerman, another Chicago guy, plays Chester A. Arthur. Matthew Macfadyen (as Garfield's assassin, Charles Guiteau), Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham. Great cast. Q: This is stating the obvious, but it is not an easy time for any movie to find its audience — Shannon: We just got off our weekly meeting with Magnolia for 'Eric LaRue,' and they're saying it's hard to even get your film reviewed in Los Angeles. Which is strange, considering Los Angeles is still ostensibly the home of our industry. There's something deeply wrong with that. But, you know, look at 'Anora' winning the Oscar for best picture, that's a spark of hope for me. It's not all doom and gloom. But I hear what you're saying. Our movie played Tribeca two frickin' years ago and it's just now coming out. On the other hand, the timing feels right to me somehow. You know. The way things are in America now. The climate of things (pause). I'll leave it at that. 'Eric LaRue' opens April 4 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; Streaming on April 11.
Chicago Tribune
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: In ‘One Party Consent' at First Floor Theater, student and adviser face off
If you're paying attention to the work of Chicago playwrights, you've likely heard of Omer Abbas Salem. In recent years, local theaters have premiered 'Mosque4Mosque,' their queer dramedy about a Syrian American family, and 'Happy Days are Here (Again),' an intense exploration of sexual abuse at a Catholic school. Their other plays in development have been workshopped at theaters large and small; this June, A Red Orchid Theatre will produce a staged reading of 'Pretty Shahid,' a gay rom-com about assimilation — and Julia Roberts. Also an actor, Salem currently appears in A Red Orchid's 'The Cave.' Their latest world premiere, 'One Party Consent,' is now on stage at First Floor Theater in a production directed by Nadya Naumaan. Set on a university campus in St. Louis, the play is a tense workplace drama that purports to be about the degradation of trust but is also very much about power dynamics in academia and the question of whom institutions protect. Salem's slippery script obscures much about its characters, leaving the audience not fully knowing who to trust, and the show also examines how people of color navigate largely white institutions. Running a tight 80 minutes with no intermission, the play consists of two extended scenes, the first of which takes place at a mid-year review for MFA directing student Fola (Stephanie Shum) with their adviser, dean of students Ellen Healy (Cynthia Marker). There's clearly a strained history between these two, as Fola's body language radiates discomfort from the start and they furiously scribble notes throughout the conversation. Healy initially comes across as a well-meaning older boss, if a bit fussy and defensive, and her comically compliant assistant Sandra (Ashlyn Lozano) takes her own notes during the meeting, with her back to much of the audience. The situation quickly deteriorates as adviser and advisee talk through Fola's list of concerns, most of which relate to the experiences of students of color and nonbinary students in the theater department. As the accusations begin to fly, Fola — who is Chinese American and identifies as nonbinary — calls Healy out for displaying tokenism, while Healy fires back that Fola is being unnecessarily combative. The sound design by Satya Chavez underscores the tension with occasional tones that evoke the sensation of tinnitus (something to be aware of for those with auditory sensitivities). As the show's synopsis indicates, Fola records audio of this conversation without Healy's knowledge or consent, which is legal in Missouri but lands them in hot water in the second half of the play. Here, Lozano switches roles to play Ms. Brite, a friend and former classmate of Fola's who now works for the university's human resources department. This prior relationship complicates matters as Brite moderates a second meeting between Fola and Healy — this time, with Fola's future at the university on the line. Setting this story in an MFA program risks veering into the territory of inside baseball, and for those outside the theater community, the characters' debates about casting processes and established hierarchies in the arts might seem a bit in the weeds. For the most part, however, Salem manages to make it an apt commentary on the fraught state of labor relations, albeit in a very specific workplace. Plus, it's a timely addition to the conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in academia. Still, 'One Party Consent' left me with questions. Fola comes across as the most sympathetic character, and the story, though not a first-person narrative, feels like it's told from their perspective — which perhaps explains a slight tendency toward caricatures in the portrayals of other characters, especially Healy and Sandra. However, later revelations shed doubt on Fola's reliability, making for an intriguing ending. This seems like a play that could be experienced quite differently depending on the individual viewer's background, and because of this very ambiguity, I can see it sparking some lively conversations. Emily McClanathan is a freelance critic. When: Through March 15 Where: The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Chicago Tribune
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘The Cave' at A Red Orchid Theatre is about an Ohio family at the start of the Gulf War
I don't know precisely how much of what happens in 'The Cave,' the interesting new show at Chicago's storied A Red Orchid Theatre, really happened to Sadieh Rifai, but this talented actress and playwright has been working long enough in Chicago theater for me to know that this is at least partly based on her childhood story. Although this world premiere is her first full-blown play, a small part of Rifai's biography showed up a decade ago in Stephen Karam's unforgettable American Theater Company drama 'The Humans.' In 'The Cave,' it's 1990, the year Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded neighboring Kuwait and the Gulf War began. We're in a gated community of homes in Columbus, Ohio, in the kitchen of a family of four. Dad is Jamil (H. Adoni Esho), a newly arrived Ohioan of Palestinian origins who is finding that both a past family tragedy and threatening geopolitical issues can find their way to central Ohio and through his front door. Mom is Bonnie (Kirsten Fitzgerald) and Noor (Milla Liss) and Dema (Aaliyah Montana) are the couple's two daughters, recently relocated in a hurry from Las Vegas and dealing with things teen girls always have to deal with, along with a good deal more that someone in middle or high school shouldn't ever have to worry about. Rifai seems to be following an 'August: Osage County' template to some degree and surely knows she has one of Chicago's best acting ensembles at her disposal. She also introduces other eccentric characters: the girl's gritty Uncle Neil (Guy Van Swearingen in a knockout turn), their grandparents (played by John Judd and Natalie West, no less), a nosy, Ohio-type neighbor (Ashley Neal) and Omar (Omer Abbas Salem), a man who might change this family forever. The family joshing and loving is great fun here; both Liss and Montana are terrific, live-wire young performers, thanks surely in part to Alex Mallory's direction, and Rifai has given them a banquet of vibrant lines. I'm not sure which of the two is her alter ego, probably both of them, but she surely understands what it is to be the child of an immigrant from the West Bank, in all of its complexity. I've long loved the warmth and empathy Rifai brought to her acting so it's no surprise that her play has much the same qualities. It's alive and honest and you pull for this family, as you should. Less successful is the part of the play dealing with Jamil'spast, which doesn't always track or offer the right level of moment-by-moment tension and clarity. I think that's because Rifai never really decided whether this is a show fundamentally about the lives of two girls or about their father's journey, and thus a work that really delves into the political history of the 1990s and the roiling Gulf War. She goes for all of the above, but it's hard to pull off; at times, the mysterious phone calls and the like feel like mere background to the depiction of young Ohioans coming of age. At other times, they're take over the whole shebang and it's like Rifai is writing a kitchen-table espionage thriller, terrain in which she feels less secure and which would ideally need to roam beyond a Columbus kitchen and into the past. And, unsurprisingly for a new play, this show would be a lot better if it were 15 minutes shorter. So, all in all, a most intriguing (and, trust me, moving) work in progress from one of Chicago's most gifted artists, put on by a generous creative ensemble that did everything in its considerable power to bring her vision to life. Maybe aside from asking a couple of the harder questions, but there's still time. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@ Review: 'The Cave' (3 stars) When: Through March 16 Where: A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells St. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes Tickets: $35-$50 at 312-943-8722 and
