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A Critical Response of ‘Language Rooms’ at Broken Nose Theatre

While preparing my review of Language Rooms for publication, I saw a post on Facebook from fellow Rescripted critic, dramaturg and writer Yasmin Zacaria Mikhael. Mikhael’s post led me to a second post from actor Arti Ishak, who has previously contributed to an article on Rescripted by Emma Couling. Both of these posts expressed the pain and frustration caused by this production of Language Rooms, and became catalysts for community discussion about the show, its implications and impact, as well as the response of the largely white group of critics that wrote about the show. In reading those discussions, and after reaching out to Mikhael and Ishak, it was clear that my initial response to the show was missing something. Continue reading “A Critical Response of ‘Language Rooms’ at Broken Nose Theatre”

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Fear and Loathing in “Language Rooms” at Broken Nose Theatre

* Read Lucas’ reflection on this review in ‘A Critical Response to Language Rooms’

“Don’t be a stranger.” Like much of Yussef El Guindi’s darkly comedic Language Rooms, presented by Broken Nose Theatre, this common phrase is suddenly unsettling. Within the blank foreboding walls of a CIA blacksite, the familiar is made unfamiliar, and the mundane, dangerous. Director Kaiser Zaki Ahmed and his team mine El Guindi’s interrogation of islamophobia in a post 9/11 United States. The result is a potent examination of the current dark night of the soul in which the U.S. and its people presently find themselves. Continue reading “Fear and Loathing in “Language Rooms” at Broken Nose Theatre”

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A Hard-Earned Hope in ‘How I Learned to Drive’

How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel is a series of recollections and rememberings from the perspective of a grown woman who was sexually abused by her uncle throughout her childhood. Presented by Raven Theatre Company, the character known as “L’il Bit” – a name she hates to be called – narrates her journey along with a chorus of three people. Together they chronicle L’il Bit coming to terms with her trauma and her complex feelings about her uncle and family. Throughout the performance, the narrator grapples with forgiveness, desire, fear, dependence, trust and love. There is never a question that her uncle is a pedophile with a pattern of abusive behavior who groomed and manipulated her (and perhaps her cousin) for his own erotic and emotional satisfaction. Continue reading “A Hard-Earned Hope in ‘How I Learned to Drive’”

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Court Theatre’s ‘Photograph 51’ asks “What if?”

Dr. Rosalind Franklin in Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51, is an exacting and brilliant scientist, one whose vital contributions to the world might have been all the more exciting had the field of science made room for her. Court Theatre’s production of Ziegler’s play is a stylish examination of the prejudice and misogyny that Dr. Franklin confronted while researching DNA at King’s College in London, England post World War II. Continue reading “Court Theatre’s ‘Photograph 51’ asks “What if?””

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Queer Regency Reigns in ‘I Know My Own Heart’ at Pride Films and Plays

“I know my heart, and have studied mankind; I am not made like anyone I have been acquainted with, perhaps like no one in existence; if not better, I at least claim originality, and whether Nature did wisely in breaking the mould with which she formed me, can only be determined after having read this work.”

– Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions (1782)

Queer people, folks who defy expectations and bring vital complexity to life simply by being, have always existed. In every part of the world, wherever there were people, there were also queer people. How these ancestors are remembered, if at all, is a matter of who is telling their story. Directed by Elizabeth Swanson, I Know My Own Heart is drawn from the life of Anne Lister, an early 19th century British landowner and traveller, and told in her  words. It is a ritual of remembering. Continue reading “Queer Regency Reigns in ‘I Know My Own Heart’ at Pride Films and Plays”

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For Youth Inquiry’s ‘This Boat Called My Body’

For Youth Inquiry’s (FYI) world premiere multidisciplinary performance This Boat Called My Body was created by a team of devisors and youth who have shared their abortion stories with the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH). The play invites audience members to sail with Jane, played by Elena Victoria Feliz, as she navigates the troubled waters of seeking an abortion at 16.  This play loudly and publicly confronts the stigma around abortions as well as the clinical, legislative and personal challenges and hurdles that young people face along the way. Continue reading “For Youth Inquiry’s ‘This Boat Called My Body’”

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The Spectacle of Suffering in ‘Through the Elevated Line’

 

Set in Chicago, the play centers on the arrival of Razi Gol (Salar Ardebili)  to his sister’s apartment in Uptown, right off of the Lawrence CTA Red Line. Soraya (Catherine Dildilian), Razi’s sister, has been in the United States for more than a decade after leaving her family in Shiraz, Iran to attend school and lives with her white Irish-American husband Chuck (Joshua K. Volkers).   Continue reading “The Spectacle of Suffering in ‘Through the Elevated Line’”

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‘Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea’ Is a Beautiful Invitation to Heal

Simply stepping into First Floor Theater’s Dontrell, Who Kissed The Sea is already a theatrical experience unto its own, to say nothing of the magnetic performance to follow. Director Chika Ike’s vision for the play is immediately palpable, and impresses upon audience members from the very first moment that they are entering what will become sacred ground. The inventive and highly successful scenic design of Eleanor Kahn and associate designer Samantha Myers immediately compels the audience to look up, down, and all around them. With Viking and Adinkra symbols adorning the walls of the theater, as well as the scattered pieces of shattered wood that encapsulate the audience, the space evokes a reverent spirituality. Each of the symbols has a meaning, and cast a net of wishes, intentions, and hopes around the playing space. As for the wood, one’s mind goes instantly to the memory of the ships that carried slaves from West Africa to North America. As the house lights drop, and we enter the poetic world of playwright Nathan Alan Davis, the promise of the space unfolds. Continue reading “‘Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea’ Is a Beautiful Invitation to Heal”

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‘Fade’ Explores A Poignant Friendship Where Race But Not Class Intersect

Victory Gardens Theater and Teatro Vista’s co-production of Fade, by Tanya Saracho, directed by Sandra Marquez is a compelling journey through class, race, and ambition.  Marquez’s finely tuned direction enriches Saracho’s nuanced approach to the heightened and complicated world of power that these characters navigate. Continue reading “‘Fade’ Explores A Poignant Friendship Where Race But Not Class Intersect”