• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Newcity Stage

Theater, Dance, Comedy and Performance in Chicago

  • Newcity Stage ·
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Policy
    • Newcity Network
  • Sections ·
    • Newcity
    • Art
    • Design
    • Film
    • Lit
    • Music
    • Resto
    • Brazil
  • Newsletters
  • Subscribe
  • Log In
Newcity Stage logo

Review: Scotland Road/Oracle Productions

by Ilanakowarski | April 26, 2007

by Ilanakowarski
April 26, 2007June 30, 2009Filed under:
  • Theater
  • Theater Reviews

I guarantee that anyone coming out of a performance of Oracle Productions’ “Scotland Road” will be hard-pressed to forget its exceptional musical score. An original work by local composer Nicholas Troy and featuring the sublime vocals of local performer Laura Glyda—think a darker Enya or Julee Cruise’s “Falling” and you get the idea—the musical soundscape immediately places you within “Scotland”’s emotionally solemn world. This is a good thing since neither director Ben Fuchsen nor the technical capabilities of Gimpydog Productions, Oracle’s multimedia partner in crime, know what to do with you once you are there. It’s a shame since playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s drama has the potential for searing psychological exploration. “Scotland Road” is the story of a woman found floating on an iceberg ninety-five years after the Titanic went down, as well as the emotional journey of the man interviewing her who is obsessed with “nostalgia for an event he never experienced himself.” The characters are few. The dialogue is terse. Questions remain unanswered and the ending is ambiguous. Since Oracle is about the integration of film and multimedia with theater to tell a story, a story like Hatcher’s, which could have been ripe for Bergmanian treatment—extended and uncomfortably long close-ups combined with that solemn music, for example—seems to have barely received any noteworthy filmic treatment at all, let alone one that would have been benefited the telling of this story in particular. Unless I dozed off and didn’t know it—blame that hypnotic score—the multimedia was limited to some routine video bookending and some scenes told though a split image device reminiscent of filmmaker Brian de Palma; a camera on stage portrays the real-time events simultaneously happening in another room. Nothing that a smart set design and lighting couldn’t have accomplished for half the technical trouble. Disappointing. Too bad “Scotland Road” isn’t a musical. (Fabrizio O. Almeida)

Oracle Theatre, 3809 N. Broadway, (773)244-2980. Thu-Sat 8pm/Sun 7pm. $15-$20. Through May 27.

Tagged:
  • Ben Fuchsen
  • Gimpydog Productions
  • Jeffrey Hatcher
  • Laura Glyda
  • Nicholas Troy
  • Oracle Productions

Post navigation

Previous Post Review: Orange Lemon Egg Canary/Uma Productions
Next Post Review: The Strangerer/Theater Oobleck

Northlight’s Adaptation of “The Front Page” Rewrites the Narrative Prepare to have your sides split at this innovative rendition depicting the drama of an old Chicago newsroom.

Amanda Finn September 25, 2026
A woman blows out smoke while listening to a man in conversation.

“Dial M for Murder” Crafts the Perfect Crime into a Fast-Paced Thriller Drury Lane's adaptation adds a refreshing update to Frederick Knott's classic “whodunit.”

Tristan Bruns September 22, 2025

Stage Top 5 September 1-15, 2016

Kevin Greene August 31, 2016

To Be Woke A Review of good friday at Oracle Productions

Kevin Greene August 14, 2016

A magazine cover split vertically: the left half shows wood grain, the right half shows a mans face and neck. NEWCITY and OCTOBER 2021 appear in yellow text at the top right.

October Issue
Realism

GET A COPY

SUBSCRIBE

White text in all capital letters on a light gray background spells NEWCITY..
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Newsletters
  • Chicago Film Project

Copyright Newcity Communications, Inc. © 2026