I really tried to like CityLit’s “Underneath the Lintel.” I really did. One-man shows are hard, but when you have a good actor, which Michael Joseph Mitchell certainly is, it can sometimes work. Glen Berger’s tale of a wandering librarian’s pursuit of a mythical wandering Jew just does not sit well. The story is interesting enough. After the librarian receives a book returned 113 years overdue by, he believes, a religious icon destined to roam the earth forever; he presents his collected evidence of the apparition’s existence in a lecture to the audience, chalkboard, slide show and all. This is all well and good, but it gets unclear when he begins reliving his initial emotional responses to evidence already catalogued and sealed in plastic baggies. I accept that the character can go through an emotional journey during the course of the lecture, but this is just forced. On top of all that, the fog machine at the end is way gratuitous. (William Scott)
At City Lit Theatre, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, (773)293-3962. This production is now closed.
Humdrum Horror: A Review of “The Birthday Party” at City Lit Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party” suggests that what we think of as the habits of ordinary life are often a kind of smokescreen designed to block awareness of underlying arrangements and realities.
Pow! Zap! Bam! A Review of City Lit Theater’s Mark of Kane "Mark of Kane" offers an insider’s look at the mostly uncredited talent responsible for Batman’s creation. A well-crafted origin story, you do not have to be a comic book lover to enjoy this production.
On the Brink: City Lit's "Thirteen Days" Gender-Swaps the Cuban Missile Crisis As the closest the world's ever come to nuclear war, The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most consequential geopolitical events of the twentieth century and Brian Pastor chose to adapt and direct Robert F. Kennedy's memoir of the event, "Thirteen Days."
