RECOMMENDED
In sketch and improv—especially among younger performers—you’ll often see an inability (or unwillingness) to move beyond the easy laugh. It takes real chops (and risk-taking abandon) to build a character beyond a series of punchlines. It’s the difference between someone like Ricky Gervais—whose public persona is wittily complex, both dark and light—and joke man Howie Mandel, who can get off a decent one-liner, but who cares?
“Hero” (the one-act improvised play running Wednesdays at i.O.) looks this challenge in the eye and mostly comes out on top. With a cast of veteran actors—Brian Boland and Claudia Wallace are former Second City mainstagers; Jet Eveleth and Holly Laurent are members of The Reckoning, an improv team with serious talent—the actors are relaxed enough to carefully build their characters. (Patrick McKenna rounds out the ensemble.) This is a group (directed by Sandy Marshall, of Schadenfreude) that understands how inhabit a manufactured world with total confidence.
Hero mythology is the underlying theme of each show, although the one I caught was hazy on this point. I don’t think it matters. Half the cast offered up performances that were modestly funny but limited (and limiting to the story). This was a problem for Wallace, especially, who seemed trapped within the two-dimensions of her a vapid character.
The stronger work came from Boland, something of straight man when he was at Second City, who uses his tall good looks to subvert expectations. His character insights are specific and detailed, and boy does this guy know how to play burning dissatisfaction.
The other standout is Eveleth, with her hair clipped Mia Farrow-style, circa “Rosemary’s Baby”—more than anyone, Eveleth showed genuine dramatic instincts, charging face-first into a portrayal of quiet desperation that was funny and unflinchingly honest. Also, quick on the uptake; on the night I attended, she turned a momentary speech impediment into a Porky Pig sign-off—an inspired way to acknowledge her verbal flubbing and tweak it at the same time. (Nina Metz)
At i.O. Theater, 3541 North Clark, (773)880-0199. Wednesdays at 8pm through October 29. $10.
Related Stories
The Hero We Need: A Review of The Real-Life Adventures of Jimmy de las Rosas at Free Street Theater Make Room, T'Challa: Jimmy de las Rosas is coming to town (and Free Street Theater)!- Players of the Moment: Theater Activists (Chicago Inclusion Project, Not In Our House and The Chicago Theater Accountability Coalition) Three organizations that reflect a growth of activism in our theater community. Their objectives include advocating for equitable representation, addressing harassment and abuse and challenging bigotry in theater criticism.
- Is It? I Think So: A Review of It Is Magic at Theater Oobleck Mickle Maher's new play investigates the balance between the alchemical and nihilistic forces alive in the theatrical arts.
- Herstory Lesson: A Review of Six at Chicago Shakespeare Theater Just say "yas" to these queens.
- White Blight: A Review of Admissions at Theater Wit Is Joshua Harmon's new play a deliberate provocation to progressives or a hypocritical use of his platform? Yes.
