An indulgent, unintelligent and fundamentally lazy production that rolls out one impotent creepy-suspense-thriller cliche after another for more than two painful hours. A couple on the brink of a divorce meet for one last night in the doll-filled home of the clearly emotionally imbalanced husband, who heads laboriously and awkwardly for a psychotic nervous breakdown that includes a lot of bad singing and loud shouting as his moods shift incomprehensibly from mania to steel-eyed stone-cold killer. Yawn. Then there’s the Norman Bates-like trope with a dead daughter and a marionette; and for the last twenty minutes there’s a lot of running around with knives and guns in the dark that’s just as boring and suspenseless as the rest. It’s honestly hard to imagine why this production was made; the story and dialogue are not only trite and psychologically shallow, but the moments for comic relief fall just as flat. Acting is valiant, but the characters are one-dimensional to the point of parody, and one wishes the show had just gone all the way and called itself a farce. The running time (which was supposed to be 1:45 but ran for over 2 hours and 15 minute when I saw it) begins to explain the molasses pacing. (Monica Westin)
At DCA Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph, (312) 742-8497. Through November 8.
A Second Company's Saga: The Spirited Story of Fifty Years of Chicago Opera Theater Chicago Opera Theater began as a handful of vocal students of company founder Alan Stone. It was formed by Stone to give his students actual performance practice and experience. Stone’s decision to present operas in English was a considerable break with convention back in 1973.
