Karen Shimmin, Elizabeth Bagby, Delia Baseman, Jennifer Marschand
Strange Tree Group make every creative effort to recreate the experience of living in constant fear of air raids during the London Blitz of 1940. A pre-show cabaret performance that leads you into the proper performance space amidst wailing sirens and hastily shuffling feet paves the way for an entertaining evening of short plays set during World War II. In the first, an American girl and English boy have an adorably awkward meet-cute in a London Underground tunnel during an air raid. In the second, an American soldier and his girl have one last dance before he has to ship off. In the last, a wounded veteran is forced to confront the love he shares with the fiancée of his dead soldier brother. They’re getting at themes of love, loss and war, but the glue that holds the show together—the air-raid framing device—is more confusing and misleading than anything, especially with only one English accent popping up the entire time. (Neal Ryan Shaw)
Strange Tree Group at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 North Southport, (800)982-2787. Through November 20.
Extremely Gentle and Incredibly Close: Khecari Plays with Proximity and Scale in Vicinity Diptych Dance theater is all about people watching other people in motion. For Jonathan Meyer and Julia Rae Antonick, co-executive directors of Khecari, the stationary bodies are of equal importance to those under the lights. The Khecari founders are interested in not just the eyes and brains in those watching bodies, but what happens to all human organisms in the room…
