Sometimes returning home can be hard. Especially when your siblings greet you by bashing your knees with a crowbar. After three years away in LA, Rick (Christopher Chmelik) arrives at a trashed vacant office in his hometown for a violent game with his two brothers: the stoic Peter (Walter Briggs) and the goofily vacuous Kent (Ryan Bourque). Gory action viscerally personifies familial struggles, replacing subtle emotional sniping with a knee to the face. And the blood does flow. Especially after Rick’s employer, an aging Chuck Norris-type (Danny Goldring in a tour de force), shows up to join the melee. Much of Brett Neveu’s uber-dark, fast-paced script seems like a collection of secret rules and inside jokes, but director Duncan Riddell, along with his dynamic cast, gives the show a loose, flowing feel that makes you feel like you’re in on the jokes, even when you’re not quite sure what they are. (Zach Freeman)
The Inconvenience at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 North Wells, (773)658-4438. Through March 2.
A Story for Everyone: A Review of "1776" at Broadway in Chicago “1776” took our Founding Fathers off their pedestals and revealed them as clay-footed human beings who passionately squabbled over something as fundamental as American independence. Directors Diane Paulus and Jeffrey L. Page have a fresh take.
