Recently touted as Chicago’s best theatre by Chicago Magazine, A Red Orchid invites you to Join us for our 19th fearless season. Featuring existential terror, skewed family values, a mysterious co-worker, bad manners, tangled love, creative angst, a world in revolt, and a butcher with a secret…you are sure to laugh uproariously even as you gasp in astonishment. With three pitch-black comedies, a World Premiere and a Chicago Premiere, you won’t want to miss a single show!
A RED ORCHID’S 2011-2012 SEASON
BECKY SHAW A Chicago Premiere By Gina Gionfriddo Directed by Damon Kiely Featuring Ensemble Members Lance Baker, Jennifer Engstrom, and Mierka Girten September 23 – November 6, 2011 Press Opening Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 7 p.m. Sharp wit and shifting moral ground play out with the taut suspense of a psychological thriller. This Pulitzer-prize finalist and comedy of bad manners, tangled love, and sex had its debut at the Humana Festival. When Suzanna decides to set up her best friend Max on a blind date with her husband’s mysterious co-worker, Becky Shaw, she sets into motion a series of cataclysmic events, forever transforming each of their lives.
MEGACOSMA World Premiere By Brett Neveu Directed by Dado Featuring Ensemble Members Larry Grimm and Danny McCarthy, and at least one member of the AROT Youth Ensemble January 13 – February 19, 2012 Press Opening Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 7 p.m. With existential terror, Megacosm presents us with a world full of revolt and chaos both inside and out. An industrialist in the near future utilizes every means possible to get an inventor to sign over his revolutionary creation that will inevitably change the world. Corporate greed never met creative angst with such dramatic and hilarious results.
THE BUTCHER OF BARABOO By Marisa Wegrzyn Directed by Shade Murray Featuring Ensemble Members Kirsten Fitzgerald and Natalie West March 29 – May 13, 2012 Press Opening Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 7 p.m. Skewed family values and the deep dark secrets they create become a life force for Valerie, the infamous butcher of Baraboo, Wisconsin. Once her husband goes missing, everyone suspects Valerie, especially her nosey sister-in-law who just happens to be the town sheriff. Enter the drug-pushing pharmacist daughter who just might hold the key to the ultimate unanswered questions.
Secure Your FlashPass Today and We’ll Save You a Seat! A Red Orchid Theatre, noted for its vital and energetic plays, bold choices in cast and script, and meticulously crafted productions, ensures you’ll have one of the most exciting theatrical experiences in town. Treat yourself to three great showsfor a low subscription rate of $75 (a $90 value) and see what all the excitement is about.
Dueling in Dystopia: A Review of "Last Hermanos" at A Red Orchid Theatre Two Mexican American brothers who've grown up separately in the United States are together on the run, hoping to make it across the border to Mexico and escape the unfriendly confines that our country has become in a not-too-distant dystopian future.
