Photo: Shelby Kroeger
RECOMMENDED
The third in a trilogy of performances that began with 2010’s “The Lonely Visitors,” the opening of “A Place at the Edge of the World to Call Our Own” represents the culmination of half a decade’s work for RE|dance company member Michael Estanich. A reflection on themes of love, forgiveness and the ravages of solitude, the production is simultaneously deeply personal and reflective of universal human struggles. “Solitude is comforting and welcomed in my life—solitude brings great love revealing what is important to me while at the same time it can shower me with melancholy, spinning me into a state of near despair,” explains Estanich. “This personal struggle is what fueled this trilogy. In a way I have been wrapped up in the isolation of creation for years, mining my personal memory to construct a reality on stage that is reflective of the truth, but perhaps indulged in sensation, nostalgia and preference. I always question if what I remember is actually true, or what I want to believe […] for me, this is a type of isolation bred by solitude.” That relationship also led him to reflect on the distortions of memory that can take place over time, and its psychological ripple effects, a feature of the set design he also made for the performance. Through these pointedly physical components, he hopes to enter the performance with a curiosity about the inversions of logic and reality that his investigations into memory left him with. “I created an environment where the ‘earth’ is above and the ‘sky’ is below. There will be an installation of a field of lavender dangling from the ceiling. The piece will also be performed on a white Marley floor onto which images of the sky can be projected.” This blurring of the lines between public and private truths offers a chance for audience members to navigate all that melancholy with the joy of a finished dance cycle to help them through. Performed by ensemble members Estanich, Lucy Vurusic Riner, Daiva Bhandari, Stacy DeMorrow, Melanie Rockwell, Erika Farkvam, Corrine Imberski, Michael O’Neill and Danielle Gilmore. (Michael Workman)
At the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse Theater, 3035 North Hoyne, (773)880-5402. January 12 and 13 at 7:30pm. $20, $15 for students and seniors. Tickets at brownpapertickets.com/event/2721177.
Related Stories
Love Knows No Law: A Review of Wedding Band, A Love/Hate Story in Black and White at The Artistic Home A timely revival of Alice Childress' 1966 play about interracial love in the early twenty-first century American south.
More Labor Than Love: A Review of Love's Labor's Lost at Chicago Shakespeare Theater Guest director Marti Maraden’s production of Shakespeare’s melancholic quasi-comedy is as pretty as a picture. Kevin Depinet’s rococo set, complete with retractable swing and leafy mural-like backdrop, brings us inside a Fragonard painting of flirting nymphs and eager swains. The illusion is rendered even more exquisite by Greg Hofmann’s tender, mood-attuned lighting. Unfortunately, the picture never quite springs to life.…
Taking Care of Our Own: Dance for Life Brings Chicago's Dancers Together for a Cause By Sharon Hoyer Back in 1991, a dancer with Joseph Holmes Dance Theatre named Keith Elliott was losing many of his friends to a terrifying disease. He wanted to do something about it and, as a performer with plentiful access to talent but little to money, he hatched a plan to put on a fundraiser concert for his friends and…
From Words, Movement: The Joffrey Ballet Brings Cathy Marston's "Jane Eyre" to Chicago Cathy Marston's translation of the gothic romance opens the Joffrey's final season on the Auditorium Theatre stage.
Great Expectation: A Review of The Ridiculous Darkness at Sideshow Theatre Company This aesthetically adventurous adaptation follows many tributaries before arriving at its destination.
The Road Less Followed: A Review of The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz at The House Theatre of Chicago RECOMMENDED Like the Pevensies and their wardrobe, the eternally youthful crew at The House Theatre return to "The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz" after twelve years away. Phillip Klapperich's twisted adaptation of L. Frank Baum's novel places a greater emphasis on personal agency and the endlessness of the path of life. Featuring a dexterous and multi-talented ensemble lead by Kara Davidson…
