92 stories by "Dmitry Samarov"
Adapting stage to screen poses many problems. There's usually something leaden and, uh, stagey about making a movie of a play; witness how few watchable Shakespeare films there are. They're …
Wai (Wai Yim) is the flamboyant, brash host of a YouTube show called Hornyscope; David (Hansel Tan) is his buttoned-up friend, who works as a teacher but wants to be an actor. Both men are f…
A tormented young man is visited by the ghost of his recently slain father, who asks the son to avenge his death at the hands of his own brother"who, to add insult to injury, has taken his j…
Evan Jackson directs and co-adapts (with Tristan Brandon) a new version of Idle Muse's 2009 reoriented riff on "the Scottish play." Told from the point of view of three young sisters as they…
Trap Door Theatre kicks off its 30th season with a bang"or, perhaps more accurately, a ceaseless volley of cannon fire"presenting the mother of all anti-war plays. On a sparse stage decorate…
Clare Brennan directs Savannah Reich's 2017 silly/smart comedy about the dawn of civilization"and the audience gets to decide how it works out in the end. Dandelion (Tess Galbiati) and Rocky…
Set in a place that is equal parts dystopian disco and minimal sci-fi torture dungeon (set and costumes designed by Natasha Djukic), Zeljko Djukic directs Adam RanÄ‘elović's adaptatio…
Heather Currie directs John Hildreth's laugh-a-minute adaptation Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut's satire about the U.S. nuclear program and all-around ignorant hubris. The story is told in flas…
Ian Damont Martin directs the world premiere of Nathan Alan Davis's post-everything meta intergalactic meditation on what it's all about. Akwasi (David Goodloe)"on a bare stage save for a bl…
For Midsommer Flight's tenth annual production of free Shakespeare in Chicago's parks, the company has chosen as shaggy a dog story as the Bard had in his quiver. In ancient Britain, Princes…
PaweÅ‚ ÅšwiÄ…tek directs the U.S. premiere of Dorota MasÅ‚owska's arch 70s-era murder mystery/comedy of manners (translated by Soren Gauger). Rumors fly wild in the streets of War…
What can you say in ten minutes? If the ten examples in the Gift's triumphant return production of its long-running series are any indication, anything and everything. Ten 2023 Through 5…
To break in their new North Lawndale space, Kezia Waters directs Theatre Y's production of Jackie Sibblies Drury's 2012 meta meditation on colonialism, genocide, and racial trauma. (The play…
Jonah Saesan and LanDis Frederick are veterans of two different branches of the U.S. armed forces. After being discharged in 2015, they started processing their experiences in the military t…
What does material success look like to young people in 2023? Is it possible to attain the lifestyle they see in 80s TV shows? Is that something to aspire to? A talented Neo-Futurist troupe …
Appropriation, wordplay, riffs on news headlines, improv skits, and a grab bag of absurdist tropes get thrown in a hat to very uneven ends in Curious Theatre Branch's set of four half-hour p…
In a world . . . where Norse mythology meets prog rock on a set seemingly built by precocious middle-schoolers, brothers Jorik and Jarl battle one another and several deities (best known to …
In Witold Gombrowicz's fictional kingdom of Burgundia, the royal court is bored. One day Prince Phillip (Keith Surney) and his consort, Simon (Gus Thomas) happen upon Ivona (Laura Nelson), a…
Drawing from a well that's 500 years old and who knows how deep takes nerve. Yet that's what Laughing Stock attempts with this contemporary take on commedia dell'arte. You could […]
The po…
Gabriel (Dominick Vincent Alesia) and Emmett (Lucas Matteson) are strangers in a strange land. Robbed and left out in the middle of nowhere after a bar brawl with a biker […]
The post <…
It's rare for me to be surprised by a painting show, but I didn't see "Taking Shape" coming. The exhibition is a generous survey of abstract art made from the […]
The post Abstraction and …
Most people are lucky to have one act that hits. William Horberg is well into his third. Horberg was born in Chicago and grew up around Belmont and Broadway in […]
The post Drawing on the …
Sierra Pettengill's disquieting documentary uses only archival footage shot by the military and clips from period news coverage to explore this uncanny episode in the country's history.
The …
Lette (Dennis Bisto) assumes that since he's the inventor of his company's latest product, he'll be the one to present it at the big upcoming corporate event. But then his […]
The post Tem…
Is it a good message to send young girls that they can be bad and do what they want for a little while but when the rubber hits the road they must toe the line?
The post Catherine Called Bir…
