Switch to the mobile version of this page.

- Username
- View Profile
- Edit Profile
- Log Out
- Log in
- Create Account

The Chicago Reader

Articles

Loading...

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Oct 25, 2017
Arnie the Doughnut, Tangles and Plaques, and 11 more new stage shows to see

A delightful kids' show and a Neo-Futurist's look at dementia are among this week's best bets.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Arnie the Doughnut, Lifeline Theatre, Laurie Keller, Francis Limoncelli, George Howe, Rachel Sypniewski, Juanita Andersen, The Black Renaissance (A Musical Resistance Against Racism), Jackie Taylor, Black Ensemble Theater, Reconstruction, the Civil War, Ku Klux Klan, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, racism, Robert Reddrick, Carrie, Underscore Theatre Company, Carrie 2: The Rage, The Rage: Carrie 2, Preston Max Allen, Maggie Robinson, Rachel Elise Johnson, Isaac Loomer, Spring Awakening, Chicago Danztheatre, Danztheatre Playwright Fest, Getting Old Sucks, Nelia Winter, Cetalogy, Moby-Dick, Pivot Arts, Don't Look Back/Must Look Back, Uptown, Chinese Mutual Aid Association, Albany Park Theater Project, Ellen Gates Starr High School, Learning Curve, Devon de Mayo, Tennessee Williams, His Greatness, The Glass Menagerie, Daniel MacIvor, David Zak, Pride Films and Plays, Danne E. Taylor, The Last Days of the Commune, Bertolt Brecht, Prop Thtr, Stefan Brün, Kyle Ann Greer, Paris Commune of 1871, Refuge Theatre Project, High Fidelity: The Musical, Lysistrata, Lysistrata Jones, Douglas Carter Beane, Lewis Flinn, Justin Brill, Mary-Margaret Roberts, Shanna VanDerwerker, A Swell in the Ground, Jeanine Nabers, Chika Ike, the Gift Theatre, the Neo-Futurists, Kirsten Riiber, Jen Ellison, With Blood, With Ink, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Third Eye Theatre Ensemble, Daniel Crozier, Peter M. Krask, Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory, Zombie Bathhouse: A Rock Musical, Campsongs Productions, Brian Kirst, Dan Foss, Scott Free

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Mar 22, 2017
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Falling, and eight more stage shows to see now

Bertolt Brecht's satire set in 1930s gangland Chicago and the local premiere of an off-Broadway hit are among this week's best bets.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Electra Garrigó, Virgilio Piñera, Sophocles, Electra, Cuban modernism, Fidel Castro, Right Brain Project, Kathi Kaity, Falling, Deanna Jent, Amy Johnson, Justin Tsatsa, Nick Freed, Tristin Hall, James Yost, Heidi Katz, Interrobang Theatre Project, The Kid Thing, Sarah Gubbins, Nothing Without a Company, Jake Fruend, Taylor R. Craft, Shalyn Welch, The Most Happy Fella, Frank Loesser, Broadway musicals, Brooks Atkinson, Sidney Howard, They Knew What They Wanted, Theo Ubique, Fred Anzevino, Molly Hernandez, William Roberts, Phantom Pain, Barbara Lhota, Detroit riots, Organic Theater, Laura Sturm, A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otherworld Theatre, Elliott Sowards, The Resistible Rise of Alberto Ui, Trap Door Theatre, Bertolt Brecht, rise of Hitler, gangland Chicago, 1930s Chicago, Victor Quezada-Perez, The Scullery Maid, Idle Muse Theatre, Joseph Zettelmaier, historical drama, Edward III, Dave Skvarla, Lydia Hiller, Sycamore, Raven Theatre, Sarah Sander, Devon de Mayo, Robyn Coffin, Tom Hickey, Truth & Reconciliation, Sideshow Theatre Company, Debbie Tucker Green, Jonathan L. Green, genocide, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Nov 3, 2016
Resolution, The Trump Card, and nine more new theater reviews

A drama from Pride Films and Plays and Mike Daisey's election monologue are among this week's best bets.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Chagrin Falls, Mia McCullough, Sommer Austin, Agency Theatre Collective, Jennifer Cheung, Killadelphia, Sean Christopher Lewis, Philadelphia, Graterford Prison, Dogs of Rwanda, The Mars Assignment, Collaboraction, National Alliance on Mental Illness Chicago, Ronan Marra, Elsa Hiltner, clinical depression, Matt and Ben, Theatre Above the Law, Mindy Kaling, Brenda Withers, Octagon, Kristiana Rae Colón, Jackalope Theatre, Tara Branham, the Conspirators, The Resistible Rise of Herr Helmut Drumpf, Bertolt Brecht, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Wm. Bullion, New Criminals, Ryan Hake, Lindsey Graham, Resolution, Pride Films and Plays, Tiffany Mitchenor, Aneisa Hicks, Amber Snyder, Diana Raiselis, MPAACT, Starting Over, Kejuan Darby, Siera Buffum, Jerico Bleu, Keith Surney, Shepsu Aakhu, Tympanic Theatre, Sweet Analytics, Hayes Borkowski, Joshua Ellison, Tony n' Tina's Wedding, Chicago Theater Works, Resurrection Lutheran Church, Vinnie Black's Coliseum, The Trump Card, Election Day, 2016 election, Donald Trump, Mike Daisey, This American Life, "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory", Denise Hoeflich, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Good Will Hunting, Miley Cyrus, Malala Yousafzai, American Association of University Women

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Aug 18, 2016
Brecht gets the hip-hop treatment in The Good Person of Szechwan

But Cor Theatre’s update of the parable rings false.
- By Justin Hayford
- Tags: Theater Review, The Good Person of Szechwan, Bertolt Brecht, Cor Theatre, Ernie Nolan, Will Von Vogt, Tony Kushner

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Apr 8, 2016
The Hypocrites' Adding Machine, Factory's The Last Big Mistake, and eight more stage shows to see now

What happens when a Mr. Zero goes berserk? A musical, apparently.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, The Hypocrites, Adding Machine, Elmer Rice, Geoff Button, Matt Deitchman, Mr. Zero, Dreams of the Penny Gods, Halcyon Theatre, off-Loop theater, Callie Kimball, Caity-Shea Violette, Jennifer Adams, Ted James, The Great Love Debate, Brian Howie, Kill Floor, American Theater Company, ATC, Abe Koogler, Jonathan Berry, Sol Patches, Factory Theater, The Last Big Mistake, Ernie Deak, Manny Tamayo, Anthony Tournis, Rachel Sypniewski, The Life of Galileo, Bertolt Brecht, Galileo, Remy Bumppo, Nick Sandys, The Misanthrope, Martin Crimp, Molière, Piccolo Theatre, Michael D. Graham, Dream Theatre, Jeremy Menekseoglu, Olive and the Mouse Spider King, Anna Menekseoglu, Adventure Stage Chicago, Sight Unseen, Tom Arvetis, Rives Collins, Spark, Ulysses, James Joyce, Leopold Bloom, The Plagiarists, Aileen McGroddy, Jessica Wright Buha, Rudy Bloom

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Sep 17, 2014
Recommended
Hnath Fest! Lookingglass and Writers Theatre present works by the same up-and-comer

And both Death Tax and Isaac's Eye show playwright Lucas Hnath's preoccupation with artifice.
- By Tony Adler
- Tags: Theater Review, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Water Tower Water Works, Isaac's Eye, Writers Theatre at Books on Vernon, Death Tax, Lucas Hnath, Bertolt Brecht, John Musial, Heidi Stillman, Marc Grapey, Michael Halberstam, Deanna Dunagan, Recommended

Blogs, Bleader Jul 25, 2014
An interview with Richard Linklater and Northwest Chicago Film Society on film programming (part two)

The second part of a conversation between the noted film director and the local repertory film organization
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Education, Film, History, Richard Linklater, Northwest Chicago Film Society, Rebecca Hall, Kyle Westphal, Julian Antos, repertory film programming, 35-millimeter film, DCP projection, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, film history, Veronika Voss, Baal, Bertolt Brecht

Blogs, Bleader May 11, 2014
Weekly Top Five: The best of Pier Paolo Pasolini

Highlights from the filmography of Pier Paolo Pasolini
- By Drew Hunt
- Tags: Weekly Top Five, Film, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gene Siskel Film Center, David Lynch, Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, The Canterbury Tales, The Hawks and the Sparrows, Bertolt Brecht, Charlie Chaplin, Luis Bunuel, Oedipus Rex, Sophocles, Mamma Roma, Mantegna, Lamentation over the Dead Christ

Film, Movie Review Apr 23, 2014
Recommended Video
Darren Aronofsky's Noah tells the story by the book

The director's religious blockbuster is immersed in Judaic literature.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Review, Darren Aronofsky, Noah, Russell Crowe, the Bible, Judaism, Paramount Pictures, Ari Handel, the Torah, Ray Winstone, Book of Enoch, Peter T. Chattaway, J. Hoberman, Jacob Neusner, Genesis, Huffington Post, Old Testament, Carl Theodor Dreyer, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Eric Rohmer, Perceval, The Romance of Astrea and Celadon, New Testament, Bertolt Brecht, Manoel de Oliveira, Doomed Love, The Letter, Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to Matthew, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, Pi, Black Swan, Peter Jackson, J.R.R. Tolkein, the Arc, Yoda, Anthony Hopkins, Recommended, Video

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Feb 5, 2014
Recommended
Red Tape Theatre's Hamlet Is Dead. No Gravity. presents mousetraps within mousetraps

But Austrian playwright Ewald Palmetshofer says what needs to be said in bleak times.
- By Tony Adler
- Tags: Theater Review, Hamlet Is Dead. No Gravity., Red Tape Theatre, Chicago, German-language plays, Hitler, Bertolt Brecht, Franz Xavier Kroetz, Request Concert, Through the Leaves, New York Times, Frank Rich, Sideshow Theatre Company, Roland Schimmelpfennig, The Golden Dragon, Ewald Palmetshofer, Neil Blackadder, Mousetrap, Recommended

Blogs, Bleader Feb 3, 2014
Reader's Agenda Mon 2/3: LitMash, Youth Code, and The Mother

What's on the Reader's Agenda for Monday, February 3
- By Jillian Sandler
- Tags: Do This, Arts, Haymarket Pub & Brewery, LitMash, Dan Sully, Adrienne Gunn, Bryant Cross, Youth Code, Wax Trax! Cobra Lounge, Coming, Surachai, Auditor, The Mother, Oracle Theatre, Bertolt Brecht

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Nov 6, 2013
Recommended
But is The Normal Heart good?

TimeLine Theatre gets an important play pumping.
- By Tony Adler
- Tags: Theater Review, AIDS, Larry Kramer, Centers for Disease Control, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Manhattan, President Reagan, New York, Ed Koch, AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, The Normal Heart, Pat Buchanan, Public Theater, William Hoffman, As Is, Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts, Denis O'Hare, Finn Wittrock, Chris Sullivan, TimeLine Theatre, agit-prop, New York Times, Don Shewey, Emma Brookner, Linda Laubenstein, Stephen Rader, Bertolt Brecht, David Cromer, Nick Bowling, Brian Sidney Bembridge, Michael Stanfill, Mary Beth Fisher, Mark Grapey, Alex Weisman, Patrick Andrews, Recommended

Film, Movie Review Oct 30, 2013
The (re)making of M

Joseph Losey takes another crack at the Fritz Lang masterpiece.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Casablanca, Northwest Chicago Film Society, Hollywood, Fritz Lang, M, Joseph Losey, La Crosse, Wisconsin, Dartmouth College, Soviet Union, Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty, New York, Bertolt Brecht, Galileo, Charles Laughton, The Boy With Green Hair, The Prowler, Seymour Nebenzal, Third Reich, Berlin, Weimar Republic, Thea von Harbou, Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler, Metropolis, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Peter Lorre, Arsenic and Old Lace, My Favorite Brunette, David Wayne, Production Code Administration, Seymour Nebenzal, Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, Thomas Elsaesser

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Sep 25, 2013
Joan Allen can't find her way home

The actress returns to Steppenwolf in a literary construct called The Wheel.
- By Tony Adler
- Tags: Theater Review, The Wheel, Joan Allen, Michael Shannon, Simpatico, Steppenwolf Theatre, Zinnie Harris, Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage

Blogs, Bleader May 12, 2013
Reader's Agenda Sun 5/12: A Mother's Day matinee, a Marxist musical, and Coliseum

What's on the Reader's Agenda for Sunday, May 12
- By Tosten Burks
- Tags: Do This, Arts, Mothers Day, Music Box, Mommie Dearest, Dick O'Day, Bertolt Brecht, The Mother, Oracle Theatre, Coliseum, Sweet Cobra, Pink Avalanche, Empty Bottle

Blogs, Bleader Oct 3, 2012
Coming soon: films by Werner Schroeter

Thoughts on the late German director, the subject of an upcoming partial retrospective at Facets
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Art House, Foreign, Film, Werner Schroeter, Facets Multimedia, Palermo or Wolfsburg, Magdalena Montezuma, The Kingdom of Naples, The Smiling Star, The Black Angel, New German Cinema, opera, Bertolt Brecht, Argila, Neurasia, Olaf Moller, Cinema Scope

Blogs, Bleader Aug 2, 2012
Harold Pinter and the sound of silence

Harold Pinter's screenplays deepen our understanding of his work.
- By Drew Hunt
- Tags: Film, Harold Pinter, Joseph Losey, The Servant, Dick Borgade, James Fox, Robert Maughman, William Friedkin, Killer Joe, The Birthday Party, The Boys in the Band, Bertolt Brecht, Elia Kazan, F. Scott Fitzgerland, Figures in a Landscape, McCarthyism, David Caute, Accident, The Go-Between, Secret Ceremony, Robert Mitchum, Elleston Trevor, The Quiver Memorandum, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Last Tycoon, Galileo

Film, Movie Review Jun 12, 2012
Video
Fritz Lang's only romantic comedy still displays his skepticism

Falling in love and falling in line in You & Me
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Review, Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, paranoia, art films, ex-convicts, Harry Carey, George Raft, Sylvia Sidney, vaudeville, rationality, Great Depression, Henry Fonda, Video

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Review Jan 21, 2010
Indiscreet. No Charm

Brecht takes on the petite bourgeoisie.
- By Justin Hayford
- Tags: Performing Arts Review, Bertolt Brecht, The Wedding, TUTA Theatre Chicago, Zeljko Djukic, Chopin Theatre

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Review Jul 2, 2009
Recommended
High Raunch

The accomplished vulgarity of 500 Clown’s latest
- By Tony Adler
- Tags: Performing Arts Review, 500 Clown, 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal, Steppenwolf Theatre, Man Is Man, Bertolt Brecht, Recommended

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Apr 4, 1996
Brecht Betrayed

Fatzer: Demise of the Egoist
- By Justin Hayford
- Tags: Theater Review, Bertolt Brecht, Fatzer: Demise of the Egotist, Stefan Brün, Prop Theatre, The Threepenny Opera, Heiner Müller

Issue Cover

Browse by Issue

Other Searches