My advice: get a decent meal in you before seeing American Wee-Pie, the new comedy by Chicago writer Lisa Dillman. Huge stretches of its two-and-a-quarter-hour running time depict people savoring cupcakes and talking—lovingly, caressingly—about them. If you’re even just slightly hungry you might find yourself losing focus, thinking ahead to where you can go after the show for something slathered in icing. And then you’re lost.
Dillman musters a nice, literate, often deadpan satiric wit, especially when it comes to the new gastronomy. Pableu’s modernist brainstorms include a feta-pumpkin-praline cupcake, as well as novel applications of pesto mayonnaise, panang curry, and caramelized chipotle. His test tastings have the air of guided visualizations, with the blindfolded participants being led step-by-step into a kind of choco-spiritual trance state. And Lindsay speaks volumes about her relationship with him when she calls him her “big, strong cupcake sheriff.”
Through 2/16: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, 5779 N. Ridge, 773-334-7728, rivendelltheatre.org, $30.
