Sweet Bird of Youth
The Artistic Home mounted a beautiful production of Sweet Bird of Youth just two years ago. But as Obie Award-winning director David Cromer notes, “Great art is different every time.” An idiosyncratic risk taker with a knack for revealing new facets of well-known scripts, Cromer is making his directorial debut at the Goodman Theatre this fall with that same Sweet Bird—Tennessee Williams’s 1959 drama about an over-the-hill actress shacked up with an aging gigolo in a Palm Beach hotel. It will star Oscar-nominated actress Diane Lane and TV heartthrob (and onetime Evanstonian) Finn Wittrock.
Specifically, I think of the big pool of water that dominated the set. Actors waded through that pool, floated across it on an inflatable raft, soaked laundry and frisked in it, emerged from and disappeared into its depths. More important, they became marvelous characters. Midas, whose touch turns his daughter to gold. Orpheus and Eurydice, who nearly conquer death. Alcyone and Ceyx, who actually do conquer death, transformed into birds. The water somehow made all of it possible.
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Zimmerman’s show went to Broadway in 2002 and won her a whole slew of awards, including a Tony for best direction. To commemorate the tenth anniversary of that triumph, she and Lookingglass are reviving Metamorphoses. Should go swimmingly. —Tony Adler 9/19-11/18: Tue-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat-Sun 3 and 7:30 PM, check with theater for exceptions, Lookingglass Theatre, 821 N. Michigan, 312-337-0665, lookingglasstheatre.org, $28-$70.
One of South Africa’s best-known artists, William Kentridge, directed and designed the original production in 1992, just after the collapse of apartheid, supplying a landscape of animated drawings before which Handspring’s carved-wood, bunraku-style puppets acted out the tale of woe.
Under John Tiffany’s direction the nearly two-hour piece is as delicate as it is crude, humorous as it is horrific, with an intense ensemble feel that speaks powerfully to the responsibility the men of the Black Watch assumed for one another. Music and movement help to heighten that intensity as the narrative cuts back and forth among postwar reminiscences, battlefield traumas (as well as bouts of boredom), and antic interpolations that provide historical context. As I said in my review the first time around, It’s a “tour de force about a tour of duty.”
The cast includes Isaiah Washington of Grey’s Anatomy fame, but the real draw may be coauthor Jackson as Pryor—a role that landed him an Outstanding Lead Actor award when an early version of the show ran in the 2005 New York International Fringe Festival. The best of Pryor’s concert work was sheer genius; it’d be a thrill to see it live again. —Deanna Isaacs Update 9/13, 11:25 AM: The Royal George Theater announced today that Unspeakable has been postponed until spring. 10/16-11/25: Tue-Thu 7:30 PM, Friday 8 PM, Sat 5 and 8 PM, Sun 3 and 7 PM, Royal George Theatre Center, 1641 N. Halsted, 312-988-9000, ticketmaster.com, $49.50-$62.50.
The simplicity and the honesty are entwined, of course, and account for Hellcab‘s longevity as a late-night cult favorite, the original Famous Door production having run for over nine years. A show packed with fascinating oddballs and compelling, character-based comedy is just plain going to appeal to audiences. And by the way, a show that requires a simple set like the one Hellcab used (the front and seats of a cab on a movable flat) is going to appeal to producers.
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Fall Arts Calendar: An event for each of the season’s 80 days
