Last fall Court Theatre gave us An Iliad and its nameless Poet—a lone singer, stowed away in some abandoned, urban hole-in-the-ground, who, miserable, weary, but compulsively articulate, kept us mesmerized while he poured out the epic of Achilles’s rage. The show closed weeks ago, but go to Court now and you might think the Poet has returned.
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But it’s him, all right. He still lacks a name, and when we first meet him he’s hidden in the bowels of the city, as before, squatting in a “building rented strictly to whites, in a section of the basement that was shut off and forgotten during the nineteenth century.” Most important, he’s still got an epic to sing and a compulsive need to sing it. And as performed by Teagle Bougere in Christopher McElroen’s world premiere staging of an adaptation by Oren Jacoby, he’s still mesmerizing.
Of course, I.M. is too innocent to understand this bitter admonition at first. He’s got to learn by doing, and he’s done and done and done. Valedictorian of his high school class, he’s degraded by the local white aristocracy when they invite him to give a speech on humility at one of their dinners. Recipient of a full scholarship to a black college, he’s betrayed by the college president he idolizes. A dedicated and extraordinarily effective member of the Communist Party (called the “Brotherhood” here), he’s sacrificed by higher-ups playing a bigger game. Even a trip to the hospital after an accident results in doctors finding nefarious ways to exploit him.
Through 2/19: Wed 10:30 AM and 7:30 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2:30 and 7:30 PM, Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis, 773-753-4472,courttheatre.org, $35-$65.