On December 30, 1903, the Iroquois Theatre in downtown Chicago held a matinee performance of Mr. Bluebeard, a touring show about a potentate who murders his many wives and hangs them from hooks in a secret room. If the story line was gruesome, the production was fabulous—a holiday entertainment for the whole family, chock-full of extravagant scenery and costumes, elaborate musical numbers, swooping aerialists, and a cast of hundreds led by a major star of the era, Eddie Foy. In drag, no less.
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What’s more, the theater itself was a draw. Only just opened, the Iroquois was considered the biggest, most opulent, and most advanced temple to Thespis yet devised.
The rest is adjectives. Playwright/cast member Jay Torrence wisely leaves room in his sly, smart, often scathing script for the creativity of his wildly talented fellow artists—especially the charmingly unsettling Dean Evans—and they use it awfully well. Halena Kays‘s circusy staging makes acrobatic precision look easy. Simple motifs—among them, jars full of what look like trapped fireflies—accrue power as the narrative discloses more and more of their meaning. And a single sound effect by Mike Tutaj is as overwhelmingly effective as the famous swirling glissando from the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life.”
Through 1/5: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM Theater Wit 1229 W. Belmont 773-975-8150theaterwit.org $25-$36
