The Curious Theatre Branch’s 15th annual showcase of experimental theater, performance, and music from Chicago’s fringe runs through 11/20 at the Curious Theatre Branch, 7001 N. Glenwood. Admission is $12 or “pay what you can”; for information and reservations, call 773-274-6660.
It’s not easy to negotiate the subject of motherhood–to chart a course between the Scylla of sentimentality and the Charybdis of gleeful attack. Veteran solo artist Jenny Magnus makes the attempt in Cant, a 45-minute monologue (with songs). She deals with the subject by portraying various characters: good mothers, bad mothers, a self-absorbed young father, the hard-bitten mother of a mother, and a lactation consultant/nurse’s assistant. Magnus embodies her characters brilliantly, and her newness as a mother gives this piece its freshness, its emotion, its honesty, and–for better or worse–its indirection. (LM) Writer-director Shawn Reddy’s comedy White Suit Science–by turns satiric, sarcastic, surreal, and painfully sincere–begins as a discussion of Mark Twain, but turns into a fascinating postmodern analysis of whiteness and the ongoing whitewashing of history. (JHe) 7 PM
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Paula Gilovich penned and codirected this empty, annoyingly mannered dark comedy about an airplane crash survivor. The acting is far better than the script, a shaggy-dog story that involves one stereotyped character after another. (LM) 9:30 PM
Hit Me Like a Flower
