This ambitious showcase of experimental theater, performance, and music from Chicago’s fringe began as part of the Bucktown Arts Fest. Now it’s produced by the Curious Theatre Branch. Taking its name from surrealist painter Salvador Dali’s use of the term “rhinocerontic” (it means real big), the 13th annual Rhino Fest runs through October 13. Performances take place at the Lunar Cabaret, 2827 N. Lincoln, and at Prop Thtr, 4225 N. Lincoln. Admission is $10 or “pay what you can”; for information and reservations, call 773-327-6666.
This one-woman play, written by Teresa Weed and performed by Lisa Wagner, examines the experiences of dying patients and their caregivers. “Weed is a writer of enormous promise with a knack for boiling down complicated truths to exquisite nuggets of prose….But about halfway through the piece [she] loses direction and begins taking the audience on a ghoulish tour, mercilessly piling on scene after scene of suffering. The struggle to find a meaningful path into death all but disappears. It doesn’t help that… Wagner lunges with disturbing gusto into the most macabre moments,” says Reader critic Justin Hayford of this Still Point Theater Collective production. Lunar Cabaret, 7 PM.
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“Hardships of unimaginable brutality are illuminated in Karine Koret’s Mazel. Based on interviews with her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, Koret’s solo piece pays tribute to the life force. Beau O’Reilly’s staging makes inventive use of props, [and] Koret’s performance as her grandfather is physically adept and remarkably devoid of bitterness and histrionics….The narrative does get a bit confusing and repetitive….But overall the piece celebrates the ability to endure with love and courage–and, of course, luck–and gives dignity and warmth to the vanishing generation of Holocaust survivors,” says Reader critic Kerry Reid. Prop Thtr, 7 PM.
“In KellyAnn Corcoran’s witty homage to Waiting for Godot, two women in white satin gloves (Corcoran and Elaine Ellis) are driving somewhere. We don’t know where they came from or where they’re going; we don’t know who they are or what their relationship is. Perhaps one is a mother; perhaps one is a murderess. What we do know is that they share a long history but can’t communicate what they’re really thinking or feeling. Instead they bicker about semantics and the meaning of dreams, trapped in the car out of a sense of obligation–but we’re not sure to what….Corcoran manages to make the conversation funny, character revealing, slightly tragic, and intellectually intriguing….The underlying themes are a little murky: is this about (mis)communication between women, the entrapment of middle-class women in the cage of children and marriage, or something else?…Corcoran’s vivid imagery and Gregory Werstler’s fast-paced staging keep the play rolling even when the characters are stuck in traffic,” says Reader critic Jennifer Vanasco. Lunar Cabaret, 7 PM.
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Saving Face
“Julie Caffey’s autobiographical piece about her rocky relationship with her disgruntled older brother and reclusive father doesn’t take long to reach its inevitable conclusion: who we really are is who our parents made us. Water is the dominant motif: framing her tale with the biblical story of Jonah, she suggests the importance of destiny and biology and the regenerative properties of a cataclysmic storm. Still, the most penetrating moments in this hour-long self-help session are personal, when Caffey makes uneasy attempts to untangle the snarled branches of her own dysfunctional family tree. Director Susan Nussbaum has helped eliminate some of the layers of fruity theatricality that obscured Caffey’s earlier version of the piece….That in turn has opened Caffey up to a more honest, grounded performance,” says Reader critic Nick Green. Prop Thtr, 9 PM.
