Language Rooms is a convincing portrait of the hidden world of government interrogators. These individuals use cajolery and flattery, or fear and intimidation, to persuade individuals to spill their secrets – all on behalf of securing the safety of the state.

This two-act piece (one intermission) flies by, as the characters go about their work. But we see as well the impact that these information-gathering activities have on those doing the questioning. Their personal integrity is compromised as they lie to get truthful answers. It also faces us with a distasteful prospect: if our government and our society condones using intimidation and even physical abuse to gather data, are we not complicit?

Language Rooms involves two Arabic-speaking men on an unnamed government investigating team, quartered in a windowless vault with motorized doors that slide open with a whoosh at the touch of a button. Ahmed (Salar Ardebili) is a rookie, and his work is being closely watched by his supervisor, Kevin (Bradford Stevens). His co-worker, Nasser (Bassam Abdelfattah) is apparently even more fluent in Arabic than Ahmed, and is doing his best to help Ahmed with his weaker command of the language.

It soon becomes evident that the same hidden cameras and observational techniques used in questioning suspects are also trained on the men doing the questioning. They speak to each other with siielding their mouths from view, as they try to carry on private conversations. – just like any office, except that they have the continuous impression they are being watched. The manipulative techniques used on the subjects are also part of the office communication.

All of this provides a set up for a workplace wherein paranoia runs rampant. And as a subtext, these Arab-Americans feel they must not only do a good job, but prove their worthiness and loyalty to the government agency they work for - not to mention to society at large. The plot thickens dramatically as a new suspect is brought in, hooded and shackled: Samir (Bilal Dardai). This one, says Kevin, will be the great test for Ahmed, to prove both his loyalty and his competency. To avoid a spoiler here we can only say this sets up a dynamic, powerful tete a tete between the questioner Ahmed and his subject, Samir.

Samir (Bilal Dardai).

As the probe into his "suspicious" behavior goes on, Samir offers truthful answers, but not convincing ones. "You know the problem with being innocent is the facts don't serve you well," he says. "Innocence is not a good story."

This worldly, sophisticated script by Yussef El Guindi feels as though it will become a classic in the existentialist-absurdist roster, along with works like Miss Margarita’s Way or Master Harold and the Boys, plays in which a sinister undercurrent froths just beneath the surface. El Guindi provides a valuable service to us all just by telling this story. That he does it in such a timeless, universal way, will allow it to be told widely – and we hope it will be.

The production boasts extremely strong performances, especially Ardebili as Ahmed, the rookie; and Dardai, who delivers a perfect portrait of a good-hearted immigrant under a torrent of unfair questioning. I had a chance to see this show twice, April 22 and April 26 – and can say Ardebili had refined and heightened his delivery, and the dynamic between Ahmed and Nasser was even more intensely expressed. Director Kaiser Zaki Ahmed specializes in actor-driven new American plays, and has assistant director credits on two recent, illustrious productions: Guards at the Taj (Steppenwolf) and Hand to God (Victory Gardens).

The script is strong, but the first act could have been streamlined just a little, perhaps to give a stronger thrust to the dramatic rise and moment of suspense as it ends. The Broken Nose Theatre production of Language Rooms runs at The Den Theatre through May 18. It is highly recommended. www.brokennosetheatre.com.

City Lit Theater artistic director Terry McCabe brings us an inspired pairing with Two Days in Court, a double-bill of one act plays with a legal theme - and pieces not often seen.

The Devil & Daniel Webster is a 1938 play about the famed 19th century orator who reclaims the soul of a client who has ill-advisedly sold it to the devil; and Gilbert & Sullivan’s breakthrough 1875 operetta, Trial By Jury, brings us a woman who sues for breech of promise when her fiancé abandons her for another woman.

The legal themes aside, the works couldn’t be more different. Gilbert & Sullivan serve up sly wit in a marvelous parody of society, and skillful mimicry of operatic forms, in a highly polished, high caliber musical work. The Devil & Daniel Webster is interesting as a bit of Americana, a decidedly rustic and really rather primitive morality play that originated as a 1936 story in the Saturday Evening Post by Stephen Vincent Benet.

Despite being stilted and laced with phrases like “Tarnation!” The Devil & Daniel Webster is also packed with still-biting commentary on American social foibles, and a backcountry wit. (It’s set in rural New Hampshire sometime after 1830.) And it trades on the abiding respect and affection felt for Daniel Webster, whose oratorical skills were legendary – and thus the reason the character was tapped to argue the case to save a soul. The story is also a cultural meme, reappearing regularly including in a Simpson’s episode and in a video game by Cuphead.

Terry McCabe added one more insightful touch: he found a cast that could sing, dance, and mine period language for its humor. Trained voices are required for any Gilbert & Sullivan piece, and this cast has them. To bind the two works in Two Days in Court more securely, McCabe inserted two songs from a 1938 folk opera version of The Devil & Daniel Webster - a nice touch.

City Lit does a lot with limited props and sets, and successfully relies on its devoted players who turned in strong performances. The polished pro Bill Chamberlain, as Daniel Webster, displayed his notable voice in “I’ve Got a Ram,” a song from the opera version of the play. Playing the Devil – known as Scratch – with an otherworldly style, was Lee Wechman. Though at certain moments his style seemed a little bit out of synch with the rest of the players, overall it worked.

On the Gilbert & Sullivan side we had a chance to really hear some voices, with Ryan Smetana a standout as Counsel for the Plaintiff and Sarah Beth Tanner as the Plaintiff. The one-act Gilbert & Sullivan work left me wanting more – a good feeling to depart with from any production. City Lit Theatre’s Two Days in Court runs through May 26. It ‘s highly recommended for those who don’t want to miss two rarely-played works that are important cultural touchstones.

If you remember the terrible Disneyland song, “Small World,”with its annoying refrain “ It’s a small world after all,” don’t let that stop you from seeing Small World at The Den Theater.

Based on what many would call Disneyland’s most inspid attraction, this play embraces the audience as ticketholders embarking on a mechanical boat passage tunnel. Facing a blank white curtain, we’re warned to keep arms inside and stay in our seats for a ride that “will last approximately 85 minutes,” the unseen announcer capturing the Disney tone of restrained excitement.

Then following sounds of explosions and destruction , the curtain parts, revealing a disaster inside the Small World tunnel. The three Disney “castmembers,” as they are known, suffer the effects of what may be a terrorist attack or a natural disaster. The tunnel exit has collapsed; they are trapped.

All are injured, one seriously, but their wounds and disorientation to nothing to hinder their non-stop, manic discussion, as they speculate about what happened and what to do next. And the song, “It’s a Small World After All” plays non-stop, just as it did on the ride in the real world, but set, thankfully, at a low enough volume to not be distracting.

We have Becca (Jackies Seijo), a disillusioned Disney worker who was serving her lsat day when disaster; perpetually upbeat Kim (Stephanie Shum) a by-the-book Disney employee who feels she is living the dream within Disneyland; and (Patrick Coakley) a white Christian conspiracy theorist who has secretly turned on the Disney empire. Struggling in limited lighting, the crew is repeatedly thwarted in attempts to exit. Kim, the closest thing we have to a protagonist here, manages to recite chapter and verse from the Disney employee manual, despite her thigh being imp. ailed….that’s the gonzo part, and somehow it works – the energy on stage is so over-the-top the audience catches fire and laughs uproariously.

”Facing mortality, there young conscripts at Disneyland, "the happiest place on earth," mine the dark side for humor. "Now I know how Simba felt," opines Kim, to great laughter. In managing the cadaver of a friend that floats by, Donny says he is deceased, but Kim demurs: "Noone dies in Disney," tapping the Magic Kingdom's reputation for carefully managing any hint of bad news. 

All of this is adds up to a “gonzo workplace comedy,” as artistic director Fin Coe puts it, and loaded with “our signature weird humor and wild action."That is an apt description of what you will witness in Small World, but the breakneck pace of the non-stop gabbing frequently reveals an overloaded script occasionally more suited for reading than speaking. In the course of the conversation, the characters reveal themselves as an unlikely team in a quest for survival.

Small World is funny as an idea and on stage – we give it a Recommended rating. Directed by Andrew Hopgood, Small World runs through May 4 at The Den Theater on Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago.

After one sees Sarah Ruhl’s comedy, Melancholy Play: A Contemporary Farce, one will doubtless ask: Why has melancholy gone out of vogue, just when we need it so?

Melancholy is an emotional condition, like the vapors and neurasthenia, that has simply fallen out of fashion. When one is both inconsolably sad and depressed, but not quite either – that’s melancholia.

In this exceptionally delightful production, Ruhl’s conceptual comedic tone is lovingly presented. Each quirky character is thoughtfully drawn by a cast that most certainly, like me, love Ruhl’s wry view of the human condition.

A Number is an elegant, fully enthralling thought piece by one of Britain’s greatest playwrights, Caryl Churchill. Just over an hour long, it is relentlessly intriguing, keeping you on the edge of your seat as you follow the unfolding story - first in bits and pieces, then building to a torrent of revelation, and finally slamming shut, like a book cover at the end of an intense mystery.

Set in the not too distant future, A Number opens with father and son midway through an intense conversation. We can see the son, Bernard, is distraught.

We piece together that Bernard has learned that his birth was the product of a scientific intervention. But this is not the root of his upset. Rather, he has discovered that the research scientist, now deceased, employed experimental methods and went further than he should have.

With a powerful performances by William Brown as the father, Salter, and the skillful Nate Burger in the role of Bernard, this mystery puts the audience through an intellectual puzzle along the lines of Proof or Doubt.

In this case, Bernard learns that he is not alone - that there were other test tube babies cloned in that lab. More painfully, perhaps, we gather that Bernard has a whiff of suspicion his father was complicit with everything, and continues to dissemble.

“They said none of us was the original,” Bernard tells Salter. “If you are not my father, it’s fine. If you did an in vitro or whatever, just tell me.” How many were there?

“A number,” his father replies vaguely, and again we sense he knows more than he is admitting. He moves to distract Bernard from this upset by calculating the dollar value of a lawsuit against the laboratory for this violation of their trust.

In fact, Salter knows much more, but we must not spoil the plot. We can say Churchill artfully traverses the science, emotional and dramatic terrain in a unique way - exploring our tendency to all too easily surrender governance of our souls to the technological wonders surrounding us. It is also a tragedy, and Brown’s Shakespearean chops serve him well as he laments, “I did some bad things, and I deserve to be punished,” but adding a post-modern twist, “And I did some better things, and I deserve recognition for that.” Bernard rails back, “That’s how everyone feels!” And we wallow with them in our uniquely contemporary angst.

This work, written in 2002, is a precursor to the dark intensity we experience in watching Black Mirror on television. The action heightens and takes violent twists that are shocking even if unseen. The scenic design by Courtney O’Neill, with black picture windows looking out on the void, conveys an eerie spectre of foreboding.

Churchill is known for Cloud Nine, Top Girls, and Serious Money, all three of them Obie winning works - but I am sorry to say I did not know more of her. Now I will be unable to forget her. 

Plaudits to the creative team at Writers Theatre, including dramaturg Bobby Kennedy in this masterful production tightly directed by Robin Witt. We can highly recommend it. A Number runs through June 9, 2019 at Writers Theatre in Glencoe.

Bright Star, the Steve Martin-Edie Brickell show that earned musical acclaim in its New York Broadway run, is destined for a love affair with Chicago for Boho Theatre's producion.

The show opened Saturday like a meteorite, sparks flying as the company marched on stage in powerful harmony for its opening, "If You Knew My Story." Then we hear those clarion chords as Missy Wise strides into view, and into our hearts – in a penetrating soprano sailing above the chorus, tuned to a rapid country vibrato that channels Reba McIntyre, Alison Krause and Tammy Wynette, only more dulcet and beautiful. It makes you cry it is so good. And they are only one minute into the number. Phew!

Maybe in Manhattan Bright Star wasn’t approached just right, because they only liked it - or more likely New York is the wrong market. Bright Star is a serious drama, a timeless morality play and a country music operetta all at once – based loosely on the true story of a lost baby (the Iron Mountain Baby), the emotional toll for those involved, and in this telling, delivering a satisfying ending that brings redemption and healing.

The story covers decades, following teenagers Jimmy Ray (Josiah Robinson) and Alice (Missy Wise) who had a baby out of wedlock and were forced by their families to split, and give up the child. But the flame never died, and the two searched for the child and each other for nearly 20 years. 

While at times the book is flaccid and goes a little astray it does not matter - the story is inherently engrossing, and the songs so beautiful and dramatically expressive they carry the show. Treading carefully to avoid a spoiler, we can say Bright Star is exceptionally well cast, with a knockout performance by Jeff Piermont as Billy, a GI home from WWII and beginning a writing career.

Steve Martin’s hand can be seen in witty scenes, and some colorful, scene-stealing characters – including Daryl (Dwayne Everett) and Lucy Grant (Rachel Whyte), co-workers at the publishing house where much of the action happens.  

Martin and his musical partner Edie Brickell insert the band as a character, fitting for a country-inflected musical. Though the band mostly next to and behind the stage, Hillary Bayley on fiddle and other players appear with the cast at various points. 

We watch the teens become adults. Jimmy Ray is heir to a family fortune and business; Alice gets a degree and becomes a celebrated editor at a prestigious Asheville publishing house – one known for shepherding emerging Southern writers (Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, Zora Neal Hurston, Flannery O’Connor,  etc.). On stage, Wise and Robinson have real chemistry together, making their story even more compelling.

Director and choreographer Ericka Mac knows her way around Chicagoland musical theater (among many credits are Parade and Company at Writer’s Theatre), but this Greenhouse Production is perhaps the most intimate space – and she has made the most of it. Scenic design is by Lauren Nichols and lighting is by G. Max Maxin. Costumes, important to the settings and action, and sometimes changed onstage mid-action, are by Robert Kuhn.

Bright Star is highly recommended. It runs through May 5 at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, Chicago.

A wondrous evening of sonorous music awaits you at The Bridges of Madison County. The story was also a 1995 film (Clint Eastwood directed and starred opposite Meryl Streep, who won an Oscar) then was translated into this Broadway musical in 2012 - all based on Robert Waller’s blockbuster 1992 romantic novel – 60 million copies sold worldwide.  

For this show, directed by Fred Anzevino, Theo Ubique’s cozy new cabaret playhouse on Howard Street gives us an unimaginably intimate performance. It is like a jewel box setting for a chamber opera, and features the immensely talented Kelli Harrington - a Broadway bel canto if ever there were one.  

The tale is really a reverie on romantic love, and paths not taken, as the married but lonely Italian-American, Francesca (Harrington) questions her life as an Iowa farm wife with two teenaged children. Her considerate, dutiful but uninspiring husband Bud brought her home as a war bride from a devastated Naples to his Madison County farm – a place as foreign to her roots and soul as the other side of the moon.

While Bud (Carl Herzog) is away at the Iowa State Fair with their teenagers Michael (Christopher Ratliff) and Carolyn (Peyton Shaffer), a National Geographic photographer, Robert Kincaid (Tommy Thurston) rings Francesca’s doorbell seeking directions. It turns out he has recently photographed Naples and happens to bring the issue featuring his photographs of her lost home. This helps triggers a torrid, four-day affair.

The drama unfolds at a leisurely pace. It is a low-key tale of self-reflection, befitting the emotional struggles of the Robert and Francesa as they weigh running away together. Just this side of becoming saccarine, The Bridges of Madison County's underlying story appealed to men and women, as does this show. It analyzes the values of duty and commitment, and where lies the duty of the chivalrous Robert Kincaid and the ultimately faithful Francesa. The lovely, harmonic music by Jason Robert Brown is more tone poems than Broadway numbers - perfectly suited to the remarkable Kelli Harrington, who teaches voice and has a string of Jeff Award honors.

In a class all by herself, Harrington sings and evokes in parallel, like a fine diva – an arched eyebrow, a furtive look, shaking her locks – it’s really quite stunning to witness. The elegant chamber music ensemble led by Jeremy Ramey emphasizes cello, violin, and keyboard. Francesca’s role dominates the musical minutes, with Robert as her partner in emotional upheaval countering with a comparably challenging song book. Tommy Thurston acquits himself admirably, in a complex role. 

Among the standouts were Shaffer and Ratcliff as completely convincing teens who sing wonderfully; and Molly LeCaptain as Robert’s ex Marian (she also plays Francesca’s sister Chiara) – backing herself beautifully on guitar in a solo. Plaudits to Kate Harris, whose performance I loved as neighbor Marge, always supportive, not too intrusive, who lives a parallel life of love and loss. Harris has a wonderful stage delivery, and played so realistically a woman aging over the years.

This is my second show at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, and because I like the space so much I am tempted to see everything this season. Theo Ubique allows you to order dinner in advance, and the  performers serve before curtain and during. Or you can do as I did and sit in a bar stool and run a tab (no serving during the show itself, of course.) I have two related suggestions: for ticket buyers, because the theater has no lobby, you can’t be seated after curtain. (I learned that when I was a few minutes late for a performance. So be early.) The other suggestion I have is for a minor adjustment to the sound system, which is really pretty good. It could just be my ears, but certain upper vocal ranges seemed constrained.

Recommended See The Bridges of Madison County through April 21, 2019 at Theo Ubique, 721 Howard Street, Evanston.

*Extended through May 5th

Pentatonix has made acapella singing cool. Now The Choir of Man makes it to bro-ish. This fast-paced 90-minute performance is sensationally entertaining, as nine men, a mix of Ivy League, grungers and hipsters, cruise through tightly arranged pop-songs with a traditional London pub as the setting.

“Some pubs have darts, ours has a choir,” explains a character named Narrator, as the multi-talented troupe drawn from Ireland and the United Kingdom sing a selection of pop songs by Queen, Paul Simon, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others.

The Choir of Men began its national U.S. tour here in Chicago this week with a rousing opening night at the Broadway Playhouse. The 550-seat Water Tower venue is generously sized but still intimate, a perfect setting for this show.  Early arrivals were on stage partaking at the pub. As showtime neared the set is surrendered to the performers, but a couple women and one man were allowed to linger through the first numbers – a winning routine for engaging the audience.

While Choir of Man is admittedly a construct – it began in 2017 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was devised by producers Nick Doodson and Andrew Kay - it also smacks of authenticity. Part concern and a pseudo-play, the characters have stage names, but the real individuals behind those names match the up to a degree. 

The continuous banter is led off by Narrator (Denis Grindel) who like the actor playing him is from Donegal in Ireland.  As luck would have it  this show runs over St. Patrick’s Day weekend.  He introduces us to the other eight performers, providing a bit of backstory on each. This sets the stage for an evening of songs that showcases each of the men’s talents, including tap dancer Tapper (Matt Cox - they do not stretch far for the fictional names), while advancing their personal narrative, which is a mix of fiction and fact. Ladies’ man Casanova (John Sheehy) has major love affairs that seem to start and end on a monthly basis. Both the cahracter Casanova and the actor Sheehy are from Cork, Ireland. Likewise for Piano Man: both he and the actor playing him, Connor Going, are from Glasgow, Scotland  

At various points, the group coaxes women from the audience on stage, then showers them with wholesome flirtation and buckets of attention, singing all the while in a good-hearted schtick that is delightful to behold. On some levels it’s as though the Chippendales had hearts and brains, and kept their clothing on. Even if at times it can be as relentlessly upbeat as a Facebook photo stream, it stays on the good side of cloying.

And it works: guys also can dig it for the bro-factor, and the unabashedly guy-ness of the rock anthems performed. One man from the audience was on stage attempting a coaster trick that tracks a song to its punch line. And musically it is completely disarming – with 90 minutes of pop hits arranged to give each of the performers his moment in the spotlight, and mining for tightly harmonized male voices songs by Sia (Chandelier) Hedy West (500 Miles) Katy Perry (Teenage Dream).

The Choir of Man opens with one of its best numbers, a mashup of Save Tonight and Avicii’s Wake Me Up. Songs build and build to crescendos of guy-favorite groups, like Queen, with Somebody To Love, which forms one of the blockbuster sets, the bartender Barman (Mark Loveday) providing a creditable lead.

Narrator suggests that we will look into what being a man is all about, but they tread lightly on the subject, and the tone is more smiles and Facebook thumbs up. The performers are versatile, singing, dancing, and several play a variety of instruments. You will laugh and experience touching moments - like the wonderful rendition of Dancing With My Father as The Choir of Man works its winning ways on the audience. It runs through March 17 at the Broadway Playhouse, 175 East Chestnut in Chicago's Water Tower Place building. It's highly recommended. 

For those who love tap dance (and even those who don't know if they like it), the second annual Sweet Tap Chicago performance at City Winery was heaven on earth. It’s a mix of jazz, classic pop, and blues. And it features a dollop of rap, whose wordplay blends beautifully with the percussive sounds of tap shoes.

The Sweet Tap Chicago program is sui generis – its own thing – and the immensely engaging singers Taylor Mallory and JC Brooks lead the audience through a seamless story stitched together from music by a series of Chicago-grounded artists.

Chicago Tap Theatre, a dance school in the Ravenswood neighborhood, trains the performers and produces the event to celebrate the art form. Mark Yonally, the school’s artistic director, choreographed eight, and Kirsten Uttich, rehearsal director four of the 16 numbers, the remainder produced by other troupe members. 

The Sweet Tap Chicago Band, which leans toward jazz and classic pop, is led by bassist Kurt Schweitz (he is also the school’s music director) with Elisa Carlson on keyboard, Bob Parlier on drums, and Corbin Andrick on sax. Music was by Eddie Harris, Chaka Khan, Sonny Rollins, Sam Cooke, even the Smashing Pumpkins and Sonny & Cher, to name a few. 

And those dancers! The Guys’ Groove featured a jazzy male foursome in black jeans in shirts; the Bob Fosse shaded Superstar saw a trio of women each in black derby dancing to Lupe Fiasco’s song with a live rap overlay by Taylor Mallory.

The blockbuster piece brought improvisational duels between five individual dancers and each of the band members, to a mash-up of Curtis Mayfield’s Move On Up and Kanye West’s Touch the Sky. Saxophonist Corbin Andrick gave as good as better than he got in the number – it was way cool. Chicago Tap Theatre stages it's Sweet Sixteen Annual Gala on May 19, 2019 at Chicago Symphony Center. 

The two performances of Sweet Tap Chicago on March 10 also spotlighted the versatility of City Winery’s venue, a cozy room seating 300 for great food, fine wine, and vintage acts that fit the space, like 1980 Grammy winner Christopher Cross who plays City Winery March 19 as part of his Take Me As I Am Tour  City Winery also seeks out rising local talent, and real boon for the local music scene.

Chimera Ensemble’s How To Live on Earth tracks applicants vying for a spot on a one-way mission to colonize Mars.

Artfully constructed by playwright M.J. Kaufman as a series of short scenes, How To Live on Earth introduces us to four aspiring space travelers – a librarian, a software engineer, a lost Millennial, a physician – and we watch as they move through stages of the space vetting process.

From 200,000 entries, the field is narrowed to 100, giving these four a significant chance to board the rocket when it departs in a year. These vignettes, mostly about single people, may remind you of the 1986 film About Last Night (itself drawn from a play by David Mamet).

But this group is heading for the stars. Each makes it to a different stage in the Mars expedition: the businessman and the millennial are rejected early in the process; the librarian fails during an isolation test. Just one – the doctor Bill (Brian Sheridan) – makes it all the way to Mars. Along with the applicants’ varied backgrounds, personalities and motivations to go, come various levels of personal baggage.

Along the way, we also meet their loved ones. Katlynn Yost plays Eleanor, the librarian, and she and her tall bearded poet Russ (Graham Carlson) are just beginning to date, but the possibility of the Mars mission dampens Russ’s enthusiasm for emotional investment. The software engineer, Omar (Arif Yampolsky) is in a 5-year relationship with Rick (Jermaine Robinson, Jr.) who asks, naturally, “Why do you want to leave me for Mars?” The lost Millennial, Aggie (Hannah Larson), is relentlessly coached to win selection for Mars by her father Robert (Bob Webb), but she can’t coach him to say he will miss her.

The outlier is physician Bill (Brian Sheridan), an Ironman, competitive rock-climbing alpha male over-achiever, who we learn was invited to apply, and who eventually does make the journey to the Red Planet. He Skypes his disaffected step brother, Don (Siddhartha Rajan) who had always lived in Bill’s shadow; and his mother Carol (Stacey Lind) who now mourns losing him.

The script contains colorful touches: Brian's mother Carol rewinds and rewatches her son walk across a screen several times, with this scene re-enacted in forward and reverse. In two bar scenes, it is women characters who take the first move toward guys they want.  Kaufman artfully weaves together the interconnections of these characters, and the varying length vignettes build into a cohesive rise, with real dramatic weight despite their brevity. A rising playwright and script writer, with an MFA from Yale School of Drama, Kaufman is currently a staff writer on Netflix's The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. 

With the spare nature of the script, the play may seem limited in emotional dimension, but it is certainly inferred. In this regard, the librarian Eleanor comes closest to being a central character for the audience. The earth-bound brother Don, and Russ’s partner Rick give the strongest expression to the emotional depths of this Martian adventure, which throws everyone's lives up for grabs, including those remaining on Earth.

Don also dispenses some wisdom, commenting on the Martian adventurers: "Why do people love to dream? To get love. But when people arrive at their dream, the don't get any more love - and they feel empty." 

Director Gwendolyn Wiegold has drawn a very consistent level of performance from these nine actors, allowing the essence of Kaufman's intriguing story to come through in this 90 minute show with no intermission. The fresh style and youthful energy of this cast are well worth seeing and we recommend you not miss the chance. Chimera Ensemble's How To Live On Earth runs through March 24 at the Flat Iron Arts Bulding in Chicago.