Last night, while waiting in the tranquil lounge of the Bramble Arts Loft, a familiar question floated around the theatergoers: Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? It’s a philosophical question that has been around for ages. It probably passed through the minds of those who first saw the play some 2,000 years ago. It’s a question I never tire of. The debates change based on the context of the time it is asked, and the mindset of the individual. For no matter how many times it is asked, no two answers are ever alike; life and the medium are inextricably linked. There’s no better example of this currently playing in Chicago than The Trojan Women, the inaugural production of Eos Theatre Company, now playing at the Bramble Arts Loft.

Ashway Lawver as Hecuba. Photos by Steven Townshend / Distant Era.

A blisteringly relevant modern-day version of Euripides' anti-war play, The Trojan Women, has been rewritten and is set in a mother-and-baby unit of a prison. The war is over. Beyond the prison walls, Troy and its people burn. Inside the prison, the city's captive women await their fate. Stalking the antiseptic confines of its mother and baby unit is Hecuba, the fallen Trojan queen, whilst the pregnant Chorus is shackled to her bed. But their grief at what has been before will soon be drowned out by the horror of what is to come, as the Greek lust for vengeance consumes everything – man, woman, and baby – in its path. This caustic and radical new version of Euripides' classic tragedy comes from one of the UK's most exciting young poets, Caroline Bird, and is directed by Rachel Sledd Iannantuoni. It is an intense, gripping look at what happens when the world collapses.

Photo by Steve Townshend | Distant Era

The Trojan War is ancient history, relegated to stories retold through modern media countless times over. Yet the story of the war and The Trojan Women remains as relevant today as it did thousands of years ago. Euripides’ The Trojan Women takes place at the end of the war. Troy is burning while the city's captive women wait to be told their fate by the victorious Greeks, who penetrated the city walls hiding inside the famous Trojan horse. Caroline Bird’s modern adaptation of Euripides' 415 BCE tale sets the play in a Trojan hospital turned prison by the Greek invaders. “Her work is a fierce exploration of the complex intersections of class, gender, patriarchy, and nationality,” says Iannantuoni. “It is timely and timeless. Sometimes comical. Often absurd. Ultimately heartbreaking.” Superbly acted by members of the Eos Theatre Company, The Trojan Women is a production that will stay with you long after you leave the theater.

Photo by Steve Townshend | Distant Era

War is hell. While many of us might not experience it firsthand, we can empathize with the horrors it leaves in its wake, for war is as timeless as the stories that come from them. Yet again, we’re faced with a meaningless war started by the few and fought by the many. Yet again, humans are faced with unfathomable choices. Yet again, we both come together and tear each other apart over claims of moral and ethical superiority. The Trojan Women could have easily been written today. The plight of women in a patriarchal world is reduced to little more than incubators and spoils of war. The question of the role men play in war: protectors or pillagers? The questions of gratitude and honor, dignity and demise. The Trojan Women beautifully – hauntingly -- explores all of this and inevitably leads us to ask ourselves a single question: Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? See this incredible and timeless production, and let’s get together at Simon’s Tavern to discuss.

Unlike the Trojan War, The Trojan Women only runs through April 18^th at Bramble Arts Loft (5545 N Clark St 2nd Floor, Chicago). Ferry your ships and set a course for Andersonville to get your tickets and a glimpse of this tragically timeless tale today.

This review is proudly shared with our friends at www.TheatreInChicago.com. 

If all the world’s a stage and we are all merely players, then we must be prepared when we are thrust into the spotlight. Not everyone will be ready. Some of us might freeze or forget our lines or simply wave the spotlight on, forgoing the opportunity to perform, content with playing in the shadows or the wings. Others, however, crave the attention and demand to be center stage, presumably because they have something to say. Whether or not you signed up to be in the play or part of the production, it’s essential to be prepared, to know what you would say or do when given a stage. This past weekend, I witnessed just such an opportunity during a performance of Off-Nights at the Sometimes Café. The stage was set, the players cast, and an attentive audience seated. The trouble was, when the spotlight was on, nothing was said.

Off-Nights at the Sometimes Café is billed as a campy parody of a noir mystery, following a cafe pianist in lieu of a detective. As the pianist/narrator plays his way through the show, he guides the audience through the tangled web of attraction, seduction, and general silliness that occurs when a bunch of attractive queer people end up in the same place.

On its surface, Dave Walther’s Off-Nights at the Sometimes Café aims to be a delightful, poignantly unserious celebration of queer joy and desire, and a heartwarming portrayal of how to find a chosen family— warts and all. But that message, along with the representation it aims to spotlight, is completely lost in a story lacking in formula, pace, or purpose. There is no particular plot with a beginning, middle, and an end. There’s no catalytic event or climax. It’s more of a drawn-out setting of a café scene, focusing on the introduction of six characters that takes over one hour of the play’s seventy-five-minute run time to fully explain. There is no protagonist – or spoken scenes for that matter -- save for the curmudgeonly monotonous narrator who tells the story in the same sad minor keys the musical numbers are played in. The only time the characters speak is through song. While the players have exceptional voices, the choice of opera as a medium is an interesting one. The operatic numbers all focus on love (both absent and unrequited), but they don’t particularly move the story forward or really accentuate or explain the characters’ motivations or sentiments. Save for a few witty one-liners and repetitive drag numbers, there isn’t much depth or substance to this story, so it begs the question: Why was this put on?

Off-Nights at the Sometimes Café is simply doing too much for a message of love, acceptance, and community to shine through. At least that is what I took away from the production. It’s neither an homage to film noir nor a parody. It’s lacking in elements such as a femme fatale, lover’s quarrels, a whodunnit with high-contrast lighting, nonsensical voice narration, hyperbolic metaphors, or, said succinctly, a storyline, something nearly every film noir/parody possesses. The same goes for the opera homage and lack thereof. Key operatic elements are also lacking, such as libretto (text/story), aria (emotional solo), a recitative (speech-like narrative singing), and most importantly, the theatre and spectacle that opera is known for. None of that is found in this play. To be fair, perhaps that was the whole point, and it simply missed me as quickly as the 70-degree day in Chicago. If you squinted, you could see where Off-Nights was trying to go. The problem was in the execution and pace of the story. It was simply doing too much and not enough at the same time. Director Clare DiVizio’s introduction to the play provided more grounding and heart than the entirety of the run of the show, the reminder to all that queer and trans rights matter, now more than ever in today’s volatile and violent world. Off-Nights lingers so heavily in the descriptions of characters and their identification that we miss the ‘why?’ Why are we here? Why should we care about these characters? What do you want the audience to take away from this production, outside of a love story that references the last great love was when dinosaurs were drinking beers? Off-Nights, unfortunately, misses their mark.

When given a spotlight, one must be ready and prepared to step into it with something to say. No matter the medium chosen to convey one’s story, the story still needs to be easy to follow. It should have heart and depth even if it’s told through parody and satire. If the message you wish to impart to your audience is lost in translation, or simply doesn’t exist, was it ready for its moment on the stage? Did the story linger in the shadows too long, or was it simply not ready for the spotlight? With some rewriting, staging choices, and script alignment to any of the formulas the play aims at parodying, Off-Nights at the Sometimes Café could become the queer extravaganza it bills itself as. Until then, the audience is waiting for something great to take the stage and have its moment in the spotlight.

Check out the other 2026 season of events and shows at Bramble Arts Loft and learn more about The Thompson Street Opera Co. and their mission to bring inclusivity to the operatic art form.

It was the flippant statement heard round the humanities. An errant comment, a sweeping generalization, and another dismissive remark towards the arts. While the internet might have lambasted the commentator, the commentary at its core is the erroneous belief or misunderstanding that the arts are a relic of a bygone era. Despite repeated talks of automating away human interaction and computers replacing all the creative elements of life, art, opera, ballet, and more thrive in Chicagoland. One cannot walk anywhere in Chicago without seeing works of art in all their forms, celebrated and muraled and inviting to visitors and locals alike. There is no truer testament to the lasting power of an art form than in its inclusive programs that empower the next generation, offering them time and space to captivate audiences of all generations. I can recommend no finer program than Winning Works, now playing at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Winning Works is a mission-driven, access-oriented initiative that upholds The Joffrey Ballet's core values of “Joffrey for All.” Performed by students and trainees of the Grainger Academy of The Joffrey Ballet, the program provides opportunities for everyone, regardless of background, to experience, support, and participate in dance. The goal of the award is to recognize talented, emerging choreographers whose unique perspectives will inspire creativity in the form of original works of dance. Through Winning Works, the Joffrey aims to broaden access for artists who have been historically excluded from the art form and empower those who embody its values to shape the future of dance.

The Grainger Academy and Winning Works is the strongest example we have that ballet might change and grow and evolve with the times, but will never fade into obscurity. The performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art is itself an exhibit of movement, exploration, love, and light. Set against its contemporaries, Winning Works features incredible performances that leave you spellbound, each more unique than the last. Each performance features a brief introduction by the choreographer, detailing their reflection on the program and staging a performance offering a unique perspective only the artist themselves could give the audience. Audience members will love the contemporary movements of To Carry Our Own Names by DaYoung Jung, enjoy the whimsicality of Alexandra Schooling’s Hushed Power, shimmy and shake along with Daniel Ojeda’s Visitors, bask in the glow of the light and airy Eclat by Julia Feldman, and marvel at the uniqueness of Fran Diaz’s A Strange House We Must Keep. There is truly something for everyone, all performed by the incredibly talented young dancers who will no doubt grace the stages of the grandest theatres across the world.

For as many years as I have lived in Chicago, I have heard “the arts are dying,” that they are old-fashioned and outdated. Truth be told, it’s rarely heard from Chicagoans, mere projections from those who would never visit the city let alone entertain the arts. Like the many seasons (and false seasons) of this great city, the arts and humanities have their seasons of flourish and seasons of slumber. Like Spring itself, Winning Works ushers in the new season with new performances filled with light, love, and beauty. Commentators may come and go, but ballet and the arts will always stand the test of time.

Winning Works is performing for a limited run from March 13-15 and March 19-22 at the Museum of Contemporary Art (220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago). Tickets are available at https://joffrey.org/. As a bonus, audience members can show their Winning Works program book to receive a free admission voucher to the MCA, proving that the arts are inescapably intertwined and will always win.

When the days are short, and an east coast rodent tries to convince the US they can predict the weather, it’s easy to succumb to the winter blues. The winter season is long, and couple it with bouts of snow and ICE it’s no wonder Chicagoans look for levity and comfort to get them through the darkest of days. Fortunately, Chicago Theatre Week is here to offer a reprieve from the cold and drudgery of the season, and there’s no better way for you to push away those seasonal blues than with a modern spin on an old and familiar classic: Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors is a Bram-new comedy that’s perfect for audiences of all blood types.

In the treacherous mountains of Transylvania, a meek English real estate agent takes a harrowing journey to meet a new and mysterious client, who also just happens to be the most terrifying and ferocious monster the world has ever known: Count Dracula! As famed female vampire hunter Jean Van Helsing and company chase Drac from Transylvania to the British countryside to London and back, their antics are guaranteed to increase your pulse and cause bloodcurdling screams—of laughter.

Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors is refreshingly unserious. While it is loosely based on the classic novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, you have to squint in this production to see the parallels. It’s neither a retelling nor a reimagining. Rather, it’s a light, frothy, funny, and completely hilarious story dripping with as many sexual innuendos and double entendres as high-brow puns. “Since he first appeared on the page, Dracula has embodied a culture panicking about sex, desire, and what the unknown might bring,” says Director Matthew Masino. “As we look at our world today, we see familiar anxieties resurfacing. Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors meets this moment not with solemnity, but with laughter.” You won’t find deep truths about the human condition or delve into the dichotomy of mortality and immortality, but it doesn’t strive to do so. What if Dracula were bi-curious? What if he sought an eternal love while also seeking to diversify his portfolio with real estate? Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors won’t answer those questions or anything of the sort. Instead, the small but mighty ensemble cast of The Lazy Susan Theatre Co ask you to suspend your disbelief and your gravitas at the door and invite you to sip a boozy Capri Sun through a blood bag and enjoy a completely hilarious story, exceptionally well-acted and well-staged. Is there really anything else you need to enjoy an evening of theatre?

Sometimes we need to be reminded that not everything needs to be taken so seriously. No, you don’t have to answer that email after hours. And no, you don’t have to stay woke all the time. Though I did learn it’s a good thing to know your blood type, if only to know what to write on the blood bag you will be sipping from. That’s a seriously unserious thing to do. And so is seeing this play. Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors runs through February 22^nd, Thursday through Saturday at The Greenhouse Theatre Center (2257 N Lincoln Ave, Lincoln Park, Chicago). The show runs for 1.5 hours with no intermission. Tickets are available at www.lazysusantheatreco.com.

At this time of year, when Christmas lights begin to twinkle and colors of green and red illuminate throughout the city, I am nostalgically drawn to the ballet. To me, there is nothing so quintessentially magical as The Nutcracker ballet at Christmas time. I can hum, and chair compose the entirety of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece. I can mark every step to every number of the two-act ballet (shout out to Inland Pacific Ballet). I can picture my grandmother sewing the principal dancers into their tutus, and my mother managing ticket sales and donning the mother-ginger costume. For me, the holiday and the ballet are indivisibly interconnected. And now that I’ve lived in Chicagoland for longer than my childhood in Southern California, there is something nostalgically familiar and magical about Christopher Wheeldon's kaleidoscopic reimagining of The Nutcracker, now playing at The Lyric Opera House.

On a magical Christmas Eve, after awakening to an epic battle between Toy Soldiers and the Rat King, a flurry of snowflakes sweeps Marie away on a whirlwind journey to the dreamlike fairgrounds of the World's Columbian Exposition. Set to Tchaikovsky's classic score, experience sprawling attractions representing countries from around the globe: the dazzling Golden Statue, the mystique of an Arabian enchantress, vibrant Venetian masked dancers, Chinese dragons, and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. This holiday season, enter the spellbinding world where history and dreams intertwine.

The Nutcracker Amanda Assucena and Hyuma Kiyosawa in Joffrey Ballet's The Nutcracker at Lyric Opera House.

Wheeldon’s The Nutcracker is set against the majesty of the 1893 World’s Fair of Chicago. Though remnants of the fair can still be found in buildings like The Museum of Science and Industry, the true grandeur and spectacle is lost to photographs, sketches, and our imaginations. The magic and marvel of the fair’s White City is rumored to be the inspiration for the Emerald City in his best-selling children’s book of 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. While there is no solid evidence to support this claim, it would make sense that the fair, where Cracker Jacks, the Ferris wheel, and electricity itself were debuted and displayed, could inspire a magical city of Oz. It’s that same magic that Wheeldon captures in the Joffrey’s production of The Nutcracker. The uniquely Chicago-centric production of the ballet features the familiar storyline of Marie and her family, though it focuses on the love story between The Great Impresario of the Fair, performed by Stefan Gonçalvez, and Marie’s mother, the sculptress for the Fair and The Queen of the Fair, performed by Gayeon Jung. It shows the humble working-class families that built the city itself in the first act, juxtaposed against the vibrant and colorful world of the White City in the second act. The humility and simplicity of one act contrasted with the majesty of the second, coupled with journeys across Lake Michigan, make this production equally familiar and relatable. To date, it’s still one of my favorite productions of the ballet, quintessentially Chicago and absolutely magical.

What I wouldn’t give to be a snowflake in the core, a worker at the fair dancing beneath the first Ferris Wheel, or simply a watcher from the wings of this beautiful ballet. At this point, I have seen and reviewed the play more years than I performed in the ballet, and I still get goosebumps when the tree rises, and the snow falls. Whether you are seeing it for the hundredth time, the tenth time, or the first, every Chicagoan should experience the Nutcracker. Experience the magic for yourself. The Nutcracker is playing now through December 28^th at The Lyric Opera House (20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago). Do not overpay for Joffrey tickets! Beware of ticket resellers offering overpriced or invalid tickets. The Joffrey is the only official seller with the best prices, available at www.joffrey.org.

When the sun plays peek-a-boo and a pre-winter chill settles over Chicagoland, locals inevitably look for ways to warm their hearts as well as their fingers and toes. It’s during this time of year that locals venture indoors and when the Chicago theatre scene offers respite from the bitter cold. Like a favorite holiday treat, there are dozens of choices available to seekers of light and warmth, from recurring favorites and classic retellings to original plays and immersive theatre. There is no better way to celebrate the season and to lighten spirits than a good hearty laugh, or two, or three, or so many your sides hurt the next day. You’ll find no better way of warming up this December than seeing the deliciously dirty fairytale that is Rapornzel now playing at the Hoover-Leppen Theatre.

Rapornzel (yes, you read that right, it is not a typo) is a panto-style reimagining of the classic fairytale of Rapunzel. Many years ago, the King and Queen of a far-off kingdom were blessed with a baby girl with long, magical, downstairs hair. One day, the jealous witch Mother F**ker kidnapped the child and locked her in a tower, selfishly squandering her merkin magic for herself. With the help of local hairdresser Dame Fanny Follicle, her thick-as-s**t son Pascal, the dashing Prince Ride-her, and the Hairy Fairy, will Rapornzel ever come out?

If you couldn’t glean it from the title, Rapornzel is a serious-unserious play. Serious in the fact that the cast and crew put on a spellbinding, side-splitting comedic performance, but unserious to ensure the audience was able to escape the bitter cold reality for a few short hours and simply enjoy a hilarious performance. The story is written in the pantomime style or “panto.” Panto is a theatrical performance style dating back to the 1700s, traditionally performed around Christmas time. The popular form incorporates song and dance, exaggeration, and fourth wall breaks to tell a story. It often interchanges slapstick puns heavy with innuendos and groan-worthy dad-jokes to break the monotony of traditional theatre. Critical to the success of these comedic shows is audience participation. It’s highly encouraged to react and respond to the actors on stage, think “booing” the villain, “cheering” the hero, and responsive questioning from the actors such as: “Chicago is so cold…” to which the audience responds: “How cold is it?” wherein the actors then deliver a witty or punny joke in the tale that may or may not make you laugh, guffaw, or simply groan at how bad it is (in a good way). Panto is not for everyone, nor are puns or dad jokes, but in the Vonnegut style approach of moving the story along, it’s difficult not to enjoy, and even an ostrich chuckle at least once.

But when it comes to Rapornzel, I guarantee you’ll laugh more than once. Rapornzel is what you get if you take a fairytale and remix it with a book of dad-jokes, throw in a general use of 1980s musical bangers, and finish it with the dry wit of 2025. Rapornzel is one of the many bawdy, silly, and immensely entertaining pantomime scripts written by professional performer-writer Tom Whalley. The writer’s works have become a popular holiday season tradition at PrideArts, joining the ranks of Whalley’s other works like Jack Off The Beanstalk, Sleeping with Beauty, and Throbbin Wood. With unimaginable R-rated puns, pop songs, and audience participation, Rapornzel follows a growing holiday tradition within PrideArts. This year’s production is exceptionally acted by Chicago talent like Jeremy Cox, who plays Hairy Fairy Dandruff, Peter Moeller as the local hairdresser Dame Fanny Follicle, and the sexy and incomparable Gina Cioffi as the evil Mother F**ker who kidnaps Rapornzel. For those still tepid about the play or the panto style, don’t worry, the skilled actors utilize their quick wits, improvisation skills, and comedic timing to make this production enjoyable for all, never overstepping where they sense timidity. They read and respond to the audience to both give and get energy to move the story along and draw out a smile from even the most austere theatre goer.

Therein lies the beauty of this type of theatrical play. Whalley’s style of Panto grants permission to the audience to simply lighten up, be silly, and share some laughs. In short, in its seriousness to stage a good production, it masterfully creates a space to be supremely unserious. There aren’t many theatrical stylings that can pull that off these days. 2025 has been wrought with ill humor, tired remakes, and uninspired sequels. It’s refreshing and welcome to see a production that doesn’t take itself too seriously while still representing Chicago theatre, PrideArts, and the theatrical community well. The actors, panto, and Rapornzel itself, beg the attendees to lighten up. It reminds us that we don’t always need to seek hidden meaning between the witty one-liners, and we don’t need to laugh at every joke we’ve heard at countless Thanksgiving tables by distant relatives. We should endeavor to seek out light and warmth as the days grow shorter and the darker nights descend. Rapornzel beckons Chicagoans inside and endeavors to thaw critical hearts this holiday season. It’s a healthy reminder that it’s okay to shout, especially when asked or directed to do so. It’s fine to laugh or simply smile. And it’s encouraged, and I daresay desperately needed, to remember that nothing, including fairy-hairy-overly-share-y-tales, is really that serious. Funny, yes. Serious, no. That in and of itself is a gift.

 Rapornzel is playing for a short while longer through December 14^th at the Hoover-Leppen Theatre in Center on Halsted (3656 N. Halsted, Chicago). Grab your winter jacket and your tickets today, available at www.pridearts.org, and warm up with a few hearty belly laughs guaranteed to shake away your winter blues.

The holiday season in Chicagoland brings with it many things: snowstorms, festive markets, twinkling lights, and cozy traditions that warm the soul on bitterly cold evenings. Holiday traditions also abound in the Chicago theatre scene with familiar favorites, comforting stories, and guilty pleasures easy to come by. If 2025 has taught us anything, it’s that what we choose matters; where we spend our money, where we focus on energies, and how we spend our money and, more importantly, our time. It’s a question at the heart of one of the most beloved holiday shows, A Christmas Carol, now playing at the Metropolis Performing Arts Center.

Charles Dickens’ enchanting tale of redemption, generosity, and hope comes to life in Arlington Heights’ favorite holiday tradition. On a snowy Christmas Eve brimming with memorable characters, ghostly apparitions, and festive holiday music, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge visits the past, present, and future and discovers the true meaning of Christmas. A Christmas Carol is adapted and directed by Metropolis Artistic Director Johanna McKenzie Miller and music directed by Cory Goodrich.

Despite the snowy weather on opening night and the lack of proper heating in the theatre itself, there was something distinctly cold about Metropolis’s staging of A Christmas Carol this year. The performance leaned heavily on Dickens’ traditional storyline, offering no room for modernization. The simple storyline was nearly impossible to follow, many voices hardly carrying past the first few rows of the chilly theatre. When the dialogue did reach audiences in the back rows, the speech was heavy-handed, garbled, and lacking any emotional substance behind it. Even Steve Connell’s brilliant and iconic performance of Scrooge felt unsupported by the ensemble cast. Actors around Connell had difficulty delivering their lines in forced English accents that came and went as swiftly as the fog dispersed, utterly devoid of conviction for such an emotional holiday piece. The performance was simply cold, distant, and clinical.

There is something to be said for traditions, but this calendar year has made us question if the traditions we uphold are worthy of such repetition. Do we do these things because we genuinely want to or simply due to muscle memory? Are these traditions worthy of putting on, or is it merely a bygone expectation? A Christmas Carol seems particularly scrutinizing in a year wrought with conversations of greed, corruption, and overconsumption. Dickens’ classic tale now skews towards sci-fi and fantasy with a moody and selfish protagonist whose sudden change of heart warms and delights. A wealthy businessman with disdain for the poor has a sudden awakening and gives back to his community? In what world? Certainly not this one. This year, the play feels farcical, sardonic, and more than a little tone-deaf. 2025 has challenged many preconceived ideas and traditions, and that same energy should be utilized when viewing Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Before we call it cynical, we should ask ourselves if this piece of Christmas tradition should be shelved with the likes of Hello, Dolly, and Annie, beautiful pieces for their time that need to step away to make room for new perspectives, new voices, new stories. Is A Christmas Carol a beloved classic or merely a ghost of Christmas past (pun intended) that has nothing left to teach us?

A Christmas Carol is now playing at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre (111 W Campbell St., Arlington Heights) through December 24. Tickets are now on sale for $25-$49 at MetropolisArts.com.

Chicago is well-known for its hidden gems: speakeasies hidden behind working laundromats, restaurants located down darkened alleyways, and even theatres located in basements and converted houses. One such innocuous playhouse resides in a small, transitioned home studio, just west of the Uptown neighbourhood. Like any hidden gem in Chicago, looks can be deceiving, and the hyper-intimate 25-seat theatre that is Open Space Arts is playing anything but small as they put on the Chicago Premiere of DORIAN.

DORIAN is a thrilling, queer-forward remix of Oscar Wilde’s timeless tale, brought to life in this bold and visually stunning stage adaptation by Phoebe Eclair-Powell and Owen Horsley. In a world obsessed with beauty and power, what happens when someone is given the chance to remain perfect—forever? This modern interpretation dives headfirst into vanity, desire, and the danger of refusing to age, illuminating the darkest corners of our obsession with self-image and fame. DORIAN fuses gothic horror, biting satire, and cabaret flair into an unforgettable night of theatre.

Similar to the space it was performed in, DORIAN, directed by Aaron Holland, is one of those surprise gems woven into the fabric of the city’s neighbourhoods. The play dramatises the story of Oscar Wilde’s novel THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY in the present-day club scene, where Dorian, the main protagonist, Basil, an artist who idolises Dorian, and Henry, the aristocratic antagonist, gallivant around late 1800s London in search of art, beauty, and just a smidge of hedonism. The minimalist-maximalism of the Open Arts Space is expertly utilised by the play’s performers, Luke Gerdes as Dorian, Bosie, and others, Anthony Kayer as Henry Wotton, Oscar Wilde and others and Brian Kulaga as Basil, James, and other characters. The three performers bring the hedonism and exuberance of Wilde’s Victorian London to the modern stage with wickedly witty dialogue and a reverence for the late author. DORIAN juxtaposes THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY alongside the historical record of Wilde’s prosecution and conviction for the “gross indecency” of his relationship with the much younger Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas in 1895, at the height of his literary success. The two stories intertwine beautifully, with plenty of camp and sass like The Victorian Homosexual Quiz, blended with respect and reverence that Wilde himself would applaud. The performances of Gerdes’ Dorian and Kayers’ Wilde are shockingly tender, perfectly capturing the drive and desire for beauty and youth that both the author and fictional protagonist sought in Victorian London.

DORIAN is as relevant and relatable today as it was in Victorian times. The play features many of the same challenges, vices, and themes that modern-day audiences can relate to. Told with poetic prose and perfectly picturesque poses, this production is a rare gem in the Chicago theatre scene. Just as our protagonist, Dorian Gray, or the author himself, Oscar Wilde, would do, we must covet and hold on to our Chicago gems, appreciate and admire them. Youth, beauty, art, and productions are all fleeting in their world, and DORIAN is no different. DORIAN will play through December 14 at Open Space Arts (1411 W. Wilson, Chicago). Tickets are $30 and are on sale now at www.openspacearts.org.

In a world where our attention span seems to be shrinking, it’s comforting to know there are still one-shots available for our entertainment like a limited mini-series, a short story, a collection of poetry, or in the case of operatic masterpieces, double-feature shows. One of the drawbacks to newcomers with the opera is the time and focus the productions require of the audience. Hours long symphonies and classical music scores coupled with lengthy and drawn-out emotive performances can be difficult to follow for new patrons, particularly with the false sense of urgency our modern world requires. Rather than let an art form die out simply to accommodate the times, it’s wonderful to see the Lyric Opera present one-shot masterpieces like Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci now playing at the Lyric Opera House this month.

Quinn Kelsey as Tonio and Yulia Matochkina as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana at Lyric Opera House.

Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are two 19^th-century Italian operas that strip love of its overwrought grandeur and show it for what it can become: messy, corrosive, and even fatal. Short in length but packed with unforgettable fervor, Cav/Pag, as it’s colloquially known in the operaverse, delivers quick emotional blows to the heart. Cavalleria rusticana transports the audience to a Sicilian village on Easter morning, where sacred rituals can’t drown out explosive scandal. Santuzza, a woman shunned by her community and cast aside by her lover Turiddu, clings to her crumbling faith. As she pleads for forgiveness and recognition, she discovers that Turiddu has resumed his affair with Lola, who just so happens to be married to Alfio, a local businessman. As the church bells ring, so does the call for blood to spill. In the church square, as villagers gather to celebrate, personal betrayals erupt into public vengeance. Pagliacci centers on a traveling troupe of performers who arrive in a Sicilian village where envy and deception brew behind the scenes. Canio, the troupe’s leader, learns from Tonio that his wife and leading lady, Nedda, has taken Silvio as her lover. Tonio also rages with an unrequited love for Nedda. Canio must go on with the show, playing a clown whose wife betrays him, a role which hews all too close to his reality. Beneath its painted smiles and vaudeville spectacle, Pagliacci reveals a stage where illusion shatters and truth bleeds through the cracks.

Quinn Kelsey and the Company of Cavalleria rusticana. 

Both operas run times are roughly one hour and thirty minutes (give or take) with an intermission to break up the two stories. The storylines are easy to follow with an emotional depth that is relatable whether in commiseration or contempt, making this run a perfect performance for operatic neophytes. It’s easy to see why these two productions are frequently coupled together. Both written in and first performed in the 1890s, the operas broke from the traditional focus on mythology and royalty to ground themselves in the realistic and often gritty depictions of everyday life. Both storylines feature jilted and scorned lovers, duplicitous deeds, and depict what can happen when someone cannot regulate their emotions. Despite hundreds of years between the first performances and the show today, the stories still resonate with audiences proving humans are going to human, adultery is a catalyst towards conflict, and love and vengeance can be a lethal combination. The relatable themes are accompanied by a beautiful musical score that’s regularly featured and parodied in modern media. Led by the incomparable Enrique Mazzola, Lyric’s music director, the score adds a gravitas to the incredible talents of lyric newcomers mezzo-soprano Yulia Matochkina as Santuzza alongside tenor SeokJong Baek as Turiddu and tenor Russell Thomas as Canio and soprano Gabriella Reyes as Nedda. Alongside an incredible ensemble cast, set against an incredibly detailed and charming set designed by Michael Yeargan, the music and voices tug at heartstrings and tickle the brain in the most remarkable ways bridging time and cultures to bring these stories to life.

I’m not going to lie and say the opera is for everyone. The productions are long and require a dedicated time block and focus that not everyone can afford. It’s also often cost prohibitive for many audiences. The Lyric Opera has made incredible strides to lower the cost of admission while staging productions that require no prior knowledge or experience with the medium. As a culture, opera is not always the most welcoming of communities particularly when beloved productions are running. If you haven’t seen the opera a dozen times and can speak about sopranos and tenors as one would old friends, you’re likely to see a shoulder as cold as the theatre mid-performance. But Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci is completely different. Two one-shot stories divided by a welcomed intermission featuring storylines that are as scandalous and captivating as any Netflix mini-series. You won’t receive judgmental looks for not knowing the unspoken operatic code of conduct nor for not playing theatre conductor and knowing every rise and fall within the scores. With this performance, you simply get to be immersed into the world of opera with a relatable and down-to-earth production that highlights the best of what it has to offer; incredible scores, powerhouse talent, and one-shot drama that will have you both laughing and gasping. If you’ve ever been curious about the opera or wanted to check off a theatrical or Chicago bucket list, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci is the perfect opportunity for you. And who doesn’t love a good one-shot story set to a classical and dramatic score?

Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci is now showing at the Lyric Opera House (20 N Wacker Dr, Chicago) through November 23^rd. Sung in Italian with projected English titles, it has a run time of 2 hours and 55 minutes, including 1 intermission. Get your tickets today at lyricopera.org to experience this limited run of these Italian masterpieces today.