Displaying items by tag: Eva Andrews

It was a dark and stormy night as I motored to The Conspirators “Chicago Cop Macbeth,” with a fog of dust giving the streets an eerie feel. As the lights came up at the Otherworld Theater, the storm continued, the three witches of MacBeth gathered tightly around a fiery oil drum as thunder and lightning filled the room along with their chanting of Shakespeare’s famous opening lines, Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.

But this was different than the usual scene of the Bard’s classic iambic pentameter, for these witches were dressed as Chicago police in yje blue shirts of the department’s lower ranks, the British Midland accents replaced by one of the city’s most beloved native dialects, Bridgeport English.

The show’s style coach Sid Feldman, adapter and director William Bullion and ‘Script Doctor” Aili Huber have tailored Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” to place it close to home. The tale of the Scottish lord who took the royal throne through murder and mayhem is now set as a struggle among district police commanders to capture the seat of the superintendent. Action moves from the Scottish highlands and heath, to the Police District 5, Rogers Park District, and Daniel Burnham Forest Preserves.

Lt. Cmdr. Lady Macbeth (Clara Byczkowski) urges Cmdr. Macbeth (Travis Barnhart) into action

Eschewing emotional naturalism in their performances, The Conspirators are known for their unique acting format, “The Style,” a type of Commedia dell’ Arte seasoned with bits of Kabuki, Bugs Bunny, grotesque make-up and stylized movement. Lines are delivered in bite-sized chunks. These are punctuated by a percussionist, in this performance Tom Jacek, who brought forth a more subtle commentary perfectly adapted to the dramatic mystery and power of “Chicago Cop Macbeth.”

Hearing Shakespeare this way makes it come alive, and be heard differently—perhaps like hearing the lines recited as rap. Though the emotional core of Shakespeare’s story recedes compared to more conventional approaches, the show is arresting in another way, for the language. To hear those lines, sometimes spoken into shoulder-mounted walkie-talkies, is jolting. The transformation by local touches brought lots of laughter:

Macbeth’s discomfort holding a crown he has murdered to win—Now does he feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief—becomes “hangs loosely around him, like a Bear’s jersey.”

Quite striking is the line We will speak further, as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plot to kill King Duncan. Spoken in Chicago Bridgeport, it sounds like something whispered between two lawyers at the back of a Cook County courtroom—as it certainly still is.

Supt. Macbeth (Travis Barnhart) banishes the Ghost of Cmdr. Banquo (Collan Simmons, in center)   

Most surprising was the revelation of The Conspirators as capable, competent Shakespearean performers.For most Conspirators shows, written as original comedic pieces, the actors are not individualized, performing as many moving components in a series of hilarious scenes. Here, as the tightly adapted Shakespeare demands, we have Chicago Police versions of the Bard’s famous characters: Cmdr. Macbeth (Travis Barnhardt), Lt. Cmdr. Lady Macbeth (Clara Byczkowski), Supt. Duncan (Zach Foley), Lt. Cmdr. Malcolm (Demetri Magas), Cmdr. Banquo (Collan Simmons), Cmdr. MacDuff (Corin Wiggins) and many others.

Cmdr. MacDuff (Corin Wiggins) and a long line of Cmdr. Banquo’s descendants.

Of the standout performances, Travis Barnhardt must be commended as Cmdr. Macbeth, playing the role with occasionally lengthy stretches of Elizabethan English deftly converted to Chicago-ese. In some respects, Barnhardt’s Macbeth is the straight man to the sometimes comedic follies of the officers around him. Emily Ruth, Jacob Reno, and Eva Andrews as the Witches are superb: “Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.” Ruth also appears continuously as a desk sergeant and owns the stage in every one of their scenes. And Corin Wiggins as Cmdr. MacDuff is truly dynamic.

On a personal note, “Macbeth” carries a reputation for bad luck, and actors avoid naming it, calling it the Scottish play. The morning after seeing “Chicago Cop Macbeth,” I discovered a tree had fallen on my car parked near Damen and Rice. It will be in the shop three weeks. 

The Conspirators “Chicago Cop Macbeth” runs through June 8, 2025 at Otherworld Theatre, 3914 N. Clark in Chicago.

“Viva La Mort: A Play With Songs” mines the 1956 Swiss novel “The Visit” by Friedrich Durrenmatt that came to further fame in a 1964 Hollywood melodrama with Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn. In the original, a wealthy woman arrives in the poverty-stricken hamlet of her childhood, offering to restore the town and provide a bounty for each of its citizens, with one condition: she wants the man who spurned her as a youth, but now is a pillar of the community, to be killed. How far will the citizens go in exacting her retribution?

This is one of The Conspirators’ most ambitious efforts, and resident playwright Sid Feldman  (it's directed by Wm.Bullion) has artfully updated the storyline—the setting moves to small town Michigan, the wealthy woman is modeled after Madonna, and some fresh faces fill major roles. This includes Andrew Bosworth, who leads the cast as Mort Miller, the love interest of Viva, familiar to audiences for recent roles in “Innocence of Seduction” and “Man of the People.”

The title character, Viva, is played by Libby Conkle, who is superlative. So is Liam Ouweleen as her current flames in three convincingly delivered dialect roles: Spanish Lonnie, British Konnnie, and the American jock, Johnny. It was remarkable to see actors more schooled in naturalistic performance adopt The Conspirators unique style, with exaggerated expressions and heavy makeup playing against the continuous commentary of the percussionist, Aimee Bass. All were game for The Conspirators’ approach and blended pretty smoothly with the regular troupe. 

Costumes by Kit Medic are among the best we've seen at The Conspirators, a critical element for the character of Viva. And aspects of the show are on a par with the best The Conspirators have produced. (The hilarious "Commedia Divina" "Commedia Divina" returns in October 2024; don't miss it.)  

Alas, one weakness lies in the script, which might have been improved by cutting it into a single act of 90-minutes, instead of two acts with intermission. The first half lags, and scenes are inflated to allow for stage funny business, the stock-in-trade of The Conspirators’ neo-commedia dell'arte format, which they dub “The Style.” A sense of slapdash detracted from the power of the story, which examines how townsfolk will turn on their own, when enough money is dangled before them.

Sets were minimal, but this isn’t doesn’t detract from “Viva La Mort,” as is true of most of The Conspirators shows. The high energy hijinx are completely absorbing and largely entertaining. One other problem was the sound, which was good overall, but weak in a crucial scene where Viva sings wearing a headset that unfortunately muffled her vocals against the rest of the players.

Nevertheless the story carried, and the strength of the stars overcomes less successful aspects of the show. “Viva La Mort” runs through June 9 at Other World Theater, 3914 N. Clark in Chicago.