Undoubtedly a Success
By A. Sic
In 2005, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Drama Desk Award, and Tony Award for Best Play.
After being awarded an Oscar in 1987 for Moonstruck, he has been writing successful screenplays, main stage hits, and changing the face of theatre as we know it. He is famous for insisting in his contract that not a single word be changed in his work. Obviously this has only helped him. A talented writer such as this should never have to compromise on a single word.
A graduate of New York University, Shanley’s educational past is something to be proud of. His personal biography states:
John Patrick Shanley is from the Bronx. He was thrown out of St. Helena 's kindergarten. He was banned from St. Anthony's hot lunch program for life. He was expelled from Cardinal Spellman High School. He was placed on academic probation by New York University and instructed to appear before a tribunal if he wished to return.
With all these institutional hang-ups it is only fitting that Doubt: A Parable is set in a Bronx Catholic school during the fall of 1964. The opening line of the play sets the stage for a story of suspicion and moral certainty. Father Flynn asks the audience "What do you do when you're not sure?"
Cheery Jones recreates her Tony-award winning role as Sister Aloysius (the dean of the school), a nun with old-fashioned values who insists that her students not be pampered. These two schools of thought come into direct conflict when Aloysius suspects Flynn, played by a perfect Chris McGarry, of "interfering" with Donald Muller, the school's first black student. Sister James (Lisa Joyce), an inexperienced but enthusiastic young nun who has been an indirect witness to the dealings between Flynn and Muller, is subsequently consulted by Aloysius. When James reluctantly reports smelling alcohol on Donald's breath after a visit with Flynn suspicions are raised and she sets the play's central conflict into motion. The fourth character, Mrs. Muller (Donald's mother), provides yet another perspective when she's brought in to discuss the situation with Aloysius.
Shanley constantly asks us to consider and question our personal morality. He challenges the audience to decide who is right and who is in the wrong. The subject is terrifying and the characters are flawed. This collision of humanity is so raw and so real; we loose sight of the real victim. Constantly connected and impeccably directed, each actor has created such a wonderfully human character. Interesting, fun, and full of energy, the show is a force to be reckoned with, leaping offstage into our hearts.
There is no doubt that this is the greatest touring success to grace Chicago’s Broadway stage.
4-ISH is Del-ISH-ious
Playing at the The Harris Theatre in Millennium Park Thru Jan. 28th
By Kimberly Katz
The Chicago Children’s Theatre brings in the New Year with the Chicago premiere of the international sensation 4- ISH. The Amsterdam based performance troupe combines Acrobatic stunts, street and break dancing, dancing on inline skates, video art, a live DJ and more.
I was really impressed by their ability to utilize such an amazing array of diverse and unique talents and marry them in a way that eloquently showed off each person’s total uniqueness.
The children in the audience totally enjoyed this show. It had a very MTV- X games feel to it and in fact one of the performers, skater Sven Broekhorst actually won first place at the X games, the Gravity games and the ASA Pro Tour World Championships.
Speaking of unique talents, Thor Vandenbossche, a beat boxer known as “the voice master” was the voice or MC of all the players onstage and was able to emulate both women’s and men’s voices , special effects, musical sounds and accompaniment of all sorts. After the show when I asked him how he was able to stay in sync with all of the constantly moving and dancing players on stage and Thor wisely answered that he meditates every day and that this allows him to slow down time by a few seconds and “see around the corners of things”, which makes perfect sense to me, as I have noticed those effects from meditation myself.
The video art that served as a backdrop for the show was beautifully trippy and I was glad to see youngsters exposed to this kind of art and music as I feel it has a mind expanding effect. When I was young the only place I saw anything remotely like this was in the movie Fantasia!
Adults were equally entertained by the spectacle and precision of the dancing and inline skating. At one point, the lights went out and all you could see were the red and blue toe lights on dozens of skates magically gliding up and down the giant half pipe set without crashing into each other. When I asked acrobat and break dancer Liam O’Callaghan after the show how it was done without mishap, he simply smiled and said, “It’s a secret! We have to keep it a secret!” I asked Liam if there had been any injuries partly because I was a little jealous of all their healthy young knees. It was obvious the things they were doing would wreck anyone over thirty with any cartilage left, and Liam answered me when he simply lifted up his blue jeans to show me a knee rife with thick purple and blue scars and told me he had just had another surgery to remove water from his knee. So this kind of work is not without its sacrifices at any age!
I highly recommend this current 4-ISH production. My own young friends Jimmy, and Jonny, who aspire to be break dancers were absolutely blown away and inspired by the show. The look in their eyes of awe and wonder and “HOW did they do that?” was great to see. Also, the other children in the packed house seemed to be energized and enthused by this performance in a way that few children’s theatre productions evoke. It sure made me “feel like dancing!”
Be sure to catch 4-ISH before the run is over on January 28th at The Harris Theatre in Millennium Park. For more info and to purchase tickets go to www.chicagochildrensheatre.org.
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