Displaying items by tag: Anish Jethmalani

A smash hit in London and New York, "The Lehman Trilogy" is now on stage in a definitive production at TimeLine Theatre. Written by Stefano Massini, adapted by Ben Power, and co-directed by Nick Bowling and Vanessa Stalling, it's easy to see why this Tony-winning tale of an unimaginably successful Bavarian immigrant family has enthralled audiences. (The run has already been extended through November 26 at Broadway in Chicago's Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place). 

Lights up on a stage covered in boxes, desks, chairs, phones, and screens, the whole space resembles a giant office (due to Collette Pollard’s smart design). Henry Lehman (played brilliantly by Mitchell J. Fain) stands at the edge of a platform, spotlight on his face. He addresses the audience, re-telling the character’s arrival to New York from Bavaria in third person, in a lyrical style that resembles a novel. The whole play is structured as such: the actors do more telling than showing, and narrate the action before embodying it, creating a sort of Brechtian distance between stage and audience. This seems to work in the plays favor, for the most part, as the narration is infused with humor, poetry, and information.

Soon enough, the actor embodies the first Lehman brother to arrive in the United States, gains an accent, and compares America to a music box. As a twinkling melody begins to play, Henry Lehman steps down and begins to set up his first shop in Alabama.

Shortly after, the two other brothers come into the picture. Henry becomes the head of the trio, while Emanuel (Anish Jethmalani) is described as the arm, and Mayer (Joey Slotnick), the youngest, works as the middleman between them. We watch the brothers negotiate and grow their business, adapting to an everchanging America, going from fabric to cotton to banking. The three actors play not only the brothers, but every other costumer, partner, wife, and child- sporting an impressive array of accents and physicalities. Each character has quirks of their own, which helps engage the audience and balances the amount of narration. Phillip, for instance, who is Emanuel’s son, is particularly comical. A neurotic boy from a young age, it is clear that he is destined to lead the Lehman Brothers Corporation. The audience laughs as a 16-year-old Phillip negotiates eloquently with United Railways, as his father watches aghast.

The design certainly helps bring the show to life, lights and sound and costume working together to take the audience on a journey that spans over a century. The simplicity of the set, lights, and sound, generally more suggestive than prescriptive, allows time to move forward fast, actors to shapeshift in the blink of an eye, and progress to hit the world of the play like a cannonball.

In a visually astonishing sequence, the American civil war is recreated on stage, through the simple use of explosion sounds, flickering lights, and papers thrown high into the air. This level of theatricality, along with the fascinating family dynamics and exploration of assimilation and loss of culture, lets the play move away from lecture and towards entertainment.

It comes as no surprise that capitalism is intertwined with all aspects of our daily lives, but seeing a group of men sitting around a table and deciding to introduce the idea of marketing onto American society, and to make buying an instinct rather than a need, that realization becomes more obvious than ever. Both a short history of 20th century American economy, and an intergenerational story of a Jewish family working towards the American dream, “The Lehman Trilogy” is highly recommended for any theatre lover with an interest in historical work. 

Timeline Theatre's production of "The Lehman Trilogy" runs through November 26 at Broadway in Chicago's Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place. 

Sarah Ruhl’s ‘In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play’ returns to Chicago at Timeline Theatre. Directed by Mechelle Moe, this drawing room comedy about the advent of electricity is sure to tickle audiences. Ruhl’s works have often been produced around the city as she’s an Evanston native. She may reside in Brooklyn now, but we’ll still claim her as our own.

‘In the Next Room’ was shortlisted for the 2009 Pulitzer after a successful Broadway run. It was also nominated for the 2009 Tony Award for Best Play. ‘In the Next Room’ might just be Ruhl’s most fully realized play. It’s a whimsical, if not loose, history of the invention of the vibrator. While it may sound like a cheeky sex comedy, ‘In the Next Room’ is a feminist anthem.

Dr Givings (Anish Jethmalani) is a country doctor who specializes in hysteria, a very real condition that afflicted women during a much less sexual period in history. His wife Catherine (Rochelle Therrien) does not suffer as her husband’s patients do, but instead yearns for romantic love. In some ways, this play is like Sarah Ruhl’s own version of ‘A Doll’s House.’ A wife searching for her purpose in a world dominated by men. Catherine says at one point “I do not know what kind of person I am” and feels like a failure when her child will not nurse. Through various entrances and exits, we’re shown how sexless life was between man and wife during the Victorian era. As an audience with hindsight, we understand that this miracle cure for hysteria is nothing more than a medically induced orgasm.

The ensemble is well cast. Rochelle Therrien makes Ruhl’s fanciful dialogue endearing and innocent. Her fresh-faced and child-like performance is so charming you can’t believe her husband’s indifference. Though quiet and understated, Dana Tretta plays Annie, the physician’s midwife. A sort of “Igor” sidekick type, but Ruhl doesn’t overlook the character. Her arch of a life without love is perhaps the most touching of all.

Not only is this play a feminist anthem, but a play about orgasms. The very idea that women did not discuss anything related to sex is absurd in a world where you can watch re-runs of ‘Sex and the City’ at any given time. Even nursing a child was considered distasteful to discuss. Rarely if ever have so many simulated orgasms happened in one theatrical performance. Though, like the era, they’re so unsexualized that you can’t help but giggle at the characters discovering themselves. In one full-length play Sarah Ruhl bursts nearly every female taboo of the time out of the closet. Never have Women’s Rights been a more hot button issue and ‘In the Next Room’ comes at just the right time.

Through December 16 at Timeline Theatre Company. Stage 773, 1225 W Belmont Ave. 773-327-5252