Displaying items by tag: Jo Bonney
As Good as It Gets: Wife of a Salesman an Instant Classic
Playwright Eleanor Burgess has delivered one of the best scripts I've read or seen, in ‘Wife of a Salesman.’ While it may be viewed somewhat as a “prequel” to Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic ‘Death of a Salesman,’ it never directly references that play, and is an intriguing and challenging work of art that is an instant classic. Its world premier, running through April 3 at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL, is a theatrical event of the first order.
Produced in partnership with the Milwaukee Rep, 'Wife of a Salesman' is set in the 1950s (television is just arriving), the play opens in the apartment of The Mistress (Amanda Drinkall), a young blonde awakening to her day perhaps still basking in the glow of an amorous adventure the night before. When a knock somes to her door, she opens it, giving us a glimpse of a matronly woman with a briefcase, then slams it shut immediately, scurrying to straighten up the room, and pull herself together. A minute later she opens the door to this visitor, The Wife (Kate Fry) of the title.
From that opening moment The Mistress conveys through a gasp that she recognizes this unbidden visitor. Then the door reopens and The Wife enters, posing as a fabric saleswoman.Moments of increasing intensity follow, The Wife unable to open her sample case, and The Mistress deftly managing it for her. The Wife comments on a figurine of the Madonna, noting awkwardly that The Mistress must be Catholic. “My neighbors are Catholic,” she notes, and adds that they are nice people. She begins her halting sales pitch on the various samples. And soon The Mistress takes her to task for her poor salesmanship, offering with ratcheting intensity examples of how a sales presentation should be made. And the frey begins.
The Wife, we learn, has driven from New York to Boston, to confront her husband’s mistress, grist for any soap opera, a story from time immemorial. But Burgess unfolds this telling with precision strikes, and Kate Fry and Amanda Drinkall do not miss a beat in the imaginative script under the tight direction of Jo Bonney.
Burgess, whose plays include ‘The Niceties,’ plays out this examination of women’s roles in the 1950s with master craftsmanship. Every beat of the performances draw us into the story, the conflict, and to contrast contemporary views of women’s status in society with expectations from an earlier era.
Then, with a magical stroke (no spoiler), Burgess allows us to meet the actresses playing the roles, and see ways their personal lives parallel those of the 1950s characters. We listen to a generational divergence, Millennial vs. Genx types, in how to chart careers.
But the playwright goes further: the actresses ask the director Jim (Rom Barkhorder) to restore two powerful monologues that he has cut, and to let them speak to the playwright directly. In this meta transformation, Burgess is naming several of the fraught dynamics of theater: the tendency of at least some directors to view actors as”necessary evils” in staging plays, like herding cats. Jim also has an indifferent patriarchal power, and he fends off with familiar tropes of male disregard the multiple entreaties by the actresses to be given their due.
The creative team has given the show a set that is a delight to behold. Tickets to this outstanding production of 'Wife of a Salesman' are available at Writers Theatre.
Beautifully Produced 'Two Sisters and a Piano,' But Script Misses the Mark
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CHUCK SMITH AND HARRY LENNIX REUNITE FOR A MAJOR REVIVAL OF MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, AUGUST WILSON'S ONLY PLAY SET IN CHICAGO, APPEARING AT THE GOODMAN STARTING MARCH 28
09 March 2026 in Upcoming TheatreNearly 30 years after its box-office-record-setting 1997 Chicago premiere production, August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom returns to The Goodman, helmed by Chicago…
Open Space Arts' Chicago premiere of A THIRD WAY, begins Friday, April 3
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Driehaus Museum announces spring activation dates for Brendan Fernandes: In the Round APRIL 10 & 11 AND MAY 6–9, 2026
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producingbody Announces the Chicago Premiere of SPACEMAN, May 19 - June 13, at The Edge Off-Broadway
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A Night in Jellicle Heaven: Music Theater Works Delivers a Stunning 'Cats'
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The Lord of the Rings in Concert at the Auditorium with 238 piece Orchestra with movie playing on 60-ft Friday, March 13, and Saturday, March 14
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Step inside Bunny’s bedroom in Goodnight Moon, Chicago Children’s Theatre’s immersive 20th season finale, dir. by Mikael Burke, April 11-June 7
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Celebrate Asian American, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian Heritage Month with Asian American Arts' EVOLUTION: ASIAN AMERICAN ARTS FESTIVAL, May 2 and 3
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TimeLine Theatre Company announces inaugural season at new Uptown home
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Her Story Theatre's World Premiere "THE OFFICAL BIOGRAPHY" - Wednesday, April 1 at 7:30 pm at The Den Theatre
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WALKABOUT THEATER COMPANY CELEBRATES A RETURN TO ITS ROOTS WITH POOR POOR LEAR AT THE CHOPIN THEATRE, MARCH 12 - 15
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Steppenwolf Theatre Company Announces 2026/27 Season
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Three Plays to See This Weekend - Shattered Globe Theatre, The Story Theatre and American Blues Theater Should Be High On Your List!
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TIN DRUM THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES THE CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM FOR THE CHICAGO PREMIERE OF SOUTHERN RAPTURE, JUNE 11 - 28, AT THEATER WIT
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Splish Splash: A Day on the Lake - Goodman Theatre - Through March 22nd
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A Wondrous Production of Oscar Wao at The Goodman Theatre
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In Timeless ‘Come Back, Little Sheba,’ American Blues Theater Speaks for Today, as Well
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Bat Out Of Hell – The Musical" featuring Meat Loaf's greatest hits at The Auditorium on April 9 - One Night Only
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THE JOFFREY BALLET ANNOUNCES 2026–2027 SEASON AT LYRIC OPERA HOUSE
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A professor finds himself in a firestorm in The Ally, the 2025 Pulitzer-nominated new play by Itamar Moses, at Theater Wit March 20-May 2
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The Jackie Wilson Story - Black Ensemble Theater - Through April 26th
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Pot Girls: An Intelligent and Multilayered Explosion of Poetry and Feminism
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The Glitch in the New Normal - Shattered Globe Theatre’s Morning, Noon & Night
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