Displaying items by tag: Stage Left Theatre

“We make the most money and take the most shit.” I’m sure most of us can relate to this line. We've all been there, working a minimum-wage job and getting nothing in return. Written by Ken Green and directed by Rachel Van, In the Back/On the Floor accurately portrays the hardships minimum wage workers endure in a workplace.

The show takes place sometime around the 2010s in a corporate retail store called “HomeBase''. HomeBase is pretty much the fictional equivalent to our present-day Costco or Walmart. The HomeBase branch in this play is located in the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago and is the workplace of the main characters in this story. Around this time, minimum wage was about $9/hour, barely enough to survive. You see this major pain point impacts the lives of the adult workers who are supporting families and just trying to get by.

The setting of the show transpires during the stocking hours for the HomeBase store. The stage is set with shelves, product boxes, and a break room with folding chairs and a crappy coffee machine. The stage was modest and the perfect setting to display the HomeBase store.

The diverse nine-member cast is extremely talented and each of them truly own their characters. They feel like real people or friends in your life. You grow close to them during the show as you learn more about their struggles at home. The cast consists of old, middle-aged, and young characters from a variety of backgrounds. Their working relationships create an interesting dynamic with growing racial tension and tough conversations.

“In the Back/On the Floor'' has a clever contrast of well-written comedy and the painful realities many working class Americans face. This play puts the toxic corporation work culture under the microscope and rightly criticizes the poor treatment of its workers. The show hilariously mocks cringey workplace phrases we all hate, like “We are more than just colleagues, we are a family.”

The show begins with an over-the-top scene from a HomeBase training video with two characters outlining the unrealistic expectations of its workers. Then it cuts to the break room filled with HomeBase stock team employees complaining about their jobs. The show continues to flip-flop between the ridiculous training video and the dialogue amongst the HomeBase employees. Giving you a taste of good hardworking people versus evil money-grabbing companies.

As the story carries on, the employees face personal difficulties, challenges with their assistant manager, and a tremendous amount of pressure to work harder. As friction builds between the corporate executives and the overworked part-time employees, talks of unionizing naturally arise. You’ll find yourself cheering for the employees, while worrying for their job security. I highly recommend watching this play to see what happens next!

The show is held in the intimate Chicago Dramatists Theatre in the River West neighborhood of Chicago. Opening night was packed full of an excited crowd. We received a warm welcome and were encouraged to contribute a donation to the Stage Left Theatre charity. Masks are required during the show and provided by the staff. Not only do you get to experience a great show, but you also support their charity that supports unheard voices in the theatre community and local artists.

The runtime of the play was around an hour and 45 minutes, with no intermission. Overall, the show was enjoyable and went by quickly. “In the Back/On the Floor” has a showing every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday April 28th-May 28th. Tickets are $25 per person and definitely worth it! Grab a friend, family member, or loved one and have a wonderful night with great acting and some good laughs.

Performances of Stage Left Theatre’s In the Back/On the Floor run through May 28th at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W Chicago Ave Ste 202.

Purchase your tickets here: https://checkout.square.site/buy/NNMIMR22NVKYZ6VYX7PU3PRQ

“Man of the People,” an original play by Dolores Diaz, tells the incredible but true story of a 1920s medical charlatan, Dr. John Romulus Brinkley, who garnered a large following with a popular medical advice radio program.

He then scammed thousands of his devoted listeners into buying useless tonics, some of it merely colored water. And at his clinic he would perform dangerous surgeries, implanting goat testicles into men’s scrotums, intended to restore virility, but often killing or maiming patients instead.

Produced by Stage Left Theatre and running through November 20 at the Chicago Dramatists, “Man of the People” recounts Brinkley’s seemingly unstoppable rise to fame and fortune, despite the best efforts by the American Medical Association, the Federal Communications Commission, the Food & Drug Administration, and local government regulators. Even the U.S. Congress investigated Brinkley, and Michael Peters is stunning in the role of this antihero who simply relocated and adapted to each restriction, eventually circumventing the FCC by broadcasting from Mexico.

Playwright Diaz, whose most recent credit was “Zulema” at the Goodman in 2021, wraps the story in a tale of the real-life crusading investigative reporter, Chicago’s Dr. Morris Fishbein (Andrew Bosworth gives a knock-out performance), who as editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association outs Brinkley’s chicanery. But no blow was decisive enough to stop the quackery.

In “Man of the People,” Diaz poses a question: Why did people believe Brinkley, even after a series of revelations made public his chicanery?

The question resonates in our world of political demagogues and podcasters cashing in on conspiracy theories and patently false information on subjects ranging from mass shootings, to COVID vaccinations, and even election results. And it seems no matter how demonstrably wrong are the falsehoods, the fans and followers cannot be convinced.

The answer Diaz offers is that, in the case of Brinkley anyway, people were attracted to the hope he offered, a possibility that they could be cured from maladies for which there was no remedy. Clearly “Don’t confuse me with the facts” is a constant in the human condition.

The script wraps the factual saga of Brinkley’s rise and fall with parallel tales: Brinkley’s relationship with his partner in crime and common law wife Minnie (played by Joan Nahid), and Fishbein’s relationship with his AMA research partner Maxwell (played by Shawn Smith) who did the spadework to prove Brinkley’s fraud. Even Fishbein’s mother Fanny (Sandy Spaz) was seduced by Brinkley’s appeal despite her own son’s credentials as an M.D. who persistently discourages her.

While the script is a little uneven, dwelling too long on some areas, and needing a bit more emphasis on the motivation behind the characters, the story is so compelling, I highly recommend this production. The cast is uniformly good, and Smith and Bosworth give highly energized performances. See "Man of the People" through November 20 at the Chicago Dramatists,