Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Wild Boar. It was written by Candace Chong, and the Chinese to English translation was by Joanna C. Lee and Ken Smith. The adaptation was by David Henry Hwang. It was directed by Helen Young. It was about a man named Johnny (Scott Shimizu) and he worked for a paper with his old professor Ruan (F. Karmann Bajuyo) and Ruan's wife Tricia (Christine Bunuan). They are investigating the disappearance of a famous journalist, Mu Ne (Fin Coe). Johnny has had an affair with Tricia, and is now interested in an old girlfriend, Karrie (Emily Marso). It is about bad decisions, freedom of speech, and deception. I found this show confusing and because of that I wasn't able to invest completely in the plot and many of the characters, but I enjoyed some of the performances.
One of the biggest problems with the show was the metaphor that gives the show its title. It seems like they were trying to make a metaphor out of the wild boar, which Johnny hunts with his friends. But the problem is that I can't figure out what it means. And if it isn't a metaphor, then the scene of the boar hunt is sort of useless. I was thinking the boar was maybe Ruan and how his life has been threatened before, but I don't see how that relates to Johnny or his setting the boar free or how Ruan is wild. Maybe the boar was supposed to be Mu Ne because some people didn't think he existed, like they thought they couldn't find wild boar anymore, but we never find out what happened to Mu Ne or if he even existed. So that still isn't a satisfying metaphor. It could be a metaphor for things suppressed by the government, but then they never really succeed it setting those things free. In this play they explain everything at great length, which wasn't always interesting and it didn't always make stuff clearer. It felt like they were trying to cram as many things as possible into the play, so the ending doesn't address the questions asked at the beginning because they've moved on to other ideas.
Tricia, I think, is a very complicated character, and I think Bunuan did a great job making me have sympathy with the character while seeing all of the character's flaws. She has cheated on her husband many times, but you see that she wasn't getting enough attention from her husband, so she felt lonely. It still wasn't the right choice, but you could see how she felt abandoned. I do like how she said what she wanted instead of waiting for some man to sweep her off her feet. And it seems that when she was younger she said what she wanted instead of cowering. Even though her husband was older, he was what she wanted and she didn't care what anyone thought. I do wish her character in the play had been defined by more than her relationship with men, but the actor is very clear about her character and her characteristics, so you can guess what she would probably be like in other situations that didn't involve men.
Your understanding of Karrie changes twice in the play, and I thought that was very cool and that made it so you were eagerly awaiting what she would say next and what new opinion of hers would be revealed. She has this really heartbreaking monologue, where she was talking about her child and the struggles of being a mother. It was delivered just beautifully. The actor really pulled you into her character's life and I'm sad we didn't get to see more of this character's story. Her character seems to change a lot right before the act break, and I really believed her transition, but it was still very surprising. She was talking about how she was so poor and she liked the government's plan for putting poor people in a city underground because it was better than where she was living right now and they might be able to afford things down there that they couldn't now. I can see why she might be tricked by a plan like that because her life is so terrible now, and she thinks, maybe this is a way I can make it better.
People who would like this show are people who like puzzling metaphors, underground cities, and women saying what they want. This show has some great performances, and I am looking forward to what Silk Road does next.
Photos: Airan Wright
This is a rock musical. There were a lot of different types--ballads, metal, punk--and each song worked with the story and the song's genre. There are a lot of catchy songs with great lyrics in the show. My favorite song was "The House of Borden" because the melody was really catchy and it got stuck in your head, but not in an annoying way. It was sort of like an explanation song; it was telling you all the stuff you need to know, but in an interesting way. I love this song very much. Everyone was super into it. They were singing their hearts out and it sounded amazing. The song was led very well by Bridget, who did a really good job at being both funny and menacing. This song is very driving, really fast-paced. Everything happens very quickly and they get a lot done very quickly. I think doing exposition this way is really useful. If all the background was just spoken, it wouldn't have been as intriguing. I wouldn't have been smiling all through the exposition! "What the F--k Now, Lizzie?" was another great, catchy song. It is about when Emma comes home and finds out their stepmother and their father are dead. She is mad at first, but she realizes she shouldn't be mad because now she is going to get a lot of money from her father's death and he won't be hurting them anymore. The vocals on it were really great. The song is sort of like their pact that they are going to help each other, even though Lizzie killed their father.
"This Is Not Love" leads into "Gotta Get Out of Here," and there is such a drastic difference between the two songs. One of them is very meek and sad and helpless and the other one is very angry and determined. The are both reactions to Lizzie's father raping her. They are really great songs because they are showing the emotional rollercoaster of the same events. The first song is really heartbreaking, and the second is really heartbreaking, but in a different way because she is really lashing out at people and she doesn't know what to do except to get out of there as soon as possible, and she can't get out of there at the moment. I think the actor does a great job showing where Lizzie snaps between the songs.
Alice sang a song about how she had been watching Lizzie for a very long time and was in love with her called "If You Knew." She is asking Lizzie to share her secrets with her, but she can't tell her her own. I thought that was a really good song because it was sung beautifully and it really showed how much Alice loved Lizzie and would do anything for her at the beginning of the show. It is sad to see how Lizzie breaks that trust between them later because she has done something terrible and Alice doesn't want to be a part of that. Once they start the relationship, they have this really sweet song together "Will You Stay." Alice is being so kind to Lizzie and trying to help her. And it is really sad how what Alice thinks she wants, Lizzie, ends up betraying her even though Alice has been so good to her. Lizzie lies to her and makes Alice help her even though she doesn't know what is really going on. The song shows the betrayal starting, so even though it sounds like a sweet song, once you know that Lizzie is lying, it is not so sweet anymore. Alice's devotion is performed very well; she is the least messed-up character in the show and I think seeing her become more messed up during the show is just a really cool thing to watch, and the actor shows you how much she's changed effectively.
The last song of the first act, "Somebody Will Do Something," is where Lizzie kills her stepmother and her father in watermelon form. It is a very scream-y punk song where she grabs her axe and starts hacking up these watermelons, spraying the front row with watermelon blood. It smelled like watermelon in there then, which was also a plus. To have no one playing the parents, it makes it so you can make it more crazy. She just seems like a maniac to see her hacking at a watermelon when, if it was a person, it would be long dead. It makes it so you don't have to have sympathy for the parents. I think for this play that is good because the point of the play is Lizzie's empowerment and how much murder is her only way out. In a real-life situation you would definitely want to have sympathy for people who are getting murdered, but in this situation you are supposed to be rooting for Lizzie even though she is a murderer. It is about Lizzie taking control of her life and saying that she is going to get out of there and is tired of being pushed around.
People who would like this show are people who like feminist rock musicals, heart-wrenching songs, and watermelon blood. I think people should definitely definitely definitely go see this show. It has a great score and it is performed beautifully. I loved it!
Photos: Marisa KM
Jordan's best friend was Laura and they joked that if they weren't married by a certain age, they would marry each other, and they talked about what their wedding would be like. They seemed like they would be pretty good together, even though they weren't physically attracted to each other. They had so much fun together and they seemed to help each other and think the other person was important and deserved love. Laura becomes less of a friend once she meets a guy, and she isn't as attentive even when Jordan needs it most. It is very heartbreaking to see that relationship dissolve because they have been such close friends for so long. He wants her to be happy, but he doesn't want to lose her. And she wants him to be happy, but she also wants to find a romantic partner. I think it is really hard to have your best friend have someone else in their life that is really important to them. I think both Jordan and Laura deserve to be happy and have good romantic relationships. But Laura gives more time to Tony (Sprunger), who I agree should be getting a lot of attention too if she wants to make the relationship work, but I feel like she should not be blowing off her best friend as much as she was. I understand Laura can't give Jordan attention at the exact moment he needs it because Tony's aunt is in the hospital, but I do feel like she could have helped him later instead of just blowing him off.
There are a lot of funny moments in this play. I was laughing a lot. There was a really funny scene where Jordan meets Will for the first time and he's retelling the story and can pause the action anytime he wants. And one of the moments he pauses it, Will is sort of posing like a male model and Jordan is pointing out parts of him. It is really funny because Will is just standing there nonchalantly while Jordan is praising him for all these things you wouldn't think people would notice about people the first time they met them. It was hilarious how Jordan specified that Will was looking for a towel and he acted like it was the most magnificent thing in the world, looking for a towel. And after he told the story to Kiki, Laura, and Vanessa, their faces were all really weirded out, and it was just the perfect moment because you had been focused on Will and Jordan until that moment.
This play blends humor and sadness together. There is a sort of sad but funny moment when Jordan is talking about how he would rather be anything but a human: a rock, dental floss, a salamander, or rain. It is sad because he does really want to not be a person. I understand that. Sometimes it is hard being a human being and you'd rather be an inanimate object...or an amphibian. He is trying to make light of a terrible situation. It is funny how he doesn't want to have a boyfriend or lots of money or be royalty or anything like that. He just wants to be a salamander. I also really loved the moment when Jordan was trying to talk himself out of sending an email, but almost sending it every few seconds. I've had that moment about a thousand times. There are so many relatable moments in this show. And this one was exactly right. It is hilarious but also sad because he ends up regretting the decision he makes.
Because you identify so much with Jordan, it is like a punch to the gut when something bad happens to him. When he goes to visit his grandma Helene (Ann Whitney), she always says the same things, which means she might have Alzheimer's or dementia. You see that Jordan notices that but he wants to continue on as if she's said something new to make her happy because he cares so much about her. It is scary when you see a loved one getting sick and you are worried that you don't have much time with them, so you do everything to make them happy even though what you are doing may not always be truthful. Jordan goes out with a guy named Zach (Ninos Baba) and they have a really good date and Jordan feels a connection, but Zach isn't over his ex, so he calls it off. And you can see Jordan was really happy there was someone distracting him from all the marriage going on around him, so he could think about someone else instead of just moping. This play is basically a melting pot of crappy moments that have happened to most people, but seeing Jordan's experience, all of those crappy things all pushed together, and Alex Weisman's fantastic performance make it just really relatable and heartbreaking.
People who would like this show are people who like relatable moments, wanting to be a salamander, and looking for towels. I think that people should definitely go see this show. It was such a good story, had great performers, and I loved it.
Photos: Michael Brosilow
Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called A Swell in the Ground. It was by Janine Nabers and it was directed by Chika Ike. It was about a couple, Nate (Keith Neagle) and Olivia (Sydney Charles), who lived in New York. You get to see their entire relationship from when they got together in college to their roughest times. And they have two college friends--Charles (Andrew Muwonge) and Abigail (Darci Nalepa)--who complicate their relationship and sort of act as confidantes even though the couple should just be talking to each other. It's about young love, thoughtless decisions, and finding your way. I think this is a beautiful show that really shows the ups and downs of a relationship in a really clear and compelling way.
I think it is really cool how this play jumped back and forth in time. It shows you the roots of why people did things, but in a way that makes you think about why they did things before it is actually revealed. Once there were two scenes going on in the same place but at different times. I thought that was a really cool way of showing what had happened a few years ago and why what was about to happen was especially terrible but makes sense. I think it is a really well-written scene, because the second you ask yourself a question, like "what does this mean," the scene answers it, but not in the way you thought that it would. Jumping back and forth in time means the actors have to know their character arc in even more detail than if it were just in chronological order because it isn't building in the play in the same way it would be building in real life. It is jumping all around and the development of the character is going back and forth. I think the actors all did a good job showing the transformation of their characters from when they were like 18 to when they were like in their late 30s even though they didn't do it in order.
Olivia I think is a very interesting character because she is a good person who is going through a very hard time and the person she is with is not helping her with that. I can see why she is demanding a lot of effort from Nate--because she has just lost someone important to her and doesn't know if she will have someone like that again. And when the one person she thinks she can count on is put off by her pain, she feels like she needs to go to someone else because she isn't getting what she needs from Nate. I think she does it in an appropriate way. What she does is talk to someone she's been friends with for years to get his advice and doesn't keep it from Nate. But the second his feelings get hurt, Nate goes off to someone he has already had an intimate relationship with recently and has an intimate relationship with them and doesn't tell Olivia until she says she wants to continue to work on their relationship. What they should have done is just talked to each other about their problems and helped each other. But Olivia can't do that by herself and I can't really tell if Nate wants to or not. I think Nate thinks he understands himself, but he really doesn't. Once Olivia says she wants to step back from the relationship but not get a divorce, he immediately acts on his impulse and tries to replace a relationship that hasn't even ended yet.
The relationship that you start out rooting for isn't there at the end of the play. That is different from a lot of plays because in a lot of plays you see a relationship grow and have its trials and tribulations, but it all works out in the end. This play is more realistic because sometimes things just don't work out. Maybe one person is more to blame than the other, but I think the person who is less to blame gets the better outcome because they did the right thing and now they know what to avoid in a partner. It's not like every relationship that has a bumpy road figures it out and comes back together. But I still think this play has a happy ending in a more realistic way because people are happy in different ways. I think the way it ends is all for the best, but it is not the way you thought it would end.
People who would like this show are people who like surprising endings, learning from your mistakes, and complicated characters. I think people should definitely go see this show. I think it is a beautiful and well-written script and it was performed in a powerful way. I loved it.
Photos: Claire Demos
The character Him was sort of a critique of the character in a lot of books, movies, and plays who is a person of color that is sort of magical and tells the white guy what to do and is a teaching figure. The focus in those type of stories is on the white people, and you aren't really supposed to pay attention to the ideas, opinions, and feelings of the person of color apart from how they are using them to help white people. They are only around in the plot when the white people need them. This play calls attention to what the white people are doing and how what they are doing is terrible and wrong. They are clearly taking advantage of Him, not just getting help from Him. It made me think about how many books and movies have this problem.
There were so many twists in this show, and I think the writer did a great job of hinting at each twist, but not giving it away. And each of the big reveals were very satisfying...or horrifying. I don't want to give anything away, but what you find out about Ma Danver (Stacy Stoltz)and Sheriff Danver (John Henry Roberts) and Coach Henderson is just insane and really well-written. It is a great twist and I wasn't expecting it at all. Everyone in this town is not what they seem. Dixie (Taylor Blim), especially. She seems like the girl next door, but she ends up being the girl next door that you want to move a few doors down from.
Even though this play is pretty dark, there are also some humorous moments. When the Sheriff had just been cutting up a body they found in the woods so it will fit in a bag, he walks out to talk to Bud Henderson (Theo Germaine). He hasn't realized that he is covered in blood, and he is very nonchalant about it. I found that very funny. There was a scene where they had just discovered some new information about the Coach's condition and he was trying to get away. And every time the lights would go down and they would come back up again, he would be in a new place in the same position. It would scare everybody, because he was just staring forward and he had just teleported, but he didn't seem to register that he was scaring anyone, and it was very very funny. Officer Mike Danver (Casey Morris) messes up a lot at his job; he literally loses dead bodies. That is how bad he is at his job.
People who would like this show are people who like great twists, critiquing stereotypes, and teleporting coaches. I think people should go see this show. It has a really crazy story, and I have never seen anything like it before.
Photos: Michael Brosilow
I really loved the aerial straps act. It was really beautiful. It was performed by Dadui and Jerome Sordillon. It was a courtship between Crystal and a man and they were performing to Beyoncé's "Halo." I love that song and it was very wistful. You noticed every movement of the act and paid attention to it because it was so emotional and mesmerizing. You are rooting for the character of Crystal, and it's really sweet to see her fall in love. I loved the way they put the iceskating (by Dadui) into the same act with the suitor who was doing the aerial straps, and then they would join together and it was absolutely gorgeous. Sordillon also did this thing where he was walking up air really really slowly and it was crazy. He must have amazing core strength!
The hand to trapeze act was awesome looking. Crystal was played by Emily McCarthy for this part. She got to the trapeze by walking on other people's hands, and it was just an amazing feat of balance. And then when she actually got up there, she leapt up into the arms of the man on the trapeze. It was so insane. You felt so scared for her, but she was just calm and collected the whole time. They are telling the story about how Crystal wants to get back up to the surface, to her real life. And the man on the trapeze is trying to keep her down. It was very lyrical and there was a lot of reaching. The struggle was beautiful to watch.
I always really love tap numbers, and I had never seen anything like this before. It was tap dancing on skates. It was absolutely crazy to listen to all the sounds that could come out of just skates. Then they (Zabato Bebe, Julien Duliere, Liza Mochizuki, and Shawn Sawyer) started having this competition. They tried to one-up each other. One person did a backflip that was just insane. One person ripped his shirt off. And everyone at the end did this huge tap number together that was really cool. They were all so in sync. It was just amazing. I loved it.
People who would like this show are people who like skate tap dancing, walking on hands, and Beyoncé being the soundtrack to your romance. I think people should definitely go see this show. It only has three more days in Chicago, so go see it soon! It is so much fun, has some beautiful art in it, and I really liked it.
Photos: Matt Beard
I think it is really effective to have such a huge story in such a small space. It makes it intimate; you feel like you are on the journey with Bob. A person's entire life is a huge story, especially Bob who travels all over the place. You can tell when they are in a new place, even though they don't have a lot of set, because the chorus (Angela Horn, Bryan Renaud, Brittany Stock, and Sarah Jane Patin) tells you. This play is a big story about a man who became a legend, but it took him awhile to get there. Bob becomes a legend by telling his story in a small way. Who knows? Maybe we were watching a performance by his fleas! It was like normal things that will happen in everyone's life, like being born, doing a road trip with your mom, and buying Girl Scout cookies. But there is always a twist. Like when he is being born it is in a White Castle. When he is on a road trip with his mom, there is a significant conflagration. And when the Girl Scout shows up, it makes him see a new side of his life and what he is doing wrong. I think it is effective that there are so many interactions between Bob and other characters in this show because you see his journey when every small thing is jolted into an extreme.
I think extremity and humor is a really good pairing because if you make something super extreme and unexpected, that makes it more humorous. It was really funny how all of the waitresses (played the chorus) were all very into Bob. It was very funny to try to see them get his attention. The reason why he doesn't want to be with the waitresses was because their cheese omelettes were bad. And if that were the case, he wanted nothing to do with them. That was something that was extreme and funny. I also really liked the recurring joke where Bob always ended up in the same person's trunk, but they had a different name each time even though it was the same character (Stock). Something that was also very extreme and unexpected was when the wolves showed up and Bob's father (Patin) decides that he has to sacrifice himself to save Bob. It was so over-the-top and unexpected and I absolutely loved that.
There are also some heartwarming moments in this show. Like when Bob meets his first love (Stock). They seemed like they were really good for each other and really happy. When they first meet each other they each have these lists, and they start reading them to each other and saying all the things they want to do. They are sharing aspirations with each other of things they want to accomplish either before they get married (her) or in their entire life (him). I thought it was really sweet how they both made these lists, and they seemed like they were perfect for each other, and their entire relationship, which was shown in this montage, was just adorable. Bob's relationship with his adoptive mother (Horn) is so sweet. She just wants to teach him everything and it so sad that they don't get as much time as they wanted together. When Bob is first getting his bearings as he is striking out on his own, he talks to a police officer (Renaud) who used to be in love with his adoptive mother. It was sad but it was heartwarming because the police officer ended up having a pretty good life and still ended up being part of Bob's family--because that is the way Bob's life works!
People who would like this show are people who like coincidences, lists, and White Castle births. I think that people should go see this show. It is such a fun and ridiculous and touching show. I really liked it.
Photos: Cody Jolly
