Dirty (The Gift Theatre Company)

 Life can be overwhelming sometimes.

Especially in the Fall. As theatre people, Fall is usually our busiest time and we are all finishing planning our seasons and trying to book our final Spring shows. So, it has taken me a while to write about this play I saw a couple weeks ago called “Dirty” out at The Gift.

Not because I didn’t like it. I, in fact, REALLY liked it. The acting is great. 

But here's the thing:

This kid Michael Patrick Thornton has it all going on for him. He is a handsome TV star, so he doesn’t care what I think about it. Tom Hickey is in it, and he is always awesome, so HE doesn’t care what I think. The great Jon Berry directed, and the now hugely popular Andrew Hinderaker wrote it, so they could care less about my opinion, so it makes it harder for me to even get into it, because these 4 dudes are at the fucking TOP OF THE GAME.      

You all know it, too. You KNOW this play is good. It is an act too long. The story gets a little too complicated…whatever. It’s awesome and you all know it already without even seeing it.

The play is about making porno movies. See, the main couple likes to watch porno movies. The dude (Thornton) is unhappy with his life as a stock broker or something and his wife (the robust and comely Hillary Clemens) is a struggling…I wanna say…Not-For-Profit…Women’s shelter worker? Something like that. So the guy decides he hates his job and wants to start a porno movie company. The wife says she will help, but they have to have rules about the movies they make. No schoolgirl fantasies, nobody under 25, basically she doesn’t want these movies to have anything in them that makes you want to watch a porno.

If it was up to ladies, all of our porno movies would be middle aged women getting butt massages from Adrian Brody in a cake factory.

So this broad tries to get Mike Thornton to get down with this idea and of course he says yes because if your wife is letting you make porn, you have to agree to her rules, no matter how stupid they may be.

So then this lady (the Guatemalan and electrifying Mouzam Makkar) shows up who wants to be in the porno movies and she is only 20 years old.

Then it gets super complicated.

All the actors are awesome, of course. You know it and I know it. They are all probably better than you are.

Michael Patrick Thornton. Do you know about this guy? Of course you do. He’s great. His best quality though, is that he acts like he doesn’t care if anyone is there watching or not. Super relaxed, very casual. That is a cool trait to have in this city of stupid improvisers who cry if you don’t laugh at them because something went terribly wrong in their home life.

Anyway, you already want to see it, so go already. It is a very, very good play.

A+ 

-Anderson Lawfer, Eric Roach

Night and Her Stars (The Gift Theatre)

The Gift Theatre’s matchbox of a space provides some of the most innovative staging in the city. How in the hell the two brothers in ‘The Lonesome West’ went twelve rounds without barreling over into the audience is a miracle.

‘Night and Her Stars,’ now playing in the Jefferson Park space, transported the audience back into the 1950s and the Golden Age of Television, and the geriatric crowd on hand was more than willing to accept it.

Michael Patrick Thornton could’ve directed his thirteen member ensemble in my hall closet and they still wouldn’t have seemed cramped for space.

‘Night and Her Stars’ tells the story of the match-fixing scandals of the game show 21. But Richard Greenberg’s play is about much more than one controversial story. Mental health seemed to be prevalent in much of this play and in the performances, in addition to the glaring question television’s effect on the public and on the individual viewer. I like television, so naturally, I liked this play. I also like being hypocritical by blaming television for all the world’s ills, and the play satisfied that side of me too.

What can one say about Raymond Shoemaker? The guy is committed. As Herb Stempel, the obsessive, bipolar, Jewish knowledge junkie with illusions of a star-studded future as an actor, Ray chews up his scenes with an amusing and complex precision, nailing every moment with intensity. I’d pay fifty bucks to see this guy, in character, go toe to toe with IBM’s Watson in Jeopardy. It would be compelling entertainment. Stempel could not have cast more perfectly.

In addition to Shoemaker, the cast was full of kick-ass performances. No plays a jerk like Ed Flynn, and his turn as the Geritol sponsor was no exception. I was only disappointed that wasn’t on stage more.

Jay Worthington’s performance as a nervous, self-loathing prodigal son Charles Van Doren was incredibly compelling. Worthington captures a delicate balance between accomplished academic and father’s insecure pupil, his shy, nervous demeanor the perfect complement to Shoemaker’s aggressive obsession. If only there had been a third contestant, played, of course, by Dan Behrendt…

A special highlight came in the form of the American Chorus, an ensemble of actors that played various social groups and individual viewers, moving the story forward and providing the proper social context of the times. Thornton’s staging really took off during these moments.

This is also your last chance to see Lindsey Barlag before she becomes Lindsey Patrick Thornton later this spring, so don’t miss it! Barlag, one of RYCI’s Ten Women of Chicago Theatre, had the most memorable moment of the evening, with a cameo as a letter-writing housewife afflicted with a severe case of dermatillomania.

If you want to come down with a severe case of iluvathegiftheateromania, see ‘Night and Her Stars.’

A+

-Michael Dice Jr.