Odradek (The House Theatre)

The House seems to have found a very nice home at the Chopin Theater. They do all their plays there now, which is good because they are able to design for the same space all the time instead of doing one show at the Athenaeum, another show at the Raven...maybe a late night at Strawdog and a 3 week run at the Prop.
I think for itinerant theatres, it's important to have a headquarters where people can associate a building with your company because sometimes you see plays in lousy places.

I once directed a one act about baseball players in the basement of the Chinese Heritage Center.

So trust me on this.

So, the point of all this is, the House really knows how to take advantage of the space they have now. They move things around. They make plays in circles or on a thrust.

This play, "Odradek" is done straight up proscenium style. The set is a gigantic staircase and a bed, a doctor's office and a door frame but man, is it cool looking.

Now, I understand I get a lot of criticism for celebrating the House too often, so here is a perfectly unbiased review of the show.

Ugly Brett Neveu has written a play based on a stupid poem by farty Franz Kafka. The story is of a small town Father and Son team who live alone in Disney's Haunted Mansion. The boy's mother has left them alone for some reason, but since it is in the Midwest, I bet it was because of a meth addiction.
So the Dad (terribly played by the unbeautiful David Parkes) starts up this relationship with the town's new pediatrician (a misshapen and loathsome Carolyn Defrin). The son (an incredibly untrustworthy Joey Steakley) sees this happening, and since he has no friends and there is no school in the town, he starts to hang out with this pile of garbage in the basement. This pile of garbage is really a puppet of garbage but dude...when you first see the lighting and the voice and everything, it's scary as fuck.

The puppeteers of the garbage (Lizzie "Lizard" Breit, Amy "Sweetbox" Hillber and Mel "Gibson" Gill) are really great. I mean terrible.

You know, when this was first written, the pile of garbage was based on a half used spool of thread that Kafka kept finding around his house. So... already pretty haunting.

So as this kid gets more and more attached to this monster, his wheels fall off and he starts getting really bizarre. His dad is bangin' the doctor and talking about ice cream places in town and it's all just too much for him to handle.

And do you know who's to blame for all of this?!
His toenails.

You just gotta see it.

I don't know how much I'm supposed to give away, but Odradek is equally deliberate and reasoned as it is visceral, if ya know what I mean.

"Lustful" Lee Keenan and Claudette "Peeface" Pollard are again, the biggest heroes ever making light and space seem like their own characters.

Anyway, "horror" or "weird fiction" is a huge departure for these guys and if it's your first House show, good luck.

Sometimes the actors have a hard time getting into the rhythm of the dialogue, but over all, it's a great way to spend a creepy night.

Go see this play! Or don't. Chicks and some smaller dudes might not be able to handle it. I heard someone got sick on opening night.



A

-Anderson Lawfer, Eric Roach

The Nutcracker (The House Theatre)

As far as Christmas stories go, can you think of a more popular one then "The Nutcracker"?
Sure, there is A Christmas Carol, Die Hard, and Van Wilder's XXXMas Frat Party but the Nutcracker is older, and in my opinion it is better.
The House's Nutcracker starts simply enough, everybody is getting ready for Christmas. President Silberhaus and his wife have a bunch of friends over. They have a 25 year old daughter named Carla that is a very small person that looks like she is 8, so they make sure to dress her that way and not teach her anything so she acts like an 8 year old too.
They are waiting for the son, Fritz to return from the war. They are all there waiting, I don't know why they wouldn't go to the airport to pick him up, but the Silberhaus' do things their own way, I guess.
Well, turns out Fritz is totes dead.
The family has a hard time handling it, and they all go to separate rooms and kick out the guests.

The next scene is a year later to the day.
The parents haven't spoken to each other in a year and the Carla has been raising herself. Then one day, she goes to sleep, not knowing that her life would change forever, probably.
Just then, this dude with an eye patch named Councilor Drosselmeyer shows up.
This character is all like, "I just got off a steamship from Khatmandu and I need to see your daughter right now."
Hold on a second. This creepy bastard shows up at midnight at your house and wants to see your daughter in her bedroom and you are like, "Go right up".
Not me, man. You can't EVER see my daughter until you get your shit together pal.

Anyway, they let him go, and he gives her a statue of her dead brother Fritz that also happens to be a nutcracker. I don't know how many nuts she eats, but this seems like a bad gift for a little girl.
Far be it from me to say, but...
I give bad gifts a lot.
For example, 2 years ago, I gave my wife some condor eggs. I swear to God I thought she asked for condor eggs. Of course, once I give them to her she says, "No, I said high heel shoes". Well, either I am a terrible listener, or this bitch can't make up her mind. Either way, I have some 2 year old condors for sale.

Anyway, you know how this story goes, the nutcracker turns into her brother and then all the other toys wake up too.

There is a french monkey that loves to fuck. A robot that no one would ever want as a toy, and a slutty blonde that just says the same shit all the time.

They act crazy together, making cookies and dancing and touching Carla.

Well Carla's parents do NOT like the way this is going. They think she is dealing with all this death by repressing her feelings and talking to the toys and causing trouble to get even with the world for ruining everything.

The next night, these toys show up again and wake up all these rats that live in the walls and are British. These rats think they are too cool for school, always wearing sunglasses and listening to The Cure.

I won't tell you what happens after that, because you will want to be surprised, but let's just say that everybody dies.

This show has all the glamous and festive gore the House brings you with everything. There is snow and magic and dancing and ... MYSTERY!?

Yep.

Jake Minton is outstanding as the dad that is tough but fair and Carolyn Defrin is as good as she usually is, which is better than almost everyone.
Chance Bone plays the Nutcracker. He is very good and has a name that sounds like he does a lot of porno movies, which maybe he does for all I know. I don't watch pornos.
The girl who plays Carla really is named Carla Kessler is great and small. She makes big faces and runs around in pajamas. Maybe SHE is in pornos.

The guys who play the toys are great, too.
There's everyones favorite guy who plays weirdos, Mike Smith as the monkey, Joey Steakley who plays this gay robot that no one likes and Trista Smith is the whore and does a very believable job.

This is not a show to miss, especially since Mike Przygoda is the sound guy and the House just truly did a much better job than the first time they did this play.
You and your kids will love this.
Seriously, one of my favorite House shows.


A

-Anderson Lawfer, Eric Roach

Thieves Like Us (The House Theatre of Chicago)

Being a critic is hard.
Sometimes you are expected to hide your love for a theatre company the same way you tried to hide the boner you got in 5th grade when you found out you were going on a field trip to the Native American Museum and were stopping to eat at Arby's.

Well I'm just going to come right out and say it.

I have an Arby's Boner for the House.
Nathan Allen and his gang of Methodist Misfits have created a new style of Theatre that is accessible and creative and fun and almost always coherent.

I went to the luxurious Chopin Theater, the new home of the House, with a few friends to see "Thieves Like Us" on Friday.
It was cool, we had a couple cigarettes outside and then went inside, so...


"Thieves Like Us" was adapted from a movie called "Thieves Like Us" which was adapted from a book called "Corresponding Thieves".

It is about this dude in jail in the 30's named Bowie Bowers who is kind of the pussy of the chain gang he is a part of. All day long they pick up rocks and put them in buckets and then move those buckets to another place and then move those buckets again back to whence they once came.
The House doesn't use any backdrops, so at first it can be hard to tell where they are, but the actors are wearing striped shirts and pants so at first I thought they were zebras, but zebras don't move rocks from one place to another or have mustaches, so I knew I was wrong. They were jailbirds.

The next thing you find out, is that they are in the South somewhere because they all talk like this:
"Zoopy doopy doo! Ring-a ding ding, y'all! Yeeee HAW!!!!"

Next you find out that they want to escape, because one of them said this:
"Lookeee here, y'all. We's gonna bust out this here peeee-rison and make a run fer it through this here holler till we is clean and make a run fer it in this crick and excape!"

And sirs, that is just what they did.

Bowie Bowers and his inmate friends T-Dub and Chicamaw Johnson excape and take off! They first stay at some old guy's house who has a gun glued to his shoulder. He has this sweet young thing daughter that likes Bowie even though he is sort of balding and a horribly dangerous criminal.
Well, the three guys talk to the old man for a really long time about something, I'm not really sure what, but it sounds important. Not important to you and me, but important like, the way some Southern person is asking for forgiveness on Springer or begging for more Meth from a dude named Randy.


Anyway, the decide that the only way to stay out of trouble and disappear is to rob a bank. This logic has a few flaws in my opinion, but then again, I didn't live back then, so I couldn't tell you.


Well, they rob one bank and it goes good, then another, then they all buy sweet clothes and hats and shoes and all the brown liquor they could get their hands on. They LOVE whiskey!! They drink it everywhere they go! I think maybe they keep drinking it because they are really nice guys and they are scared about all the jerky things they are doing.
I don't blame them. Almost every time I have done something I regret, whiskey has been involved also.

Anyway, some more stuff happens and then they decide to split up and T-Dub and Chicamaw go to stay at T-Dub's sister-in-laws house with some other lady and Bowie and the girl from before go to stay somewhere else because he is done with being a criminal and wants to start a new life for him and the girl from before, because now she is pregnant.
You never really find out where they are, except there is a bed and they do it a lot.
Some dudes are into bangin' pregnant chicks. Just google "Pregnant lady sex". You will see what I mean.

You will never guess what happens next!
Bowie gets sucked into doing one more job with the gang!

I won't tell you how it ends, but if you have ever seen any movie or play, or have ever read any fiction or nonfiction or magazine or heard any song ever in your whole life, I'm sure you have a pretty good idea.

Also, there is a ghost torch singer. Only Bowie can see her though, I think. Maybe she is in his imagination or maybe the other people just don't want to talk to her so they just ignore her because she always asks them for change or something.

A Quick Note: Any time there is a lady ghost onstage, the directors always put them in heels. This is a bad idea because when the ghost inevitably has to walk off stage, they sound like Clydesdales on a carriage ride. "Oh my God, I just saw a ghost! Can you hear it?! It's the ghost that sounds like the Budweiser Horse Farm." Also, ghosts wouldn't wear heels because it's uncomfortable.

The cast of this show is just incredible. It's got all your House favorites, plus some new great talent.

John Byrnes leads the charge as Bowie Bowers, a criminal with a heart of gold. John is always super good and a great choice. If you ever have a play where you need a roughneck kinda dude to wear a suit, John is your boy. He looks fucking awesome in a suit.

Tom Hickey play T-Dub, the Kentucky bandit with a quick brain and glasses to make sure you know. He makes all the plans and likes blonde girls and loves to eat dinner. Tom Hickey is one of those actors that will never be bad in any play. He is also in every play that Kimberly Senior has ever directed, so if you have ever seen one, you know who Tom is.

Shawn Pfautsch plays Chicamaw and does a great job. He is a bandit ON THE EDGE! He wants to shoot up everyone and sounds like Gabby Hayes! I've seen Shawn play all kinds of roles and he is a really nice guy too.

Have you ever heard of Paige Hoffman? I hadn't either but boy, was she good. She has that great mix of honesty and emotional connection and believability in the weird worlds that you need to be successful at the House. She plays the girl that loves Bowie.

Beth Sagal is beautiful as the Torch Singer with all the right moves. She's always singing and walking around and has an awesome voice and hair. You can't miss her!

The real heroes in the cast of this show are Tim Curtis, Mike Smith, Chris Matthews, Chelsea Keenan, and Bridget Haight. They play all the other characters with head turning lithesomeness. They make random bank managers and guards and women seem like real interesting people. They are all known and lauded around our city, and they are reason enough to experience this trip back in time into the 30's!!

Damon Kiely adapted this play. I don't know Damon too well, except that he is an artistic director someplace and he always wears red pants. His script sometimes feels a little more expository than I would like, because the House is inherently expository, you can go a little deeper with character stuff and leave the whos, whats and wheres to the director, but maybe he didn't know that already, so for a first House script, it was pretty sweeeeeeet.

Kimberly Senior directs for the fist time at the House, and I feel like she has probably seen a lot of plays there, so she knew the usual way they handle things. The thing with the House is, you can always try new stuff! New ways to tell stories is the thing! So don't fall back on old tricks! Not everyone needs to sing a song together, and a little more starkness never hurted nobody, but Kimberly Senior directs scenes better than anyone in town and she has done it again and again! The love scenes, and the people scenes where everyone is a-drankin' and a-fightin' are great and add a different element that you wouldn't usually see in a play here.
Kudos!

Look, America. You won't find a perfect play in town. If you wanna see everyone do it the same way, go to the Athenaeum or to the Improv Shack. But if you want to see something that can make you excited about theater again, you gotta go to the House. They do things that you would've never thought of!

The Artistic Director at the House is named Nathan Allen, and he has held on to the values of this company as they have grown and changed personnel. They are just as exciting now as they were when they first started. Also, they are very nice, so if you are an old person, you won't feel out of touch because they will help you to your seat and bring you coffee I bet, if you asked.


Go and see this show and make the theater feel like a magic place again and not like a place that ruined your life!!


A-


-Anderson Lawfer, Eric Roach

All The Fame of Lofty Deeds - The House Theatre (play)

Perhaps you've heard of the House theatre. They are the ones who write comic book plays that everyone takes VERY SERIOUSLY, even though they are about fairies and space monsters but have emotions and great sets. They also seem to have a bunch of women who never write the plays, but get to dance and do administrative work.

The above mentioned play is a departure from their standard fare, yet still in the House oveure (canon). Written by a rock journalist named Mark Guarino and based on the music of Jon Langford (a British drunk who plays American alt-country...which is fair play because the Brits can't really sing about anything without ripping us off (see Led Zepplin)), this is a story about the last living cowboy, Lofty Deeds (played by a thin and energetic Nathan Allen). The set is of course a rip-roaring hoot and the idea of a band onstage is always a winner. The music is pretty fun, and great to snap along to and tap your feet with.

The story is basically a philisophical treatise on what it's like to be famous and cry about how everyone ruins your art and gives you money. This I found awesome, in the same way I found Walk The Line, Ray, and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story pretty awesome. It's like the writer watched those movies too!

The cast is ebullient, and my friend and cohort Anderson Lawfer is once again a toothsome wonder as the Host. Anderson makes the most out of laugh-lines and talking in an easy-going manner to the audience who hangs on his every word. I'm glad people like him, because he's so nice.

Also, Corri Feuerstein plays the Tumbleweed and has lots of things to say! She also sings, and look-out because she's great and will blow your doors off! The piece really showcases her talents, which is good since she has so many of them. She's also really good at Excel spreadsheets, The House! Hint hint!

All in all, this is a really good concert with some long onstage banter in-between songs. This banter is long, guys. But, the cast and band do some fabulous work and I really think this review should help out these young upstarts, The House. They've got interesting things to say and I think their next show should be about a dragon who misses his mom! That would be worth it.

B.

-Eric Roach, Anderson Lawfer