RECOMMENDED
Summertime has been christened Chicago’s favorite season, not only for muddy music festivals and boozy street fairs, but also for those elusive one-person shows. In putting up the physically modest productions in the height of July and August, perhaps companies are conserving their already scant resources for the hurly-burly of fall and winter. Or maybe the oppressive temperatures are nudging the theaters against packing their stuffy stages from wall to wall with perspiring bodies trapped under the gaze of hot lights. No matter the justification, the trend is a welcome and colorful shift away from the usual weighty ensemble fare that resumes in full force come September. I say, “Bring on these singular sensations!”
In the eye of Redtwist Theatre’s concurrent production of “The Glass Menagerie,” comes the company’s off-night, three-performance presentation of Daria Harper’s one-woman show, “The Devil In the Dirt.” The play, created and performed by Harper and directed by Mary Ann Thebus, cleverly exists as a subtle, contemporary companion piece to “Menagerie,” both united by themes of isolation, family ties and abandonment. In Williams’ play, the ominous, hovering portrait of Laura and Tom’s father hangs over the Wingfield’s living room, acting as the “fifth character” and taking a fair chunk of responsibility for his family’s silent desperation. Comparably for Harper, the titular “Devil” refers to her main character Cindy’s own father, and the tarnished legacy he left
behind above ground.
behind above ground.
