PicksInSix Review: No Such Thing - Rivendell Theatre Ensemble

‘No Such Thing’ Is Anything But.
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton

If ever in Chicago there was a little engine that could, Artistic Director Tara Mallen’s determined Rivendell Theatre Ensemble seems to often be able to do so. RTE celebrates its 30th Anniversary Season with an intriguing, provocative world premiere of “No Such Thing” by RTE Ensemble Member Lisa Dillman, and it runs now through April 27.

Directed in intimate, meaningful strokes by Malkia Stampley, “No Such Thing” shares the tale of Ren (a cast-the-net-wide, fascinating performance by Susan Gosdick), a screenwriter in the midst of mining her life for interesting and substantial stories that can jumpstart her career. Experiencing the reigniting of a career in middle age is something many artists can understand and aspire to. And one of the things that Ren considers in doing so is in adding a layer of inspiring intimacy to her life in the form of a tightly knit affair with someone she meets in a dating app or through personals ads.

The construct here in her exchange with Fallon (fine, articulate work by Josh Odor), an accomplished man of letters, is quite the challenge. They both set rules in their affair: No names, for one, except for what they create within the affair itself. No stories about current life or work. Nothing in the hotel room but lust and opinion and stories they share that may or may not be true. Both Ren and Fallon jump in with both feet, and for a while, the affair is an agreeable, enjoyable journey for both. For a while.

Because meanwhile, back at home, Ren’s husband Ted (the always high-quality performer Matt DeCaro) is a faithful servant of sorts – going to work, coming home, sharing the day, reading the paper, enjoying his bourbon or whatever – all the while unknowingly contributing to the eventual downfall of the marriage. Both Ren and Ted are locked into this pattern. Hence, the affair. There is a daughter Olivia (a bright, knowing portrayal by Jessica Ervin), whose teenaged problems explode over time into personal trauma. Therapy, medication, even a dabble in legal problems occupy the family’s attention in an overly invasive way.

Ren has several meetings with her friend and literary agent Marilyn (the marvelous Cheryl Hamada is a real comic coin for Ren), who acts as the voice over Ren’s shoulder and eventually has to share the fact that her writing has dramatically suffered during all the family upheaval, and that whatever happens, Ren needs to buckle down even more than she is. A tall order, indeed, given the emotional and intellectual walls that need to be surmounted.

The play envelops what seems like a couple of years and there are real surprises in the story. This writer will leave any assessment of the plot to individual minds. Don’t want to give anything away inappropriately. The scenic design of Lauren Nichols offers a quite clever series of sliding panels and walls to indicate different locations; they successfully overcome the necessary limits of Rivendell’s small performance space. But its intimacy is the very thing that helps the audience see this piece for what it is – an examination into the scourges of relevance in life, and how they affect the characters going forward. “No Such Thing” is anything but. It’s a purposeful and powerful treatise that asks its audience to consider such realities as they arise in life, as well as one person’s way in dealing with them. 

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

WORLD PREMIERE
Rivendell Theatre Ensemble
presents
NO SUCH THING
5779 N. Ridge Avenue
through April 27, 2025

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773.334.7728

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PicksInSix Review: ROYKO: The Toughest Man in Chicago

ROYKO: “Always, always say it now.”

PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

In his exceptional one-man show “ROYKO: The Toughest Man in Chicago” that opened Friday in a limited run at the Chopin Theater, writer/actor Mitchell Bisschop brings the life and career of Mike Royko into sharp focus. Using Royko’s own words, the show is culled from nearly eight thousand columns spanning four decades that were syndicated nationally at a time when everything was not a click away. It is a remarkable historical archive—epic in nature—on topics ranging from Chicago politics and personalities to Picasso and pizza from the early 50s to his untimely passing in 1997.

Much of what Royko has written is still available thanks to his own foresight to reprint much of his writing in numerous books, the committed nature of his family to preserve his work in print and online, and to the publications themselves who have made them publicly accessible. Ask anyone over fifty living in Chicago about Royko’s work and you will understand the enormous impact that he had on daily readers through the years.

Bisschop and director Steve Scott deliver a compelling, and at times, deeply moving portrait of the man who was by his own account equally beloved and despised but never pulled a punch on a point he believed in. Whether it was the 1960s Daley political machine or recollections of Jackie Robinson’s first day at Wrigley, the stories flow effortlessly.  Scott’s influence can be seen all over this work, in Bisschop’s superbly-paced delivery and the sequential transitions of the storyline aided by the timing, placement and impact of Smooch Medina’s projections and stylized musical underscoring by Christopher Kriz.

In the center of it all is Bisschop weaving together a tapestry of Royko’s early career, not so much in a linear sense, but through the varied topics of his columns—Frank Sinatra’s city sponsored security detail, his mother’s dry cleaning and tailoring store, Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods, RibFest—each punctuated with personal details and wry commentary.  There are frequent trips to the Billy Goat Tavern, which stands as a living testament to Royko’s roots.

For the record, I was a Royko neophyte when I first moved to Chicago in 2002. What I could not gather from many of the references at the time, others helped fill in the gaps. With so much material to choose from, Bisschop wisely concentrated his efforts on a balance between the serious and sublime, equally framed in the brazen insight and searing satire that Royko used to highlight public injustice. The sensitive, emotionally-charged choices are evidence of the appeal that drove readers to his column first whether in the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Sun Times or the Chicago Tribune.  Royko’s touching tribute following the unexpected passing of his first wife Carol is one of the night’s most powerful moments. There are tributes to Martin Luther King and John Belushi. And Royko’s passionate struggle with the Chicago Cubs plays out here as well.

“Royko: The Toughest Man in Chicago” will serve to introduce a new generation to this remarkable life. There is a helpful historical timeline in the show’s program and a note where Bisschop states that he is trying to “allow people to feel the same magic that I felt when I read Mike for the first time.” Take a look for yourself and you will certainly agree that it is a staggering accomplishment. See this show and you will know that only a gifted actor of Bisschop’s unique skills and rarified commitment to the source material could succeed so well.  

PHOTO|Sarah Larson

Toughest Man Productions
presents
ROYKO: The toughest Man in Chicago
Chopin Theater
through September 29, 2024

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PicksInSix Review: Little Bear Ridge Road - Steppenwolf Theatre Company

METCALF IN MESMERIZING RETURN AT STEPPENWOLF
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

Samuel D. Hunter’s brilliant new play “Little Bear Ridge Road” now enjoying an extended world premiere run at Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater might not have ever happened if Tony Award winning director Joe Mantello and iconic Steppenwolf Ensemble member Laurie Metcalf had not approached Hunter to develop a project for Metcalf.  

That was a little more than a year ago and the resulting work traces the reemerging relationship between Metcalf’s irascible character Sarah and her gay nephew Ethan (Micah Stock), the last surviving members of the Fernsby family who are navigating the aftermath of the death of Ethan’s estranged father. Ethan has arrived on Sarah’s doorstep near Moscow, Idaho with little more than a writing degree and the wherewithal to rent a hotel room for a few days let alone the weeks he would need to settle his father’s estate. Sarah lives a private, secluded life alone on Little Bear Ridge Road, her 40 year nursing career shrinking to three shifts a week and is not at all excited that Ethan may now be her house guest for an undetermined period of time.

Things move quickly in conversations between the two, exposing Sarah’s unbridled opinions and hilariously mundane lifestyle, Ethan’s conflicted relationship with his father in the years prior to his death and his own disheveled personal life and uncertain future. The combination of Metcalf and Stock, with Mantello’s expertly paced direction, allow the series of crisp early scenes of Hunter’s script to seamlessly define both characters.  As time passes, Ethan ventures out to a bar and hooks up with James (a rock solid performance by John Drea), who sees some potential in a relationship, but wants to slow things down at first. As that relationship takes shape, James finds himself in a revealing conversation with Sarah. Details about Sarah’s health challenges emerge, which have the two-fold effect of bringing the two men closer together and shifting the dynamics of the drama in Sarah’s direction.

Hunter’s writing is clever, succinct and punctuated by Metcalf’s marvelous presence on stage. Even as we revel in the robust early comic interaction of the play, it is the dramatic turn of the piece that elevates this drama, exemplifies Hunter’s exceptional storytelling ability and exposes the emotional core of the piece.

The elegant, stylized stage design by Scott Pask is set with a home theater seating unit that revolves to suggest alternate scenes. There is a lone ceiling fan above and an expansive, circular stage floor all enhanced by Heather Gilbert’s lighting design and Mikhail Fiksel’s sound design. The look of this show is clean, simple and amazingly effective.

Over the course of ninety minutes, Metcalf is a mesmerizing force on stage and a joy to watch, her flawless, wide range of comic timing and dramatic sensibilities on full display. Stock plays Ethan with a fragile, measured intensity that emerges in a definitive scene with Drea and then becomes unhinged in a stunning definitive confrontation with Metcalf. And when Meighan Gerachis appears in a brief but powerful and satisfying coda to the drama, we are left to ponder the importance of making choices that look forward with hope rather than backward with regret.

PHOTO|Michael Brosilow

STEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY

Presents

WORLD PREMIERE

LITTLE BEAR BRIDGE ROAD
Downstairs Theater
1650 N. Halsted
Extended
through August 4, 2024

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