“You Can’t Kill a Revolution.”

Christine Mary Dunford brings to life Chicago’s first female mayor, Jayne Byrne, in the Lookingglass Theater Company world premiere production of “Her Honor Jane Byrne,” now playing at the historic Water Tower Water Works. The play isolates the three-week period in 1981 when the mayor moved into Cabrini-Green after an eruption of gang violence that left 10 dead and 37 wounded. It frames a much broader examination of the tumultuous social, political and racial history of the area in the decades that preceded those three weeks. Whether or not Byrne’s action amounted to anything more than a publicity stunt depends upon your point of view. However, after experiencing the complexity of playwright, director and Lookingglass ensemble member J. Nicole Brooks’s multi-faceted and engaging new work, you will have a better understanding of the issues in play at the time—a volatile period of race relations in Chicago and across America that very much reflects forward to the times in which we live.