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PicksInSix Review: The Audience - Drury Lane Theatre

 
 

Brooks Holds Court in “The Audience.”
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton

I had the unique opportunity of seeing the original Broadway production of Peter Morgan’s historical play about Queen Elizabeth II, “The Audience,” back in 2015, with the fabulous Helen Mirren and a host of excellent actors in support.  The research into the subject matter is meticulous and well-organized, and if you’re a history buff, you will absolutely love this wonderful creativity.  If you’re not and you keep an open mind, it will lure you in with a kind of picture-book approach of a history lesson, that couldn’t be more entertaining in its turns, and they’re offered by the fine actors seen here. 

“The Audience” takes place during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, specifically focusing on her weekly meetings with the prime minister in office.  It’s not told in a linear fashion, but in a kind of memory focus, so we get an interesting and full scrapbook of storytelling.  There’s even a narrator-on-staff, so to speak—the versatile Jürgen Hooper as the Equerry—to help guide us through the maze of time and place and, well, all the prime ministers, as well as a young Elizabeth (Omi Lichtenstein in an impressive turn) to whom the adult Queen can relate to on occasion.

All the meetings are held in what’s called ‘The Meeting Room’ in Buckingham Palace. It is very simple, accessible staging by director Jessica Fisch. Center stage are two chairs with a small table between them, where all the discussions take place. It might have helped a bit to have the prime ministers and/or the Queen get up and move more often to vary the scene, but that’s nothing that overcomes the fine storytelling.  Ms. Fisch also has created a smooth, absolutely silent scene change habit for those chairs and other set pieces, musically underscored, that actually entertains on its own, thanks to a wonderfully restrained, elegant scenic design by Andrew Boyce.

The entire play is owned by Queen Elizabeth II and taken into charge by the redoubtable Janet Ulrich Brooks, one of Chicago’s truly talented, fascinating actors. She plays Elizabeth from the beginnings of her reign in 1952 by meeting her first Prime Minister, Winston Churchill (an irascible, almost knightly Matt DeCaro), who detests and resists any turn from tradition in the meetings and, indeed, reinforces the Queen’s grandfather, George V, in his insistence on maintaining such structure. The Queen stands up to the great man with questions and methods of her own; they reach a shaky truce of sorts by meeting’s end, and one tips a hat to her resolve.

All the Prime Ministers are at once impressed, shaken and establish their own friendly joust with the Queen.  The first PM appointee Anthony Eden (excellently manipulative and fearful by Mark Ulrich) betrays his reputation with his mismanagement of the Suez Canal affair. Ron E. Rains offers a surprisingly full-bodied and humorous Harold Wilson, thanks to the playwright’s gift of three different scenes with the Queen. (Mr. Wilson did have two separate terms in office, thus justifying what we see.) Susie McMonagle clutches the expected aggressive stance as Margaret Thatcher in a gripping, properly uncompromising exchange with Brooks’ Queen. Both John Major (John Judd) and Tony Blair (Alex Goodrich) leave strong marks on their terms in the office for totally disparate reasons. The Scot, Gordon Brown (Raymond Fox) followed the Churchillian path of Chancellor of the Exchequer in stabilizing the UK’s economy, which led to his PM appointment.  And David Cameron (a second turn by Mr. Goodrich) led the first peacetime British coalition government that voted to leave the European Union in 2016, forcing him to resign.

The richness in history is handled by Elizabeth with varying degrees of attitude, but always in support of each charge. And the many physical changes in Ms. Brooks’ appearance onstage are deftly handled through those aforementioned scene changes with wig and dress by a hugely talented palace staff, both in the story and through the craft. This fine production of a rare play runs at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace through October 20.  

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| Brett Beiner

Drury Lane Theatre
presents
The Audience
100 Drury Lane
Oakbrook Terrace
through October 20, 2024

WEBSITE

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

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PicksInSix Review: The Cherry Orchard - Goodman Theatre

 
 

“All Things Come To An End.”
PicksInSix® Gold Review |Ed Tracy

On my first visit to Chicago, I took a brisk late morning walk from Streeterville down Michigan Avenue across the DuSable Bridge to Wacker then North Dearborn and into the lobby of the Goodman Theatre. I was on a quest, of sorts. I browsed the impressive donor wall and peered in on the staff bustling around next door at Petterino’s.

It was mid-March 2002 and I had visited a hundred theaters or more before but could immediately feel the unique energy emitting from this slumbering giant of a venue. The feeling was palpable and inspiring.

I ventured upstairs and—remarkably by today’s security standards—into the Albert Theatre balcony, settling quietly into the last seat on the aisle, watching stagehands prepare for the next performance of the Robert Falls-directed masterpiece, “Long Day’s Journey into Night.”

It was not apparent to me at the time just how much influence one person could have on an institution, particularly when it is in the business of the performing arts and operates at such an extraordinary professional level as the Goodman Theatre. Falls’ work had been recognized with numerous awards, most notably a Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and for directing “Death of a Salesman.”      

An amazing career for someone who had served as Artistic Director at Goodman since 1986. But Falls was just getting started. Twenty years passed before a new generation of artistic leadership would begin writing the next chapter. The foundational work by Falls and longtime Executive Director/CEO Roche Schulfer is an epic story of partnership and passion for the arts.  One need only look at the last six pages of the program to witness the investment by individuals, corporations and foundations whose support has enabled groundbreaking new work and educational opportunities to flourish on multiple stages.

Countless years of opening nights at Goodman were top of mind as I entered the Albert on Monday for the opening of Falls’ brilliant production of Anton Chekov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” a play choice that speaks to his long range vision and embraces a legacy that will be lasting and permanent. Falls is an artist extraordinaire and an innovator who has operated at the pinnacle of his craft through a defining and challenging era for contemporary theater.

This is a production to see and to savor.

Change is inevitable and “all things come to an end” a resoundingly appropriate quote from the play that sums up our human urge to reconcile with the past even as we keep a hopeful eye to the future. Adapted by Falls from a translation by George Calderon, “The Cherry Orchard” bursts with life, love, anguish and longing, showcasing an aristocracy trapped in its social mores, vulnerable yet oblivious to the generational change that is consuming them. It is theater of the highest caliber, a classic running spritely on all cylinders with production values that are rich, textured and sublime.

It is also a play for our time, when our own creative culture is at a tipping point and theater itself in the middle of a seismic shift. Falls has molded Chekov’s vision of the collapse of mid-19th century servitude society into an assessable production that looks and feels very much like it might have at the Moscow Art Theater during its debut at turn of the 20th century. Now enhanced for a modern audience, it emerges with all the joy and sadness that Chekov might have imagined—delightfully entertaining, absorbing and captivating—elevated to new heights by an extraordinary ensemble led by the blistering performance of Kate Fry (Lubov Ranyevskaya) and inimitable Chicago stage veterans including: Kareem Bandealy (Lopakhin),  Christopher Donahue (Leonid Gayev), Matt DeCaro (Boris Semyonov-Pishchik), Alexandra Escalante (Varya), and Amanda Drinkall (Dunyasha) with two of the most endearing and heartfelt stage turns of this or any season by Francis Guinan (Firs) and Janet Ulrich Brooks (Carlotta). 

Todd Rosenthal’s artful scenic design of the estate of Lyubov Ranevskaya, the stunning costumes by Ana Kuzmanic and evocative lighting by Keith Parham, all coalesce to provide the perfect visual tapestry.

The page has now been turned. We can only dream that the next glorious chapter of Goodman Theatre history will be as exciting, and satisfying, as this one. “The Cherry Orchard” plays through May 7.  

PHOTO|Liz Lauren

GOODMAN THEATRE
presents
THE CHERRY ORCHARD
EXTENDED through May 7
Albert Theatre
170 N. Dearborn St.


(312) 443-3800

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