The gritty romance of the war photographer/correspondent has long cast a spell for writers and filmmakers. (Think "The Year of Living Dangerously" or "The Bang Bang Club.") Often, they strug…
The premise is familiar " a young man confronts his own past (including long-held secrets) in the aftermath of a parent's death. But like the celestial satellite that provides part of its ti…
Where have you gone, Princess Celestia? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. And we need the Elements of Harmony now more than ever. If you got those references, then you've probably spe…
During the Great Feminist Backlash of the 1980s (not to be confused with the feminist backlash in every other decade), a Newsweek cover story proclaimed that a single white woman over 40 wit…
On the surface, children's birthday parties are loud, joyous affairs. But if you've had a child, or been a child, you know how fraught they can be. They provide us with some of our earliest …
Not long after Oprah Winfrey's rousing speech at the Golden Globes, a meme began circulating on social media showing her at previous Hollywood functions with Harvey Weinstein, bearing the le…
Thought pieces abound on the newest generation of young adults " the first raised entirely in the age of the internet. What do they think about the world and their place in it? Whether that …
In a year when the political and international drama went up to 11, Chicago theaters offered up a raucous and rousing array of productions, from world premieres to classic revivals. Here are…
Through political turmoil, social unrest and roller-coaster economic developments, one thing remains true: There's always a bull market for alternative facts. Fakery-as-commodity in many hue…
Attention, residents of Whoville! It's that time of year again. And while we know you're busy with your snoof and your fuzzles, your tringlers and trappings, don't forget to take time out to…
Take the football culture of "Friday Night Lights," mix it with the supernatural clamminess of "The X-Files," and strain it through the satiric/horror filter of "Get Out," and you're close t…
For those who grow sick and tired of being sick and tired about patriarchy and its abuses (so much in the spotlight in recent weeks, but never out of the picture), Pegasus Theatre Chicago ha…
Earlier this month, Ta-Nehisi Coates appeared on "The Late Show," where he seemed to rattle Stephen Colbert by refusing to say that he had hope for the United States. As Coates rightly point…
A troubled family gathers one last time at their ancestral home after the death of the patriarch. Over the course of the play, drinks are guzzled, grievances are aired and revelations are re…
Global climate change, cataclysmic hurricanes, the threat of world war " with headlines like those, who wouldn't want to escape to the theater? Kidding aside, Remy Bumppo has picked a fine t…
Lycanthropes, rejoice. (You know how to rejoice, don't you? Just throw your head back and howl.) There's a werewolf story prowling Mayslake Peabody Estate in a DuPage County forest preserve,…
The relationship between psychiatrist and patient offers a wealth of dramatic possibilities. You've got the power dynamic between an authority figure and a person whose fate may well rest in…
Last month's Emmy Awards may have represented a stride toward diversity for many artists of color. But as Patricia Garcia of Vogue (and many others) noted, "Where were the awards and nominat…
Elizabeth Gilbert's popular 2006 healing-heartbreak-through-travel memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love," earned backlash from those who saw it as a high-profile example of privileged Western women buyi…
Using your socially connected friends and acquaintances as models for your fictional characters often leads to blowback. Just ask Truman Capote, who became an outcast when excerpts from his …
For nearly eight years, "Million Dollar Quartet" packed the intimate Apollo Theater in Lincoln Park. The story of the fabled night that four giants of popular music all turned up in Memphis'…
Early 2009 seems like a lifetime ago " a point when the inauguration of the first African-American president signaled that, while racism was far from over, it at least couldn't keep all our …
Sandwiched between the 1980s teen-angst comedies of John Hughes and the famous-for-being-famous post-millennium reality television antics of the Kardashians, the kids of "Beverly Hills, 9021…
Last year, the fall theater season had to compete with the Cubs' historic journey to the World Series. We don't know if they'll repeat that feat this year. But we do know that there are plen…
Conor McPherson's work shows up regularly on Chicago stages. So it's puzzling that his 2011 play, "The Veil," has been missing until now. However, Idle Muse Theatre Company's staging " the M…