Anne Spiselman

3 days ago | hpherald.com | Anne Spiselman

You don't have to know much about Irish history to appreciate Brian Friel's “Translations,” but a little advance research will enhance your understanding of this potent, poignant play about the power of language to shape our perceptions and interactions. Written in 1980, a politically fraught time in Northern Ireland, “Translations” takes place in 1833, three decades after the Act of Union made Ireland part of the United Kingdom.

1 week ago | hpherald.com | Anne Spiselman

On one level, Suzan-Lori Parks' “The Book of Grace” is a gut-wrenching dysfunctional family drama. On another, given the setting and the circumstances, it comes across as a parable about the prejudice and potential panic in our country right now. This is somewhat surprising since the play actually premiered in 2010 at the Public Theater in New York, though Parks has revised it significantly for the Chicago premiere at the Steppenwolf Ensemble Theater.

2 weeks ago | hpherald.com | Anne Spiselman

This spring brings a bumper crop of world premieres to Chicago theaters. None is more ambitious than Court Theatre's original adaptation of “Berlin,” Jason Lutes's graphic novel about the last years of the Weimar Republic in Germany's vibrant city. Created in three volumes over the course of  two decades, the book is more than 500 pages long and includes hundreds of characters, most of them ordinary people living under extraordinary circumstances.

3 weeks ago | hpherald.com | Anne Spiselman

Before seeing the North American premiere of “Sunny Afternoon” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, I didn't know much about the Kinks. Sure, their greatest hits, such as “You Really Got Me,” “All Day and All of the Night,” “Waterloo Sunset” and “Lola,” were familiar, but the group itself wasn't a household name like those more iconic British Invasion bands, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. It would be nice to say that “Sunny Afternoon” set me straight, but that's only partly true.

1 month ago | hpherald.com | Anne Spiselman

For a play with so much dramatic potential, Kia Corthron's “Splash Hatch on the E Going Down” is surprisingly undramatic. This isn't the fault of Definition Theatre's well-acted Chicago premiere directed by Cheryl Lynn Bruce. Rather, Corthron's script lacks any compelling tension or climax to hold our attention. She simply tells her story chronologically, and a couple of crucial events happen offstage and are merely mentioned, almost in passing.