On Thursday, the Raven Theatre Company of Rogers Park opens its fifth season with ”Everything in the Garden,” Edward Albee`s corrosive sendup of an American family`s corruption by materialism. A 1967 adaptation of Giles Cooper`s 1962 satire of British mores, the script centers on Jenny and Jack, a supposedly innocent couple. They slowly discover the low road of the high life-with a lot of help from their ”friends,” the proverbial snakes in the suburban Eden.
Raven artistic director Michael Menendian takes the 11-member cast through Albee`s satirical paces, spoofery that occasionally parallels his
”Who`s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” JoAnn Montemurro and Larry Wiley play the embattled couple.
”Everything in the Garden” runs through Jan. 2 at 6931 N. Clark St.;
338-2177.
Other theater openings of note:
”Pillar of Fire and Other Plays,” Friday, Playwrights` Center, 3716 N. Clark St.; 351-0613: In the spirit of Halloween, ”Pillar” spins forth five dramatized tales by science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury. (Bradbury fans will note that the title play contains characters and situations that anticipate his novel ”Fahrenheit 451.”) The wide-ranging, sometimes terrifying episodes detail an antiseptic future, a madman who wants to make Halloween larger than death, seven rocket-men falling forever from the sky, a children`s nursery rhyme that becomes a parents` nightmare, the sound of 20,000 years of unrequited love, and a trip to the Chicago Abyss (not of course on any metropolitan road map). Steve Bruce directs.
”Design for Living,” Friday, Apple Tree Theatre Company, 770 Deerfield Rd., Highland Park; 432-4335: One of Chicago`s rising young directors, Eric Simonson (”The Normal Heart,” ”Waiting for Godot”), stages Noel Coward`s story of a sophisticated and intriguingly bisexual menage a trois. Patrick Clear, Timothy Monsion and Jeff-award-winning Hollis Resnik play the sprightly trio.
”A Different Moon,” Monday, Stage Left Theatre Company, 3244 N. Clark St.; 883-8830: Set in 1951 in Arkansas, ”Moon” explores how three very different women discover the truths about themselves and each other when the one man in their lives, a real louse as it turns out, goes off to fight in Korea. A popular play by virtue of the rich female roles playwright Ara Watson has created, ”A Different Moon” was a co-winner of the Great American Play Contest at Louisville`s Festival of New Plays.
This season-opener marks the final Stage Left staging by artistic director Ann Fournier. Fournier will move on to Oregon`s Artists Repertory Company where she`ll direct, as she did so well for Stage Left, a new mounting of ”The Diviners.”
”A View from the Bridge,” Monday, Synergy Theatre Company, Broadway Arts Center, 3829 N. Broadway; 975-1703: Arthur Miller`s potboiling, fratricidal tragedy of two Italian men consumed with love for the same woman. Mark Fritts directs, while Reid Ostrowski plays Eddie Carbone, the torn-apart (because he`s married) older man. Annette Lazzara portrays the niece he lusts for.
”Erotica, the Delta of Venus,” Monday, Prop Theatre, 2360 N. Clybourn Ave.; 935-1155: Directed by coadaptor Karen Goodman, Charles Mueller`s script, based on a collection of short stories by Anais Nin, attempts to convey the feel of `30s pornography. (Apparently there`s fashion in everything.)
”No, No, Nanette,” Wednesday, Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace; 530-8300: Another production of the popular `20s musical about a girl who makes other people say ”no” and surrounds herself with raccoon-coated collegians who love to pack themselves into Stutz Bearcats.
