When it comes to telling tales, Spalding Gray can hold his own with any raconteur. Five years ago he regaled Goodman Studio Theater audiences with
”Swimming to Cambodia,” a rich description of Gray`s experiences during the filming of ”The Killing Fields.”
Beginning Sept. 4, Gray will play the Goodman Mainstage with his latest autobiographical monologues, ”Terrors of Pleasure” and ”Monster in a Box.” ”Terrors of Pleasure” describes Gray`s nightmarish adventures in a small cabin in the Catskills. He calls it ”the story of the most imperfect house in America and the perfect fool who bought it.”
”Monster in a Box” traces Gray`s distractions as he tries to finish his epic novel ”Impossible Vacation”-interruptions that drive Gray to Hollywood, Nicaragua, Russia and, quite unexpectedly, to Broadway.
Gray will perform until Sept. 9 at 200 S. Columbus Dr.; 443-3800.
Other theater openings of note:
”Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been,” Friday, Big Game Theater, 1257 W. Loyola Ave.; 262-1132: Anna D. Shapiro stages Eric Bentley`s concise look at the U.S. government`s investigation of the entertainment industry during the
”Red Scare” from 1947 to 1956. The play presents 22 witnesses, including Arthur Miller, Lillian Hellman, Paul Robeson, and five members of the witch-hunting House on Un-American Activities Committee.
”Princess Ida,” Friday, Light Opera Works at Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St., Evanston; 708-869-6300: The second production in the company`s 10th anniversary season is Gilbert and Sullivan`s rarely performed, musically delicious operetta about an early feminist revolution that goes awry. Janis Knox takes the title role in Philip Kraus` staging.
”Babylon Sisters,” Friday, New Tuners Theatre at the Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont; 327-5252: This original contemporary urban musical by German native Norbert Gunther Kramer tells the story of two sisters living in the urban fast lane.
After one of them, a narcotics cop, mysteriously dies, her spirit returns and uses her surviving sister as a tool for revenge against drug dealers and crooked cops. Kramer`s score blends rock `n` roll, R & B and jazz styles. Jeff Ginsberg directs the musical mayhem.
”Madame Mao`s Memories,” Wednesday, Bailiwick Repertory, 3212 N. Broadway; 883-1091: John Carlile directs the Midwest premiere of Henry Ong`s one-woman play. In it the infamous Jiang Qing, widow of the late chairman of the People`s Republic of China and perpetrator of the bloody 1966 Cultural Revolution, acts out her vivid and tormented memories.
Catherine Martineau plays the fearsome lady. ”Madame Mao`s Memories”
runs in rotating repertory with ”Celebrity Beat.”
”All Eight Die,” Thursday, Cardiff Giant at Angel Island, 731 W. Sheridan Rd.; 477-2109: From the comic conspirators who launched the improv-based ”LBJFKKK” and ”Love Me” comes an original dark comedy that
”promises to explore love, loneliness and death as they affect the lives of eight residents of a small, repressed town.”
”No Exit,” Aug. 31, Avenue Productions and Hellcat Theatre, 4223 N. Lincoln Ave.; 404-1780: Chris Cole directs a revival of Jean-Paul Sartre`s existentialist tragedy about a very modern afterlife where ”hell is other people.” For these tormented souls (played by F. David Roth, Laura J. Goltz, Megan Vaughan and Curtis Osmun) there is no escape from this stuffy room furnished in a hideous Second Empire style.
”South Pacific,” Sept. 5, Marriott`s Lincolnshire Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire; 708-634-0200: Dominic Missimi directs Rodgers and Hammerstein`s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, the story of how one woman`s love conquers her racial fears. Jeff Award-winning actress Kathy Santen plays Nellie Forbush and David Studwell is the man she meets one enchanted evening.
