Although it doesn`t get the notice of Louisville`s Humana Festival, Chicago Dramatists Workshop`s annual play exposition is an efficient way to sample our home-grown talents. ”Playwrights for the `90s,” the fourth showcase of short plays, ranges from satirical to surreal. The never-dull results provide a core sample of the style and subjects of five Chicago playwrights.
Cleverly mounted by Russ Tutterow, the most ambitious venture is Joe Urbanik`s subversive ”God Shed His Grace.” Delighting in a Feiffer-like social caricature, the playwright compares the jingoistic press coverage of the Persian Gulf war to a mother`s unscrupulous attempt to help her daughter win a speech contest.
Like the Scud missiles he spoofs, Urbanik can sometimes miss his targets, but he takes well-earned swipes at TV sportscasters who overindulge in military metaphors, battlefield reporters who bully the rest of the press to please the Pentagon and home-front correspondents who thrive on the grief of mothers. Caught in the cross-fire is the 13-year-old girl (Erin Creighton)
whose awkward honesty about the worth of the war slams home the message:
Winning can cost too much. Robert Bundy and Madelyn Spidle play the mercenary parents like out-of-control Disney automatons.
Racism is literally fried in ”If Looks Could Kill,” an overlong but crisply penned revenge fantasy by Michael E. Myers. A black man (John Spears), sick of being a cog in the ”status quota,” uses his glance to cremate bigots. Robert Teverbaugh`s staging cuts through the unsettling material with a swift sword, with enough pell-mell humor to lighten the load.
The funniest piece is wordless. Dominic Taylor`s ”But I Get Benefits”
absurdly reduces a tedious eight-hour workday to eight equally pointless minutes. Hilariously played by John Swanbeck, Robert Bundy is an office drudge who actually gets sucked into his desk, then desperately tries to break his boredom by avoiding as much work as possible.
Atmosphere prevails in ”The Gift,” Carolyn Nelson`s depiction of a woman who replays her life from the memories that flow as she watches her funeral. The vignette suffers from some unmemorable memories, but Swanbeck`s staging doesn`t let it sag.
Dan Conway`s cryptic ”Rubdown” depicts the artificially erotic relationship between a man (James Hallett) and a prostitute (Amanda Sullivan). Although Swanbeck`s staging captures the menacing way in which she feeds him more fantasies than he can take, Conway`s fragment only teases us with the hope of a role reversal.
”Playwrights for the `90s”
A showcase of short plays by the Chicago Dramatists Workshop. Directed by John Swanbeck, Robert Teverbaugh and Russ Tutterow, with a set by Steven E. Johnson, lighting by Jeff Pines and costumes by Dawn DeWitt. Opened Jan. 17 at 1105 W. Chicago Ave.; at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, through Feb. 8. Running time: 2:20. Tickets are $10. Phone 312-633-0630.
