P.G. Wodehouse was too funny a writer to rely only on the twit Bertie Wooster or the unflappable valet Jeeves. “Cocktail Time,” which continues the adventures of another Wodehouse character, Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, “the first earl of good old Ickenham,” is a sequel to City Lit’s 2001 “Uncle Fred in the Springtime.”
Opening Monday in a staging by Kevin Theis, this diversion promises blackmail and blighted love, constables and con men, even an irate swan. The tomfoolery is triggered when someone shoots off Sir Raymond Bastable’s hat with a Brazil nut, after which affable Uncle Fred counsels him to write a novel exposing the folly of today’s youth. The tell-all novel triggers a scandal that threatens Bastable’s political career.
The humor, a fusion of slapstick and wordplay, is vintage Wodehouse but, according to adaptor Page Hearn, different from the more popular Jeeves stories.
“The chief contrast is that the Jeeves stories rely on Bertie’s clueless narration for the humor; the audience is ahead of the action, as Bertie never is,” Hearn says. “The Uncle Fred series is more farcical. Most of the action happens on stage [and] there are reversed expectations and hilarious surprises even with such solid stereotypes as an American gangster and his moll.”
In the midst of all this chaos Uncle Fred remains cool as a cucumber, relishing the conflicts he inadvertently creates. “He’s a blend of Bertie and Jeeves, a charming man about town who is inherently wise,” says Hearn.
“COCKTAIL TIME” runs through Jan. 12 at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.; $18, $24; 773-293-3682.
“A CHRISTMAS STORY,” Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Rd., Munster, Ind.; $25, $30; 219-836-3255: Ralphie, an 8-year-old boy living in Depression-era Indiana, desperately wants a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, but Mom and his teacher aren’t keen on the idea (“You’ll shoot your eye out!”). Pursuing his perfect present, Ralphie encounters a very impatient Santa and is visited by his grown-up self, dressed as a cowboy.
Opening Friday and based on the late Jean Shepherd’s memoir of growing up in Depression-era Hammond, Ind., Philip Grecian’s adaptation (with Hammond changed to Hohman) celebrates a return to innocence via a ton of nostalgia.
The 1983 film version, also based on Shepherd’s work, popularized the story with a whole new audience. “The film has become a cult holiday favorite–people remember every detail,” says Theatre at the Center artistic director Michael Weber. “This is the Chicago premiere of the new play version that Shepherd was working on until his death in 1999.
“You can really taste the state in the story–the gales that blow off of Lake Michigan, going to the old Goldblatts department store, listening to the Orphan Annie radio show, dressing up to go downtown to look at the magical Christmas windows,” Weber muses. “It’s a time trip, complete with the sights and sounds of America’s heartland in 1938.” Closes Dec. 22.
“THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET,” Chicspeare Production Company at Ebenezer Auditorium, 1650 W. Foster Ave.; $12; 773-769-2056: According to director Ann James, whose revival of Shakespeare’s thinking-man’s tragedy opens Sunday, “the answers to the play’s questions are not metaphysical–they are found in our relationships with others.”
And she’s not just referring to Hamlet’s tragedy: A communal curse proves equally fatal to Polonius, his daughter Ophelia, her brother Laertes, the king and queen, even the flunkies Rosencrantz and Guildenstern–eight dead in total, four in the final scene of slaughter.
James questions if the ghost of Hamlet’s father is an apparition or a demon, coming to warn of present danger or to seek revenge for past wrongs. Can the desire for revenge infect even its most idealistic agent?
James promises a different look at Shakespeare’s conflict-ridden anti-hero. “We’re treating the soliloquies as conversations with the audience; our Hamlet considers the unseen audience the only people he feels safe with and can confide in,” says James. “He’s much more extroverted than traditional Hamlets; he reacts to real menaces. This is a raging Hamlet, angry at the court’s corruption, at feeling trapped, at lacking a place in Denmark.”
An improv-trained actor and soccer player, Jonathan Pereira intends to play the manic prince with loose-limbed physicality. Closes Dec. 15.
“ON THE VERGE,” Circle Theatre, 7300 W. Madison St., Forest Park; $19; 708-771-0700: Eric Overmeyer’s very playful play, which opens Friday in a staging by Greg Kolack, depicts three intrepid Victorian women setting out on a journey to destinations unknown. At a point in their journey, they begin to travel forward in time, eventually ending in Nicky’s Peligrosa Paradise Bar and Grill in 1955.
“On the Verge” is a feast of language, clashing cultures and enduring archetypes. (For better or worse, some things, especially people, don’t change.) “The challenge is the language, an abundance of words many of which the audience may never have heard of,” says Kolack. “The trick with the language is just to treat it as naturally as possible and let the humor happen and not force it down the audience’s throat.”
The charm, Kolack notes, is in the juxtaposition of Victorian women and un-Victorian surroundings. “A lot of things we take for granted are all new to them,” says Kolack. “Imagine if you had never experienced rock and roll, Cool Whip, Burma Shave, President Eisenhower’s campaign buttons–the oddness we take for granted comes back in this comedy.” Closes Dec. 15.
