“American Dead,” Chicago playwright Brett Neveu’s latest work, opens Monday at American Theater Company and is the story of Lewie, a man unable to recover from the death of his sister. His brother-in-law moves away to start life with his new bride, and Lewie is left alone with only his memories.
Drinking, longing for a connection, summoning up supposedly happier times, unable to communicate, and worrying over past misdeeds, Lewie (played by James Leaming) struggles in his dying hometown.
According to director Edward Sobel: “Brett Neveu writes with extraordinary economy, combining a probing analysis of social problems with a personal story of a man’s struggle to find meaning through a tragic event.”
Adds A.T.C. artistic director Damon Kiely: “Brett is a true poet of the Midwest. He uses silences better than most playwrights use words. Indeed the play’s power lies in what isn’t being said.”
The play is not just about one man, but also about the trajectory of a small town. “The death of the town is the `elephant in the room’ no one talks but everyone thinks about. It colors every conversation and makes connections that much tougher,” Kiely says.
“The surprising comedy in `American Dead’ comes when people blab on about the trivial, in an effort to cover up the crucial. We laugh with them, as they obsess over the everyday.” In that at least a small town is scarcely different from a big city.
“AMERICAN DEAD” runs through March 21 at American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron St.; $25, $30; 773-929-1031.
“THE KILLER ANGELS,” Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave.; $20; 773-761-4477: The battle of Gettysburg will be fought again in Rogers Park. Opening Monday, Karen Tarjan’s adaptation of Michael Shaara’s 1975 Pulitzer-winning novel chronicles the bloodiest single event in American history from the troops’ initial clumsy clashes to Pickett’s famous charge.
This sprawling epic pits, among others, rebels Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet against Union warriors George Meade and brothers Joshua and Tom Chamberlain in a three-day clash that ended July 3, 1863, with a Union victory.
Shaping this combat, as he did Lifeline’s much-praised Tolkien adaptations, director and fight choreographer Ned Mochel lacks the necessary 250,000 extras to make the production historically accurate. So he adjusts. “The wonderful thing about this novel is how it focuses on what went through the generals’ minds rather than specific combat,” Mochel says. “It’s as if the narrators are embeds describing the action before a huge map that changes with the struggle. Though there’s some stylized man-to-man combat, overall the emphasis is on the emotional journey of the generals that led the battle.” Closes April 18.
“BURYING THE BONES,” Stage Left Theatre, 3408 N. Sheffield Ave.; $18-$22; 773-883-8830: The latest installment in the theater’s “Tracing the Roots” season, Chicago playwright Margaret Lewis’ new work opens Tuesday to present the testimony of Mae, a widow haunted by the apparition of her vanished spouse. Mae turns to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of post-apartheid South Africa to find the truth about her tragedy.
For author Lewis, this cautionary tale is about the lengths a country will go to when it imagines that it’s in danger. “I want to show what can happen when we allow an army to do whatever they want in the name of the nation,” she says. “My plays explore what people will do when they’re given carte blanche to become whatever they want.”
Says director Kevin Heckmen, “We need to look a the damage that can be caused by a society at war with itself.” Closes April 3.
“THE GRADUATE,” Shubert Theatre, 22 W. Monroe St.; $20-$70; 312-902-1400: Opening Tuesday and based on the 1967 Oscar-winning film, this touring production of the Broadway comedy about an innocent college grad seduced by an older woman features “Sopranos” star Lorraine Bracco as Mrs. Robinson.
Bracco inherits the sultry role that Anne Bancroft carried to erotic extremes playing opposite a wide-eyed Dustin Hoffman.
Just as tricky as playing the predator is the challenge of making the victim as believable as he is comic. Nominated for a Tony Award in 1992 for the role of Jason in “Falsettos,” Jonathan C. Kaplan portrays the title character, a fly who wanders into one woman’s well-woven web. “Everybody remembers this as a dark comedy but that’s in part because Benjamin Braddock has no idea that he’s funny,” Kaplan says of his character. “That’s how I play him.” Closes March 14.
