OPENINGS
Friday
“Merchant on Venice” — through Nov. 4 by the Silk Road Theatre Project at Pierce Hall, Chicago Temple Building, 77 W. Washington St.; $28-$33, 888-745-5849, 312-857-1234 and www.srtp.org. Chicago’s booming Silk Road Theatre Project presents the world premiere of a modern verse play by Shishir Kurup, a Bombay-born actor-playwright and member of the Cornerstone Theater Company.
“A Steady Rain” — through Oct. 28 by Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave.; $22-$28, 312-633-0630 and www.chicagodramatists.org. Chicago’s long-standing home for the development of new plays presents the work of local writer Keith Huff. Set on the streets of Chicago, the piece deals with the relationship of two Chicago police officers embroiled in the investigation of a domestic disturbance.
“Splatter Theatre” — through Nov. 2 at the Annoyance Theatre, 4830 N Broadway; $15, 773-561-4665 and www.theannoyance.com. In honor of the 20th anniversary of its founding, the reborn Annoyance Theatre reprises one of its classics — a live spoof of the horror movie genre, replete with copious amounts of fake blood spewing all over the theater.
Saturday
“Thyestes” — through Oct. 21 by Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave.; $38-$54, 773-753-4472 and www.courttheatre.org. The iconic, oft-controversial director JoAnne Akalaitis returns to her frequent stomping ground at the Court Theatre to produce Caryl Churchill’s translation of this rarely produced tragedy by the Roman scribe Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
Sunday
“Fiction” — through Nov. 4 by Remy Bumppo Theatre at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.; $24-$40, 773-871-3000 and www.remybumppo.org. The 2007-08 season at the Remy Bumppo Theatre Company begins with Steven Dietz’s look at the complex marriage of two novelists.
“Desire Under the Elms” — through Nov. 11 by Hypocrites at Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St.; 312-409-5578 and www.the-hypocrites.com. Rarely conventional in their approach, the Hypocrites open their new season with a take on the Eugene O’Neill classic of repression and desire.
Monday
“The Defiant Muse” — through Oct. 28 by Victory Gardens at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave.; 773-871-3000 and www.victorygardens.org. It’s been a while since the Victory Gardens produced the work of resident playwright Nicholas A. Patricca. But his season opener is a swashbuckling, 17th Century tale evoking the theatricality of Baroque theater.
CLOSINGS, last chance
Sunday
“The Color Purple” — The Broadway musical version of Alice Walker’s great novel winds up its run in sweet home Chicago. The cast includes the charismatic Felicia P. Fields, who originated Sofia, and who has blossomed into a major star. To its credit, this show doesn’t run from the sexual complexities of Walker’s book. But it’s primarily an optimistic show about an impoverished black woman who learns the potency of believing in yourself. At Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.; $28-$85 at 312-902-1400.
