Displaying items by tag: brian pastor

Riots of laughter greeted the City Lit Theater world premiere of “R.U.R. [Rossum’s Universal Robots]” Wait. Could this be the same 1920 science fiction play by Czech Karel Čapek? His 1937 science fiction piece at Trap Door Theater “The White Plague” was a serious treatment of public reaction to a very AIDS-like disease seemed to anticipate current history. He was a serious writer, not a comedian.

Yes, this is Čapek’s “R.U.R.,” credited for putting the word “robot” in our lexicon. And this story revolves around that same scientific genius who has figured out how to make advanced automatons, some of which we would call androids. 

But still suspicious, I flipped to Čapek’s original script and found a fast-paced 1930s melodrama that, played straight, would probably have come across as ludicrous. Faced with generating unintended laughter from the original, City Lit Theater opted for a comic version freely adapted by Bo List, one that maintains all the major plot points of the original, but plays them for like a screwball comedy. well directed by Brian Pastor.

Harry Rossum (Bryan Breau) has inherited an island factory where robots are churned out by the millions, and exported around the globe, intended mostly to supplant servants and factory workers. Harry Rossum's late father, a mad inventor, created the robot formulae, but his son has also innovated, creating the first cordless phone - it weighs 80 lbs. - no problem when you have a robot available to carry it for you.

Robot Radius (Sean William Kelly) ferries an 80-lb. portable phone wherever its inventor Harry Rossum (Bryan Breau) needs it.

As robots crowd out humans there is, needless to say, a public reaction. Rossum’s factory receives a visit by two advocates on the societal concerns: Nana (Shawn Tucker) who thinks robots should be removed from the globe; and Helena Glory (Madelyn Loehr) who believes the sentient robots should be given rights.

The playwright Bo List has incorporated AI into the storyline, and we meet more advanced, thinking robots like Sulla (Alex George) and Marius (Brendan Hutt) who learn on the go. Helena also happens to be the daughter of the mythical country’s president, and Harry is smitten with her. Romance ensues, and the comedy kicks in.

Unfortunately for the automatons, they have a limited lifespan and cease operating under this planned obsolescence after two years. Eventually Sulla and Marius lead a robot rebellion, seeking the secret formula that would allow robots to replicate themselves. Humor abounds.

Some of the jokes are inherent to the retro-science fiction premise. Robots operate typewriters, with precision typing at ungodly speeds. Or robots communicating with each other via telegram. In one gag that is flogged to death onstage, humans require a long explanation of why an intercepted robot telegram closes with LOL. The robots demonstrate what it means by laughing mechanically in unison. While I found some of the gags sophomoric, the conceptual humor had me laughing frequently.

Scenic design by Jeremiah Barr is quite successful, as are costumes for robots and humans, by Beth Laske-Miller.

“R.U.R. [Rossum’s Universal Robots]” runs through June 15, 2025 at City Lit Theater in the Edgewater Presbyterian Church, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr in Chicago. 

Brendan Hutt (left) is Marius and Alex George is Sulla in City Lit Theater's "R.U.R. [Rossum’s Universal Robots]” running through June 15, 2025.

*This review is also featured on https://www.theatreinchicago.com/!

Sometimes a play or a piece of music has such an effect on audiences that they can’t control themselves. Just as the premiere of Stravinky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ caused a stampede among patrons, John Millington Synge’s ‘The Playboy of the Western World’ incited a riot in its 1907 Dublin debut. Perhaps it was the political climate of Ireland at the turn of the century, or perhaps Synge’s play hits on a subliminal level not fully understood. The reaction was replicated in many cities in its American tour shortly after.

City Lit Theater revives ‘The Playboy of the Western World’ under the direction of Brian Pastor. Synge’s play tells the story of a strange man who comes upon a rural Irish alehouse and regales the crowd with a grizzly confession of murder. Christy Mahon (Joshua Servantez) is a meek farmhand who bashes his father over the head with a gardening spade. Though in disbelief at first, the villagers around the pub eventually take his word. Christy is raised in esteem among these simple folk as a hero as he explains the wickedness of his father. Soon he’s being chased by all the maidens in town, but two in particular vie for his affection. The alehouse owner’s daughter Pegeen Mike (Michaela Voit) and the Widow Quin (Brenda Wlazlo) become the two biggest contenders for young Christy’s heart. Emboldened by their pursuit of him, Christy starts getting a big head forgetting the once timid version of himself.

‘The Playboy of the Western World’ employs a large cast and in Pastor’s production the players work well together. Accents can sometimes be the Achilles heel of any production, but dialect coach Carrie Hardin’s work pays off. There’s a cohesion to the accents that help immediately place the audience in a time and place without distraction.

Michaela Voit is enchanting to watch as the young suitor to the flailing Christy. Joshua Servantez has all the charm and slapstick physicality to effectively communicate the shift in his persona once he becomes the town mascot. Though, the most touching and emotionally evocative performance comes from Brenda Wlazlo.

While the political turbulence of early 20^th century Ireland was in full swing at the time of this play’s premiere, there’s almost no mention of anything political in the play. In fact, despite its gruesome premise, ‘The Playboy of the Western World’ is a comedy. Synge’s characters end up idolizing Christy even more knowing he’s a murderer. In that regard, it would appear that very little has changed in 120 odd years. Perhaps that was the reason for the rioting during performances.  

‘The Playboy of the Western World’ fully lives up to its title. In this play we see an unredeemable character scheme his way to the top through dishonesty and vanity. The indictment of Irish morals is hard to argue by today’s standards, and so instead it remains relevant in its cheeky sense of humor and poetic dialogue. City Lit has mounted a faithful production that offers a great opportunity to acquaint oneself with this classic play.

Through August 14^th at City Lit Theater. 1020 W Bryn Mawr Ave. www.citylit.org

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, running through March 23 at Strawdog Theatre, is an exciting rendering of the courtroom battles that led to a fatal fall from grace for 19th century literary genius Oscar Wilde.

It is hard to imagine now, with the growing empowerment of the LGBT-plus community, that Wilde’s career was completely destroyed when his attraction to men was discovered and proven. He was sentenced to two years of hard labor, and he lost all his assets and his income, dying nearly destitute three years later.

Promethean Ensemble’s wonderful presentation of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (actually a revival of a 2016 production by these talented players), brings us playwright Moisés Kaufman’s 1997 debut work, which won an Outer Critics Circle Award for outstanding Off-Broadway play in New York.

The play has aged well, and is exceptionally well crafted, and carefully researched, drawing from court records, and liberally sprinkled with Wilde’s memorably entertaining expressions. It has all the power of a court room drama, and all the flair of Wilde’s colorful life and friends.

The Promethean Ensemble is in its element, with a work that is loaded with excellent language, and demanding versatility – as 8 actors take on more than 25 characters, plus Wilde. He was a great speaker and writer, and Jamie Bragg’s performance in the lead conveys his brilliant intellect, and great humor. The cast is large, and the characters plentiful – and while the casting includes several women playing men’s roles, gender identities disappear for the audience as soon as the performances commence.

Because it is a revival of an earlier production, with largely the same cast, Promethean hit the ground running even before opening night. Directed by Brian Pastor, the costumes by Uriel Gomez have a creative steam punk that cross the boundaries from 19th century to contemporary leather and safety pin fetishism. 

The first act describes Wilde’s creative world and his social circle, and at one point we leap to the present, as a scholar explains to a television interviewer that in his time, Wilde would not have conceived of himself as “gay,” but merely as a creative aesthete, who was unbound by contemporary mores and taboos, modeling himself after the ancient Greeks in his love for young men.

Wilde was “outed” by the Marquess of Queensbury, accusing him publicly of being homosexual in an effort to end Wilde’s relationship with his son, Lord Alfred Douglas. The Three Trials part follows from Wilde suing Queensbury for defamation, but losing when it was proven that he did have sex with men.

This evidence brought a new trial as Wilde was charged with "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons," a crime against a recently adopted law. We see enacted the excellent defense mounted by Wilde’s lawyer. But the trial ended in a hung jury, and Wilde was convicted in the third trial, and went to prison.

Wilde’s reputation was reclaimed over the decades, largely by the power of his writing. He is perhaps the second most prized author in English letters for such perfectly realized works las his novel, A Portrait of Dorian Gray, or his plays that remain popular to this day, such as Lady Windermere’s Fan, The Importance of Being Ernest, or The Ideal Husband.

Watching this show, I whispered to myself, “Brexit!” For the play brought to mind a rigidity seen in British Government, which under a Victorian sodomy law, felt duty-bound to continue its unfortunate legal pursuit of him – despite several junctures at which it would have been possible to do so gracefully.

Bound by expectations in a rigid social structure, the Crown’s legal apparatus went over a cliff with Wilde as they destroyed one of the leading lights of British culture, on behalf of the nobility class. (Likewise they are headed over a cliff by slavishly following the Brexit plebiscite – in my humble opinion.)

There is great tragedy there, both in Wilde's original decision to sue for slander, and in his ruin. At the time, Wilde had two immensely popular plays on London’s West End. These closed, cutting off his revenue, and allowing creditors to seize his assets, amid a scandal that, as we learn in Gross Indecency, he largely initiated himself. The Promethean Ensemble show runs through March 23 at Strawdog Theatre, and it is highly recommended.