THE OFF OFF LOOP THEATER FESTIVAL
Sunday, March 25, performances at the Theatre Building
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Old Wives Tales is easily the most offensive piece of theater I have ever seen. It features spikes pounded up vampire’s butts, necrophilia, incest, child molestation–all done in high comic, almost commedia dell’arte style. It is horrifying, but absolutely riveting. Famous Door’s talented performers clearly enjoy their no-holds- barred mission statement and give the piece an exuberantly defiant treatment. The wildly padded and protruding costumes set up the brutal farce that follows, and an onstage drummer heightens the atmosphere of rough savagery. The cast exhibits a passion and precision not often seen on Chicago stages. Dan Rivkin is especially interesting to watch in his portrayal of the old woman; he keeps the story line going no matter how strangely we get from tale to tale.
Old Wives Tales burns abhorrent images into the memory, which may be precisely what Famous Door had in mind, but it’s unfortunate for Musical Repertorie Theatre. That group follows with highlights from its current show, The Drunkard, a revival of an old melodrama, with new music by Barry Manilow, and performed in period costumes by a squeaky-clean cast. Predictably, it tells the story of a nice, clean young man who is driven to ruin by demon alcohol. Manilow’s music is no improvement over the original script’s barroom ballads and old standards–with one stunning exception, “The Garbagecan Blues,” a down-and-dirty number that sizzles with the desperate seductiveness of life in the streets, and has just the right touch of irony and melancholy.
The Sunday evening show–which is now the Sunday matinee–is much more mainstream and predictable than the above program, though it still contains plenty of variety in content and style.
