TURN YOUR HEAD AND KAFKA, OR IT’LL ONLY HURT FOR A MAMET
In early 1989, around the same time Second City reached its nadir with Del Close’s shockingly misogynistic and unintelligent return for one show, The Gods Must Be Lazy, several smaller improvisational companies around Chicago–most notably Cardiff Giant and Mick Napier’s Metraform–were showing that Viola Spolin’s improvisation games might still work. Surprisingly, many of the new and better improvisers in Cardiff Giant and Metraform had studied at Second City (Mick Napier even teaches there).
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It helps, I think, that the show begins with a skit about censorship that manages both to be fairly funny (despite some tiresome jokes about flag burning) and to give this company the sort of political point of view missing from so many recent shows. (It also can’t hurt for performers to begin every night by reaffirming their belief in the importance of self-expression!)
So does this mean we’ve entered a second golden age of Second City? Perhaps, but I doubt it. A lot of the playful freedom this cast bring to their work may well come from the fact that the stakes are lower in Rolling Meadows. Cast member David Razowsky suggested to me after the show that unlike their fellows at the theater on Wells, the cast of Second City Northwest are far away from the judging eyes of casting agents and producers. No one has to worry about not shining on the night someone from Saturday Night Live is in the audience, and so, paradoxically, everyone shines every night. It remains to be seen whether this playful spirit can be transplanted to (or rather, reified in) Old Town.
