The Plagiarists at the Berger Park Coach House blend Will Shakespeare and Billy Wilder
Had Shakespeare been born in 1964 instead of 1564, he would’ve been a child of the 1980’s with all the accompanying love of British New Wave, feathered hair, bad-girl bands and dying totalitarian states…well, some of them anyway. Four centuries later, he could’ve lived through it all and then written SOME LIKE IT RED.
The Plagiarists' SOME LIKE IT RED: Soundtrack of Someone’s life
The Plagiarists succeed in intertwining classic theatre with contemporary issues, human emotions and absurdities. Their latest such twisted enterprise in SOME LIKE IT RED plays off the Wilder classic, “Some Like It Hot” with a dash of the Bard’s Twelfth Night. With all the over-the-top acting of solid farce, the Plagiarists excel in entertaining the audience in the homey Berger Park Carriage House.
The troupe displays all the talent of performers of improvisation, although none of them are veterans of improv. They are naturals on stage and use great vocal strength with exaggerations of facial expression that serve to transport one into the story and remain for the duration. Their abilities as actors are the perfect twist for each of their characters’ terribly-acted scripted deceptions!
The script is a clever look back at the last gasps of Soviet-era “Peoples Republics” of Eastern Europe. Albeit chockful of corny, stock characters and a somewhat predictable plot, the play is sarcastic like a snarky high school student. It’s a fun peek into a time tunnel with a mirror at the end of the passageway. And it’s all packaged like a blaring boom box of ‘80’s music.
SOME LIKE IT RED will appeal to an adult crowd who enjoy farce and political/social satire.
RECOMMENDED
This play is now added to the Picture This Post round up of BEST PLAYS IN CHICAGO where it will remain until the end of the run.
Where
Berger Park Carriage House
6205 N. Sheridan Rd.
Chicago
When
Thru March 17th
Joseph Anthony Rulli is a transplanted Hoosier, living in Chicago since the fall of 2006. A 1987 graduate of the University of Notre Dame (BA, History) and a 1992 graduate of St. Meinrad School of Theology (MDiv) he taught Social Studies, Religion, Philosophy and History at the high school level. He began writing as a career upon his arrival to his second city and has had two short stories published, a stage play performed, an electronic tour book published online and The Chicago Haymarket Affair (History Press/Arcadia Publishing, 2016) his first print book.
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