Displaying items by tag: Linda Reiter

History is often said to be written by the victors, and few events illustrate this more clearly than the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Arthur Miller gave the historic event a new life in his 1953 allegorical play ‘The Crucible’. However, playwright Sarah Ruhl was piqued when she heard a story about Miller’s real inspiration for writing his classic play about neighborly betrayal. ‘Becky Nurse of Salem’ is Ruhl’s modern, humorous twist on the Salem Witch Trials.

Sarah Ruhl is one of the most popular American playwrights today. She has a knack for warmhearted, thought-provoking fantasies that showcase her highly creative storytelling approach. There’s no question ‘Becky Nurse’ has signature Sarah Ruhl elements, but in many ways this play is a departure–it’s angry.

Written during the Trump era, inspired by the eerie echoes of “Lock her up! Lock her up!”, ‘Becky Nurse of Salem’ is a bit of a blender of themes on modern American life. Becky is an unhappy 63-year-old woman giving tours of a dusty Salem Witch Trial museum. She’s a descendent of the real Rebecca Nurse who was executed during the Salem Witch Trials and to keep herself entertained; she tells tour groups “the real story” until her uptight boss lets her go. She’s also caring for her troubled granddaughter after her mother dies of an overdose. Becky is very lonely and takes comfort in opiods.

While this may not sound like the makings of a comedy, Ruhl’s play finds relatability in Becky Nurse. Afterall, who among us isn’t angry? Who isn’t outraged by the fact that over 300 years later, we haven’t fully learned the lessons of the Salem Witch Trials? Becky Nurse, is like all of us, flawed, and often unlovable but with her heart in the right place.

Shattered Globe Theatre brings ‘Becky Nurse of Salem’ to the Midwest after a 2022 Off-Broadway production. Directed by Ruhl’s longtime friend and collaborator, Polly Noonan, this revival feels like love is sewn into every hem. Leading the ensemble cast is Linda Reiter as Becky. Her performance fully embodies what it means to just be tired of the B.S. Her spiritual awakening is all the more earned by the play’s conclusion. And what’s a witch play without a little magic? SGT ensemble member Rebecca Jordan brings lightness to the darkness of the play with her rubbery affects and far out delivery as a real-life witch. Her scenes with Linda Reiter are some of the most fun to watch.

While watching ‘Becky Nurse of Salem’ there really does seem like a lot going on, but it’s after the play that you’ll realize how masterfully Sarah Ruhl intertwines so many hot button issues. This is Ruhl’s most serious work, and it also feels like her most urgent. Just like Arthur Miller, Ruhl bends the history of the Salem Witch Trials to serve her dire warning, and just like ‘The Crucible’ is an exciting exploration of where we’ve come from and where we’re going. Unlike Miller though, Ruhl leaves us with optimism.

Through November 16 at Shattered Globe Theatre. 1229 W Belmont Ave. 773-975-8150

Shattered Globe did its dramaturgy research very well, in bringing us the Chicago premiere of “Flood,” Mashuq Mushtaq Deen’s very funny, very fresh and highly relevant script. And boy does he have a gift for dialog. It is good, complex, and funny, and charged with barrels of meaning below that surface. “Flood” reminded me for all the world of Harold Pinter or Caryl Churchill's ominous, absurdist theater works, with a quality that is very much in a league with these revered masters.

Though Deen says he eschews television, and writes for the stage, “Flood” opens with a vintage musical fanfare drawn right out of 1960s television programs.
As the lights come up we see a living room setting in classic mid century modern style - very nicely done by Lauren Nichols, set design - with late middle-aged Darren (H.B. Ward), pudgy and rotund, at his work table, wearing safety glasses and a strange mask as he assembles a wood craft project. Each piece is selected and put in place with elaborate arm flourishes, letting us know Darren is at work on an effort of the utmost importance.

His wife Edith (Linda Reiter) enters stage left, bearing a teapot, and standing silently many minutes, lest, we suspect, she break Darren's concentration. The dramatic tension delivered in this silent scene is considerable. Reiter and Ward deliver consummate performances that are the essence of what skillful acting is all about.

Eventually Edith withdraws, returning sometime later, again with a teapot. This time Daren notices her, and a conversation ensues, both innocent and frought. It sounds like any couple jousting: Darren accuses Edith of hiding from him, which she denies, noting that she is manifestly available, but that he just doesn’t notice her.

In the conversation, playwright Deen gradually increases the underlying tension in the scene, and their lives overall come into stark relief. We learn that they plan to share tea together, which Edith ardently wishes for, but Darren (H.B. Ward) says this can only happen in the future, when he finishes the great work in which he is involved at the table.

At this moment, the conversation has leapt into another dimension, as Edith queries when he will be finished.
“Add that to the book of unanswerable questions,” Darren says.
To which Edith replies, “You like me because I ask you unanswerable questions.”

Edith's pressure for Darren to finish and share tea with her elicits a vague indication from her husband that it will be “in the future.” Darren asks, “Would you deny me my dreams?” to which Edith asks, profoundly, “When will the future come?”

We eventually hear a discussion of the sex “in a parking lot” that led to their children, and later, we meet these children: Darren Junior (Carl Collins) and Edith Junior (Sarah Patin) who speak to their parents from their apartment by phone. The generational divide is expressed here, with trenchant relevance: the children are complaining of their suffering from the effects of the environmental crisis (flooding), while their parents live in a dream loop of denial, Edith all the while encouraging her offspring to look on the bright side of things. It's a conversation for the ages, and of the moment being replayed across America continuously.

“Flood” is both humorous, and a remarkable snapshot of intergenerational dynamics. And the play is mysterious as well. An intensely engaging 90 minutes perfectly cast and directed by Kenneth Prestininzi, who directed the world premiere in Kansas City as well. "Flood" runs through March 9 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago.  

Sometimes we see couples in restaurants and think how on earth did they ever end up together? Sadly, the couple in question might be feeling the same way. Is it the idea of settling or just assumed gender roles that lead so many married couples to this place? Will Eno’s play ‘The Realistic Joneses’ makes its area debut at Shattered Globe Theatre in a collaboration with Theater Wit. Shattered Globe is particularly well known for ensemble acting, Jeremy Wechsler (also artistic director) directs this 2014 dark comedy.

After a star-studded run on Broadway, Eno’s suburban play finally comes to Chicago. While hard to categorize, ‘The Realistic Joneses’ is an unsettling look at a couple’s battle with a degenerative disease. Middle-aged Jennifer Jones (Linda Reiter) is caring for her husband as he succumbs to an ALS-like illness. She feels taken for granted and begs her husband Bob for the emotional intimacy it seems she’s been waiting on for years. Their lonely lives change when a young, mysterious couple with the same last name moves in next door. With a strange but oddly satisfying dialogue cadence, Jennifer and Bob get perhaps too close to their new neighbors Pony (Cortney McKenna) and John (Joseph Wiens).

Will Eno proves with this play that loose ends and uncertainty are okay in life and in theatre. Joseph Wiens captures the at times absurd, but insightful dialogue in a way that makes it almost seem not absurd. There’s a familiarity in his delivery. We’ve all met someone like this and Eno digs deeper to show us why characters like this exist in an orderly world. Cortney McKenna plays his bubbly wife Pony with such sincerity that you almost forget how absurd her lines are as well. Crazy as what these two characters say to each other and their neighbors sounds, there’s a rooted sense of honesty that Eno suggests is the key to a happy life and relationship. It is Linda Reiter’s performance that ups the emotional ante of the play. Bits of anger boil through a strong exterior which makes the conclusion even more bleak.

This is a solid play but perhaps not for everyone. Shattered Globe marketing materials uses a quote which says this is one of the strongest plays since Tony Kushner’s 1993 Pulitzer winner ‘Angels in America.’ Though this play is good, it’s not anywhere close to the monolith that is ‘Angels in America.’ This is a tight hour and a half stroll through the everyday lives of two couples that share the same name. In it there are nuggets of wisdom about everyday life that may not have a ton of plot-weight, but stick with you for days after. There’s a lot to unpack in this piece and surely nobody will leave saying “I didn’t get it.” Eno sticks closely to a reality we all understand; sickness, death, love and where we all fit into it.

Through March 9 at Shattered Globe at Theater Wit. 1129 W Belmont Ave. 773-975-8150

Rose, the one-woman show featuring the matriarch of the Kennedy family, has returned to the Greenhouse Theater Center. In an extraordinary performance by Linda Reiter, Rose provides a back-story on the family dynamics at play among the Kennedy’s - a window into the powerful maternal force that delivered so many dynamic individuals, including two Senators and a President, to the public sphere.

The show received accolades during its 2016 incarnation, and it is easy to see why. But the social landscape has changed mightily since then. But it was probably not planned that way at Greenhouse Theater. The current run, which coincides with the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s election, serves as a commentary on the times - with a Presidency that has moved into what Peggy Noonan has called a “post heroic” phase. 

Highly successful in its original run in Chicago and off-Broadway, this 120-minute, one-act script by  Laurence Leamer artfully chronicles the trials of the long-suffering Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Though during the days when her sons Jack, Robert, and Ted Kennedy were in office, Rose Kennedy was a more behind the scenes public force than another comparable political scion, Barbara Bush, in her day.

“I’d rather be the mother of the President than the President,” Rose tells us, moving around a sitting room of French provincial furniture, in slacks, sweater and pearls, and her signature black bouffant hairdo. She lifts the many photos and peruses albums, some of which are also projected on a wal behind the set.

The details into the family come from years of research by author Leamer, who wrote a best-selling trilogy on the Kennedys - The Kennedy Women, The Kennedy Men and Sons of Camelot - all New York Times best sellers. Leamer was subsequently given access to 50 hours of taped interviews with Rose Kennedy, which provide a previously unseen look into the family, including infidelities and troubling dynamics of her marriage to Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., a successful businessman, and appointed by Franklin Roosevelt as the first chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission. He is known also to Chicagoans as the owner of the Merchandise Mart.

Chicago actress Linda Reiter reprises her role, in an excellent, highly polished performance that will draw a tear as she recounts the many successes of her offspring, four of whom (Jack assassinated in 1963 and Robert in 1968; her oldest Joseph, dies in an air force bombing mission 1944; and Kathleen in a 1947 plane crash).

It is a telling commentary on the cultural landscape that the relevance of Rose is quite changed. During its 2016 run, Artistic Director Jacob Harvey anticipated former first lady Hillary Clinton as a first woman U.S. President.  And one whose spouse had leveraged political links to the Kennedy family during his Presidential campaigns.  

But that was not how it turned out. And so how do we look at Rose today?

Leamer presents a full-dimensioned character with Rose, who is revealed over the course of this 100-minute one-act by her one-sided conversation with an unseen visitor, who arrives soon after Ted Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick scandal cum tragedy.

Periodically phone calls interrupt – her daughters Eunice and Pat; the widow Jacqueline. She is hoping to hear from Teddy, her only remaining son, but he is AWOL for the moment.

In the face of this latest blow to the family, Rose is seeking solace in the Greek tragedies, citing Hecuba, a play by Euripides.

This detail by Leamer gives the play heft and illuminates its underpinnings; we are to see Rose as a woman who has suffered unbearable pain, and yet she endures. Her ancient counterpart Hecuba has several parallels to Rose: she lost her throne as queen when Troy fell; she had nineteen children with wealthy King Priam; she saw a daughter Polyxena sacrificed by enemies, and her youngest son, Polydorus, murdered by enemies.

Rose Kennedy had nine children with wealthy Joseph P. Kennedy; she lived to see two assassinated and two killed in crashes.

Euripides Hecuba is driven mad by her suffering. Rose handles it with Stoicism – another gift of the Greeks, though her version comes by way of the Catholic Church of Irish-Americans.   

“My faith is a discipline, a path from which I never wander,” Rose tells us. She references the Greeks again in a quote favored by her son, Bobby - “God, whose law it is that he who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despite, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.”

If the Presidency is in a post-heroic phase, the play Rose gives us access to the powerful story of the a more congenial moment in time when individuals and leaders asked not what the country could do for them, but what they could do for the country. Rose runs through March 11 at the Greenhouse Theater Center.

Chicago actress Linda Reiter plays Rose Kennedy, matriarch of the Kennedy family in the play "Rose" by Laurence Leamer, with both strength and delicacy. I have seen Linda Reiter around town in many great productions but this is truly her finest and fullest role, deserving of a Jeff Award (the Chicago version of the Tony Awards). 

Leamer, a Kennedy biographer, built the entire play on forty hours of taped interviews taken by Robert Coughlan, who was the ghostwriter of Rose Kennedy's own memoir in 1974. Leamer attained the tapes after Coughlin’s death in 1992 where the tapes found home on a shelf until just recently when Leamer finally chose "deal with them", the result being this spectacular and intimate one-woman show.

Kind of a rise and fall of the Kennedy’s from Rose’s viewpoint, I learned many interesting and sad facts from this piece that I'm sure the public is unaware of. For one, Rose mentions in the show that she felt a delay in the doctor’s arrival that caused her daughter Rosemary's "slowness" or what we would call today very mildly mentally challenged due to oxygen deficiency at birth. 

I was unaware of the circumstances and motive behind the lobotomy Rosemary was given. Apparently, the beautiful, but "slow" Rosemary was an embarrassment to Joe Kennedy so she was sent to live with some nuns in Europe - out of sight out of mind Joe thought. But when Rosemary had just barely reached adulthood she began to sneak out in the night to meet men and have adult experiences in the local towns, Joe feared she would become pregnant ruining his and his sons’ chances for political success. 

At that time only five hundred lobotomies had been performed in the world and only on the most violent of criminals. So without telling her mother Rose he took Rosemary to a doctor who supposedly specialized in such a procedure. The doctor administered some topical anesthetic to Rosemary's forehead and told her to sing a song. Beautiful Rosemary with her big eyes and full lips trustingly and with no knowledge of what the doctor's visit was for, asked her father what to sing. Joe said, “Sing Danny Boy, that's a good one." The doctor carved away at Rosemary's frontal lobe until she stopped singing. Later Joe told Rose that '"His daughter sang ...for too long." 

Rose was bound with this horrible secret and did not tell the rest of the family because she knew they would never feel the same way about their father again. Rose later wonders if she had let them know if they would have bowed to his wishes so complacently, sometimes leading eventually in some way to that child's death - either fighting at war or when Joe refused to let Kathleen marry the man she loved out of their religion. 

Sadly, Rose herself only visited Rosemary once twenty-some years later in the nunnery her daughter was returned to after the disastrous lobotomy. She said Rosemary actually recognized her and had gained a lot of weight but cursed at her, turning her back until the nuns came and said Rose must leave because her presence was upsetting her daughter.

I truly believe this one act of tortuous father to daughter betrayal in the Kennedy family was the beginning of the so called "curse" on the Kennedy clan. Reiter brilliantly describes with heart wrenching poignancy this unbelievable story along with the deaths and mourning of the rest of her children - one by one, many of whom she also gave birth to alone as Joe was usually on vacation in Florida with other women) while she was pregnant and giving birth. 

Ironically, it was Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver who started the Special Olympics, perhaps the only good thing to come of Rosemary's terribly unfair and cruel life and demise. 

Reiter, as Rose, fondly recalls her memories of Jack, who grew up sickly, still suffering from chronic pain even in his days as President. Almost dying from surgery performed in his youth, she explains how Jack defied the odds, fulfilling his destiny. She describes in detail how Jack looked up to his older brother Joe and the devastation felt upon his untimely death from a plane crash. She describes Bobby as Jack’s protector stating, “There wasn’t anything Bobby wouldn’t do for Jack.” Reiter skillfully captures the pride of a mother upon speaking of their achievements and also the worry and pain as she reminisces the family’s misfortune.      

The play is inter-cut with wonderful photos of the entire Kennedy clan including Rosemary, which I had never seen before. Throughout the play the phone occasionally rings as Rose nervously waits to hear from her son Teddy who is running later than usual. After all, he is her only remaining son as she tells her story and though Rose’s disappointment is apparent that Teddy is not on the other end of the line, the audience gets to hear her conversations with various family members including Jackie Onassis Kennedy. 

Kennedy buffs or not, historians all the same will certainly enjoy this masterful piece that Reiter executes so very well. In “Rose”, we as audience members, get an up close and personal view of the Kennedy’s rise and the many tragedies that later claimed the lives and health of one of America’s most prestigious families. Reiter performs brilliantly in this history-filled treasure, “Rose”, a part of Greenhouse Theater Center’s Solo Celebration.  

I highly recommend this beautifully crafted and factually stimulating play with Linda Reiter delivering possibly the finest performance of her life. “Rose” is being performed at Greenhouse Theater Center through September 25th. For more information on tickets and curtain times, visit www.GreenhouseTheater.org.