"One can see encapsulated in this passage not only Maher’s passionate engagement with language at diverse levels—from the rhetorical mastery of syntax and cadence to the semantic wizardry of words, their ability to conjure habitable worlds out of bare ice and air—but also two of the issues that drive Maher throughout his various theatrical follies. There is the idea of the impossible or meaningless project as not just an intellectual limit or an aesthetic curiosity, but an ethical necessity: a “life-duty.” And there is the sense of inescapable loneliness heightened by the attempt to communicate, as though the fundamental ethical task is to make one’s own singularity intelligible and thereby transcend it—a task which in Maher’s universe seems inevitably doomed to failure."

–John Beer, The Point

Read the whole thing.

“By far the best piece of theater I saw all year.”
–Don Hall

“A decade ago, the initial run of this diabolically clever monologue established the singular genius of playwright Mickle Maher, insouciantly infecting the Western canon with his dark brand of whimsy. This time around, Colm O’Reilly’s indelible performance as the soul-selling scholar, whispering and ranting his way through Maher’s hauntingly absurd and slippery language, made the chilly Chopin basement space the Chicago fringe’s epicenter. When David Shapiro’s silent Mephistopheles turned off the lights at play’s end, he left audiences as speechless as his character.”
–Time Out Chicago (10 best plays of 2009)

“intellectually spry and surprisingly funny”
–Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune (best fringe of 2009)

Top 5 Shows, Top 5 Male Performances
–Newcity

“….the noise of a human mind, full of second thoughts and second-guesses…”
–ChicagoStageReview

Sylvia Drake, of the podcast I Just Got Here, talks with Mickle Maher about Faustus, the Strangerer, the Hunchback Singspiel, theater-as-origami, and the fundamental weirdness of asking people to sit quietly in a dark room listening to other people talk for an hour or more. Highly entertaining!

The National Endowment for the Arts has selected Oobleck as one of 13 Chicago-area recipients of a $10,000 theater grant, to develop and produce “The Hunchback Variations Singspiel,” a musical adaptation of playwright Mickle Maher’s “The Hunchback Variations” to be created in collaboration with composer Mark Messing (Maestro-Matic, Mucca Pazza).

Wowie. That’s exciting.

The Hunchback Variations (the play) has been one of the most successful productions in Oobleck’s 21-year history, and one of the most unique (in a large field of unique works). And, as a play much concerned with music and sound and performance, it seems a natural idea to throw it fully into the embrace of music and sound and performance by making of it a singspiel, a work informed by the shapes and strictures of opera, musical theater, and spoken performance, but not bound by them. To stretch it further by giving it over to the innovative mind and talents of composer Mark Messing will set us on an entirely new course of exploration. New courses of exploration being, of course, at the core of our mission.

We are hoping to stage at least an early or workshop version of “The Hunchback Variations Singspiel” by the end of 2010.

(Haven’t seen “The Hunchback Variations”? Check out this excerpt from the 2005 PAC Edge production: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vdksHXH-xM.)

The Soup and Bread Cookbook, edited by Martha Bayne and featuring recipes from Oobleck regulars and irregulars Guy Massey, Kristin Basta, Chris Schoen, and David Kodeski, as well as a plethora of other Chicago writers, cooks, artists, and musicians, hit the streets this week.

Drawn from recipes provided during the three-month run of Soup and Bread, a fundraiser for the Greater Chicago Food Depository organized by Martha at the Hideout over the winter of 2009, the cookbook’s a great collection of 60 soups, breads, and miscellaneous baked goods. But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what Hugh Amano, proprietor of the excellent Food on the Dole has to say.

“The book is a significant document on the importance of food and community. It isn’t glitzy, nor are there any celebrity chef endorsements. It’s a super-local (is there any bar more local than The Hideout?) source of lore about and recipes for real food (what is more real than soup or bread?). It’s a book of genuine people from all angles of life sharing food and recipes with each other in an effort to help more others yet. As put forth by Martha, Soup and Bread is “an ‘everybody wins’ type of project”. And the cookbook is a beautifully designed, thoughtful extension of that.”

The book’s available for $20 at the Hideout, and at Renegade Handmade, Swim Cafe, Green Grocer Chicago, and Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand, the city-run grocery devoted to local, sustainable food and food products.

Don’t want to leave the house? The internet is here to help. Just click the PayPal link in the sidebar here and one will be shipped straight to your home for an additional $2 surcharge.

Tribune critic Nina Metz was in the house opening night; on the strength of her review lead theater critic Chris Jones popped in last weekend. He rereviews “An Apology …” on his blog:

“Most versions of the Faust legend concentrate on whether the good doctor’s decision to sell his soul to the devil was Medieval religious folly or the acute self-actualization of a Renaissance man. Back in 1996, the Chicago writer Mickle Maher tossed away all that in favor of a raw look at the state of mind of the whiny Dr. F., just before he hits the elevator down. As performed with deliciously retro and off-kilter eloquence by the inimitably grandiose Colm O’Reilly, this fascinating piece of avant-garde Chicago brain candy will put you in mind, terrifying mind, of your own last few minutes on terra firm, whether or not you bargained away eternity.”

Reina Hardy offers this brief assessment:

“Colm O’Reilly, one of the Fringe’s best and oddest miracles, reprises the show that kicked off his long collaboration with playwright Mickle Maher. As the time-trotting sorcerer Faust, addressing a quiet assembly of theater patrons on the precipice of hell, O’Reilly weaves a dingy but tangible magic.”

[Here’s the press release….]

Theater Oobleck’s “An Apology … “ Extended Through November 8; Now With Sunday Matinees!

“Playwright Mickle Maher brilliantly turns the soul-bartering magician’s bid for omniscience into a plea for meaning where there is none.” — Chicago Reader, recommended

“[Colm] O’Reilly gives a performance filled with incredible detail and subtlety, each twitch and twinge delivered in close-up. Here is an actor plainly having the time of his life.” — Chicago Tribune

“Did we mention the play’s hilarious? O’Reilly, who created the role of Mephistopheles in Apology’s 1999 premiere, now plays Faustus to frantic perfection. … Unmissable.” — Five stars, Time Out Chicago

“Maher’s play is at times maddeningly profound, silly, funny, angry, illogical, and as interpreted by the musical vocalizations of O’Reilly, completely mesmerizing. … Do yourself a favor. Go see this and bring that friend of yours that simply has no use for fringe theater. This is one of those exceptional things that can make the doubter of storefront theater a convert.” — Angry White Guy in Chicago

Thanks to rave reviews and sold-out crowds, Theater Oobleck is extending the run of Mickle Maher’s “An Apology …” through November 8. Performances are selling out fast; reservations highly recommended. For the complete critical roundup see the news feed at http://theateroobleck.com/news/ .

Please note we are also adding Sunday matinee performances on October 25, November 1, and November 8. Complete new performance dates and times are as follows:

Sunday, October 25, 3 PM

Friday, October 30, 8 PM
Saturday, October 31, 8 PM
Sunday, November 1, 3 PM

Friday, November 6, 8 PM
Saturday, November 7, 8 PM
Sunday, November 8, 3 PM

All performances are at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, Chicago. Tickets are $12 or pay-what-you-can — and, as ever, free if you’re broke; call 773-347-1041 or see theateroobleck.com for reservations and more.

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ALSO! Don’t forget CABARET OOBLECK, Thursdays through November 4 at 7:30 PM in the Chopin’s cozy downstairs lounge. All tickets $12 or pay what you can.

Coming up this week: the premiere of a new, Faust-themed piece by percussionist Michael Zerang and pianist Jim Baker; a monologue by BoyGirlBoyGirl’s Rachel Claff; and the debut of the stage-rock duo of Chris Schoen and Jenny Magnus. All this, plus master of ceremonies David Kodeski!

Programming subject to change; for more see theateroobleck.com.

We think they liked it….

“Together Maher and O’Reilly create a combination of brilliance that is alchemical. They leave a permanent tattoo on your mind, like surviving a tornado, being bitten by a Great White Shark or achieving a perfect orgasm. It taps into something beyond theater or literature. It is transdimensional, ripping an intellectual hole in the rational fabric of perceived space, time and experience. It is the stuff that universes spring from on other planes of existence.”

Full review is here.

Another great review, this one courtesy Paige Listerud — who was one of the first critics to see the original production at Berger Park.

“I don’t know how many have tired yet of critics comparing O’Reilly with Orson Welles. But where that comparison works in the play’s favor is in his ability to portray a genius utterly absorbed with his own self-importance. The darkness O’Reilly brings to the role doesn’t just lend gravity to Faustus’ outbursts, but creates with them an inexorably magnetic pull toward madness. “I don’t need to apologize to the whole world. I’m sick of the world,” says Faustus. Lines that could sound like clichéd world-weariness from another actor emerge from O’Reilly like a black vortex of futility, making his Faustus the evil of which he speaks. It’s a performance that unifies the Devil and the Devil’s prey.”