“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, utilizing his weathered baby face (here with comically dark circles under his eyes) to portray the quintessential academic, as frazzled as he is self-assured. His manic mocking of the silent, stone-still Mephistopheles (Shapiro)—the Donny to Faustus’s Dude—alone proves sidesplitting enough to make the evening unmissable.”

Full review

Complete with “Big Lebowski” reference, for the kids!

From the Oobleckisphere:

On Wednesday, October 7, the lovely and charming Diana Slickman and cabaret host David Kodeski cohost Veggie Bingo at the Hideout. Come out and win prizes ranging from a a jar of honey gleaned from the bees atop City Hall to a bag of fresh vegetables from Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks. There may be some peculiarly Oobleckian prizes as well.

Proceeds from each night of Veggie Bingo go to help fund local community gardens and urban agricultural ventures; this week’s beneficiary is Videnovich Farms. It’s from 6 to 8 PM at the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, and cards are $1 a pop, or 6 for $5.

From Nina Metz, who makes a compelling case that Colm O’Reilly = JFK + Orson Welles.

“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.”

An unexpected rave from an out-of-towner:

“Shapiro is riveting in a role with one action and no lines, but it’s O’Reilly who keeps making you laugh (“I return with future beer and potatoes!” “I am a very annoyed person!”) and bringing you to tears with the wasted efforts and barely submerged regrets.

“Mickle Maher’s text is a wonder and by the time Mephistopheles turns off the lights and leaves through the other door you’re completely taken up.”

“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.”

A lovely write up from Don Hall, the Angriest White Guy in Chicago.

From Gapers Block:

“With none of the muffled anonymity of hiding behind rows of theater-goers, you and your fellow patrons become part of the play itself, causing both discomfort and a sense of common purpose and witness to O’Reilly’s masterful turn as the man who sold his soul to the devil.”

“This (Too Much Light) was the most exciting thing in Chicago
theater- this and Theater Oobleck’s, “The Spy Threw His Voice.” Those
two things blew me away.”

So sayeth Stephen Colbert, in an interview conducted by NeoFut intern Willy Applebaum, posted yesterday on John Pierson’s blog documenting the checkered history of the NeoFuturists, and (by inevitable extension) the Chicago fringe in general. Keep scrolling down for fantastically detailed interviews with Oobleck regular Diana Slickman and irregulars Heather Riordan and Scott Hermes.

The site Cheeky Chicago plugs our show.

John Beer previews Faustus in this week’s issue of Time Out Chicago. Thanks, John!

“In the 1999 run of this two-character Faust legend redux, Colm O’Reilly wowed audiences by doing absolutely nothing. As Faust ranted and whined, O’Reilly (perhaps the most unnerving actor in the city) played Mephistopheles as a silent, motionless, menacing presence. The show became an enduring fringe hit. Almost a decade later, Colm returns to “Faust,” but in a new role. This time, he gets to talk.”

Go here for the full listing.

Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome!

Thursdays in October (and one in November) Theater Oobleck presents:

Cabaret Oobleck
Hosted by BoyGirlBoyGirl member and Oobleck collaborator David Kodeski, the cabaret showcases a rotating lineup of some of Chicago’s favorite fringe musicians and performers in the cozy confines of the Chopin’s downstairs lounge.

Click here for a schedule of performances
(Please revisit us for updates; schedule is subject to change!)

“An extravagant, hilarious, and ultimately unnerving monologue about the sublime meaninglessness of nearly all human endeavors.”

One of the “Best Bets” in the Reader’s Fall Arts Guide. Read the whole thing.

Mind the dust, this is the new Oobleck web site. It’s still a work in progress, but we wanted to get it up and running in advance of the upcoming An Apology… remount. Lots of content is not up yet, the plays section is mostly placeholders at the moment, but we’ll be backfilling historical content over time. Hopefully this fancy shmancy dynamic whatsit will lead to more regular, wide-ranging, and media-rich updates. Drop us a line if you have a comment or suggestion, or if you find something not working so well.

An Apology... photos by Kristin Basta.

“Mickle Maher’s masterful re-imagining of Faustus and his tropes is a breath of fresh air, an inspired feat of literary imagination.” –New City

“This offbeat, intimate show…. [is] quick, sharp, and, contrary to Doctor Faustus’ pessimistic view, quite memorable.” –Chicago Tribune

“It’s hard to miss Mickle Maher’s brilliance in this ingenious retooling of the Faust legend.” –Chicago Reader

“An Apology… is a flight of frightening fancy that dares to ask and answer some difficult questions, and does so with a haunted spirit that’s as absorbing as it is unnerving.” –Windy City Times

HALE BELLOW WELL MET
Isaacson has a bloody good time.

Aristophanes’ merciless lampoon of Socrates in the comic playwright’s The Clouds, figuring the philosopher as a manipulative fraud, helped lay the path to the hemlock cocktail, according to Plato. The late U. of C. professors Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom are beyond the reach of the law, but from the moment Strauss (Shapiro) appears onstage leading a snarling Bloom (Troy Martin) on a chain, Dorchen’s savage, inventive and very funny new play places itself squarely in the Aristophanic tradition. It’s debatable how much blame these godfathers of neoconservatism deserve for the litany of Bush/Cheney-related evils with which Dorchen saddles them via a remorseful Saul Bellow (Isaacson). Still, Strauss at Midnight’s righteous anger over the calumnies of these self-styled philosopher-kings provides a corrosive, invigorating force in what otherwise might be just a goofily entertaining time-travel scenario.

The setup: The poker table around which The Odd Couple’s Oscar Madison (Ward) gathers his cronies has become a kind of transdimensional Yggdrasil connecting his apartment to the afterlife in which Bellow kvetches endlessly at his colleagues. Meanwhile, as in Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder,” a time traveler has created one of those chrono-synclastic infundibulums by killing a butterfly. The play’s a little too in love with its own cleverness, and the succession of metafictional metatheatrical metarecognitions eventually gets metalabored. But who could help loving a show in which Oscar and Felix (Brian Nemtusak) give voice to their long-repressed longings? Oobleck’s characteristically assembled an impressive roster of fringe talent, among whom Isaacson, veering from petulance to anguish, stands first among equals. –John Beer, Time Out Chicago

Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum talks about Strauss at Midnight in this post, calling it “brilliantly excessive.”

Strauss at Midnight photos by John Sisson.

video by Danny Thompson.