Song About Himself (at Theater on the Lake)
“Of [Maher’s] many artful, resonant plays, this one has the potential to eclipse them all.” — Chicago Reader
“Recommended… It is a rich psychological and metaphysical landscape through which to travel.” — Newcity
“Maher crafts an engaging, resonant online ode.” — TimeOut Chicago
★ ★ ★ “Ultimately Maher is digging his finger around in that gaping hole of what it means to connect with another person — the wistful, persistent desire for it, and the technology that we’ve come to rely on to make so much of it possible.” — Chicago Tribune
Song About Himself
July 8 – 19, 2015
Wednesdays – Saturdays 7:30pm
Sundays 6:30pm
Berger Park Coach House
6205 N. Sheridan Road
$10
Advance tickets available on-line.
After a great run at the DCASE Storefront Theatre, the great folks at the Chicago Park District’s Theater on the Lake are bringing back Oobleck’s Song About Himself for a return engagement, two weeks only in July.
Please note that Theater on the Lake’s usual venue is undergoing renovation, and this show will be at the Berger Park Coach House.
Mickle Maher sets his latest play in a dystopian future where the Internet has been effectively destroyed by viruses and malware, and people communicate in little more than mumbles.
Looking for human interaction of any kind, Carol ? a woman made extraordinary by her ability to speak relatively clearly ? signs in to a mysterious social media site created by a rogue artificial intelligence within the Web itself, only to find that, strangely, she is its only member. The secrets she uncovers there will either cure or break her lonely heart.
Employing extremely minimalist staging and an original form of ornate verse derived from a corruption of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Song About Himself goes at the question every play asks: “Do words, in the end, help?”
The cast is made up of Oobleck ensemble members Colm O’Reilly and Diana Slickman, with H.B. Ward.
Song About Himself is presented as part of the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks with the support of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Arts programming in neighborhoods across the city advances the goals of the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Cultural Plan.
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Song About Himself at TOTL week 2 starts today
After an excellent first week of shows, Song About Himself is back this week for the final five performances of its run at Theater on the Lake. These are what may be your last few chances to see this show. Come join us, won’t you?
Photo by Jerry Schulman
posted 07/15/2015
TimeOut hails "an engaging, resonant online ode."
TimeOut Chicago’s Kris Vire writes:
Borrowing equally from WWW and W.W.—as in Walt Whitman, whose Leaves of Grass plays into the virtual poetry—Maher crafts an engaging, resonant online ode.
Photo by Evan Hanover.
posted 04/15/2015
Chicagoland’s ten-year-old theater-critic sensation (and actress in her own right) Ada Grey came to see Song About Himself and posted this thoughtful review.
Excerpt:
People who would like this show are people who like poetry, lengthy posts, and clarinets. I think people should definitely go see this show. It is eye-opening and it will blow your mind. And I actually think that while I was writing the review I understood it even better than when I was watching it. So, I think it would be good if when you got home you could write down some ideas that you had about the show and you can think about those ideas for a little while.
Full disclosure: Ada Grey’s dad, John Henry Roberts, is an Oobleck Irregular, having appeared in The Golden Election by Marilyn Quayle and her Sister and Theater Oobleck and our staged reading of The Forbidden Bestsellers of Pre-Revolutionary France.
Photo by Evan Hanover.
posted 04/14/2015
Newcity’s Christopher Kidder-Mostrom writes:
While the piece pulls from Walt Whitman’s poetry, no knowledge of the source material is necessary to glean deep, impactful meaning from the show. It is a rich psychological and metaphysical landscape through which to travel, even for those not well-versed in “Leaves of Grass.”
Photo by Evan Hanover.
posted 04/07/2015
"Of [Maher's] many artful, resonant plays, this one has the potential to eclipse them all."
The Chicago Reader’s Justin Hayford weighs in on Theater Oobleck’s new play:
In typical fashion, Maher creates a world of ridiculous, ominous inadequacy, given mesmerizing expression in this Theater Oobleck premiere…
Throughout, Maher borrows specific lines and images from Song of Myself—ironically, a work fundamentally about self-reliance—as well as Whitman’s thematic spirals, intoxicating rhythms, and circuitous plainspokenness, all rendered with great clarity and warmth by Oobleck’s cast: Guy Massey, Colm O’Reilly, and Diana Slickman, who, astonishingly, work without a director, as Oobleck has done for 26 years…
Photo by Evan Hanover.
posted 04/03/2015
photo by Joe Mazza
Mickle Maher is a cofounder of Chicago’s Theater Oobleck and the author of numerous plays, including There is a Happiness That Morning Is; An Apology for the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening; The Hunchback Variations; The Strangerer; Spirits to Enforce ; Cyrano (translator), The Cabinet; Lady Madeline; The Pine; and An Actor Prepares (an adaptation of Stanislavsky’s seminal book). His plays have appeared Off-Broadway and in theaters around the world, and have been supported by grants from the NEA, the MAP Fund, and Creative Capital. He currently teaches play writing and related subjects at the University of Chicago, Columbia College, and Northwestern University. His plays are published by Hope and Nonthings.
Diana Slickman has been a writer and performer in Chicago theater for nearly three decades. Since 2003 she has been a Theater Oobleck ensemble member and has appeared in eight of their shows, most recently Mickle Maher’s There Is a Happiness That Morning Is. She’s also a member of BoyGirlBoyGirl, a group solo performance ensemble, with whom she has co-created a dozen or so shows inspired by found text. She is a Neo-Futurist of ‘90s vintage, and was in Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind and a few of their prime time productions in those years. More recently she’s worked with The Goodnight Ladies, Dog and Pony Theater, and the side project, where she appeared in Scott Barsotti’s Jet Black Chevrolet. Diana also performs her own writing at various live lit shows around town including Write Club, Essay Fiesta, The Encyclopedia Show, Paper Machete, and Guts and Glory, among others.
Colm O’Reilly is a company member of Theater Oobleck, with whom he’s appeared in There is a Happiness that Morning Is, An Apology for the Course & Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening, The Strangerer (Off-Broadway and in Chicago), Letter Purloined, The Hunchback Variations, and Spirits to Enforce. Other credits include Sweet Bird of Youth (Goodman); Trevor (A Red Orchid Theatre), Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Steppenwolf); Elevator Tours (Barrie Cole); Still in Play, The Caretaker, Waiting for Godot, Texts for Nothing, Love Horse (Curious Theatre Branch); The Cabinet (Redmoon). He also played Stanislavski #1 in Mickle’s adaptation of An Actor Prepares at the University of Chicago.
H.B. has acted with many Chicago companies, including Curious Theatre Branch, Prop Thtr, Collaboraction, DOG – a Theater Company, The Magpies, Teatro Vista, WNEP, Theater Oobleck, 16th Street Theater, Wildclaw Theatre, Trap Door Theatre, A Red Orchid Theatre, Next Theatre, Rivendell Theatre, The Side Project, Jackalope Theatre, American Blues Theater, and Haven Theatre, and for television, commercials, and films, including Stephen Cone’s In Memoriam. He has understudied at Victory Gardens Theater, Goodman Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theater.
