The Hunchback Variations

Limited Engagement! Diana Slickman (as Beethoven) and Colm O’Reilly (as (Quasimodo) return for four Chicago performances of Mickle Maher’s classic 2001 work “The Hunchback Variations.”

Since 2001, “The Hunchback Variations” has been produced all over the world, included in a recent anthology of Mickle’s plays published by Agate, and adapted into an opera. The show is 50 minutes with no intermission.

After the run at Chicago’s Facility Theatre, “The Hunchback Variations” will travel to The Foundry Theater at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Playing out over 11 scenes, or “variations,” the story takes the form of a panel discussion between Quasimodo, hunchback of Notre Dame, and Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, concerning their attempt to create a mysterious sound effect called for in Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” A deft and hilarious deconstruction of the creative process, and a fearless investigation of artistic collaboration, Hunchback is driven by questions about the nature of music and sound and performance, and the many ways that things can go wrong.

Selected press:

“Occasionally there is a work of stagecraft that is so remarkable, so fine-tuned, so skillful yet ridiculous, that it earns the word “sublime.” The Hunchback Variations is that play.” – The Austin (Texas) Chronicle

“A moving meditation on collaboration and the creative process” – Chicago Reader

“a thinking man’s vaudeville. You won’t soon forget it” – Houston Press

“Cerebral, comic, and just plain weird” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Photo by Jeffrey Bivens.