Song About Himself
FACILITY THEATRE
1138 N California Ave
Chicago IL
March 13th – April 5th
Fridays and Saturdays, 8PM
Sunday matinees, 2PM
Runtime 90 minutes
$25 suggested donation
More if you’ve got it
Less if you don’t
Free if you’re broke
Theater Oobleck presents a remount of Mickle Maher’s prescient 2015 story of a dystopian world involving artificial intelligence, Walt Whitman, free jazz, and slush.
Starring Diana Slickman, Vicki Walden, and HB Ward, Song About Himself is set in a 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 into a mysterious social media site created by a rogue artificial intelligence, only to find that, strangely, she is its only member. The secrets she uncovers there will either cure or break her lonely heart.
Employing 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?”
Sound/music composed by Mark Messing.
Movement direction by Julia Rhoads.
Lighting by Martha Bayne.
Selected press:
“Wonderfully, exceedingly weird.” —Chicago Tribune
“Nearly perfect… a world of ridiculous, ominous inadequacy.” —Chicago Reader
“Subtle, elegiac.” —Houston Chronicle
“Musical, explosive, thrilling…this show sings.” —Austin Chronicle
“A rich psychological and metaphysical landscape.” —Newcity
“An engaging, resonant ode.” —Time Out Chicago
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 poetryMaher 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 Whitmans 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 Myselfironically, a work fundamentally about self-relianceas 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
