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Articles tagged with: William Boles

‘Three Sisters’ at Hypocrites: Shattered hearts, vanished hopes, and Moscow a distant dream

May 2, 2015 – 3:49 pm | 890 views
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Review: Two generations before Jean-Paul Sartre and his coterie of French existentialist playwrights, there was Anton Chekhov, dealing with the same core moral issue of accepting accountability for one’s own life and the hellish consequences of evading that necessity. Such is the specter that confronts the characters in Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” which the Hypocrites have brought to the stage under the penetrating, indeed searing direction of Geoff Button, who also adapted the play. ★★★★

Klezmer opera ‘The Property’ melds nostalgia, renewal in music awash with Old-World charm

Mar 1, 2015 – 12:19 pm | 2,817 views
Regina (Jill Grove) sits alone in Warsaw,  contemplates making contact with someone from the past in The Property. (Robert Kusel)

Feature Review: “The Property,” a new vest-pocket opera that burst onto the Chicago scene Feb. 25, is the sweet-spirited musical brainchild of a 28-year-old Minsk-born Polish composer Wlad Marhulets, who makes a living these days tooling music for films in L.A. Marhuletz came to the Lyric Opera by way of klezmer madness — not a disease, rather an exhilarating state of mind. Through March 5.★★★

‘Death and the Maiden’ at Victory Gardens: Seeking peace and Schubert in web of horror

Jun 25, 2014 – 11:35 pm | 3,022 views
Paulina (Sandra Oh) threatens the man (John Judd) she believes once tortured and raped her in 'Death and the Maiden.' (Michael Courier)

Review: The premise, like the title, is intriguing, but Ariel Dorfman’s play “Death and the Maiden” is a problematic work that isn’t helped by an uneven production at Victory Gardens Theatre. Yet Sandra Oh, perhaps best known as Dr. Cristina Yang on the television series “Grey’s Anatomy” and for the film “Sideways,” is magical as Paulina Salas, a woman who survived unjust imprisonment, torture and rape under the old regime of a South American republic – only to sense her former tormentor in the affable fellow suddenly before her in her living room. ★★★

When The Hypocrites bound ‘Into the Woods,’ something special blooms from almost nothing

Feb 14, 2014 – 6:06 pm | 5,308 views
Happily ever after proves to be short-lived in The Hypocrites' production of Stephen Sondheim's 'Into the Woods.' (Matthew Gregory Hollis)

Review: From paper and string and other found objects — in the hands of a wonderfully talented cast and a whiz of a director — The Hypocrites theater company has cobbled together a magical production of Stephen Sondheim’s fairytale mash-up musical “Into the Woods.” ★★★★★

Opportunist meets shrewd socialite, and his match, in Porchlight’s vivacious ‘Pal Joey’

May 1, 2013 – 5:39 pm | 12,268 views
Adrian Aguilar as Joey Evans and Susie McMonagle as Vera Simpson in Pal Joey produced by Porchlight Music Theatre credit Brandon Dahlquist

Review: ★★★★

After slaughter and heartbreak, radiant grace

Oct 9, 2011 – 11:06 am | 6,395 views
Sadieh Rifai stars in "The Amish Project" at American Theater Company 2011

Jessica Dickey’s “The Amish Project,” echoes of a massacre at ATC. 5 stars!