HUNCHBACK AT ROCKEFELLER CHAPEL!

By Venus Zarris

* This is an archived review of Redmoon Theater’s After Dark Award-winning production of HUNCHBACK. -originally published in Gay Chicago Magazine - The current production opening at this week at Rockefeller Chapel is a Redmoon site-specific remount of this brilliant play. I apologize in advance for any misrepresentations that might result in re-running this archived review. Although there will most likely be cast changes and possible modifications to the remount, I feel that this review will give you a good idea of the caliber of work to be expected and will hopefully provide a valuable tool in considering this remarkable presentation.

Coupling Redmoon’s HUNCHBACK with The University of Chicago’s historically breathtaking Rockefeller Chapel is truly a dream matchup, making a perfect addition to this gothic season and a MUST SEE event!*

Seven years ago my dear friend Alonzo said that there was something playing that we HAD to try and see. He called to make reservations but the show was sold out. We took a chance on going to the Steppenwolf Theater in hopes of scoring tickets. We got lucky, but not just because we got great seats for half price. We struck it rich because of the breathtaking play that we saw. Since then I have seen the better part of 1000 plays. If you ask me what is the one show that I would like to see again, and have everyone else see as well, the first show that would come to my mind is Redmoon Theater’s Hunchback.

Imagine my delight when I saw that Redmoon was producing it’s first ever remount and that this was going to be this very show! Seeing this production again is truly a dream come true. Although there are differences from the original staging, the current Hunchback is every bit as spellbinding and ingenious.

Based on Victor Hugo’s classic novel, Redmoon Theater’s Hunchback creates an emotional “organic labyrinth of fantastic forms.” Playing with overlapping variations on visual scale with puppetry and overlapping variations of exposition with interactive idiosyncratic narration, this creative tour de force is also infused with acrobatic physical intensity. It is deceptively casual and self-mocking which only adds to the impact of it’s intelligent humor and poignant emotion.

Jim Lasko’s conception and design are magnificently realized by Leslie Buxbaum Danzig’s intuitive direction. She assembles a talented and wondrous cast and an outstanding design team to bring this visionary adaptation to life. Mickle Maher’s spoken text takes the transfixing visions beyond the exhibition and into the literary with narration that is every bit as evocative as any of the staged magic.

Lines like, “The plague took Paris in it’s mouth and spat out forty thousand lives,” take your breath away as much as the sheer magnitude of the adaptation’s remarkable conception.

The ensemble is playfully endearing and dramatically powerful, delivering the demanding complexity of the unique style of storytelling with complete perception and resolve. Alden Moore creates captivating moments of whimsical humor as well as heartbreaking vulnerability as the puppet Quasimodo as well as in her role as one of the Players. Her performance is an event in and of itself. But it is Jeremy Sher’s delivery of the narrative Author that transcends the already transfixing experience by creating levels of unpredictable nuance. He connects you with the story, location and emotion while simultaneously derailing the already peculiar structure. When I heard of the Redmoon’s remount my biggest concern was the difficultly and complexity of this part. But Sher’s performance not only fits the bill, it sets him aside as one of the most intelligent and gifted actors working in Chicago.

Hunchback is a grotesque and gritty Cirque du Soleil with beguiling content and connection. It sweeps from tortured, to lovely, to explosive, to delicate, to hysterically amusing strokes of imaginative genius. It is exquisitely stylized visual spectacle with enchanting visceral amalgamation.

Consider yourself fortunate to have the chance to experience this brilliant and supremely innovative theatrical marvel. This is like nothing you have ever experienced. It is “beauty that does not exclude or sacrifice the grotesque” and an event to be prioritized at all cost.

4 STARS

(”Hunchback” runs from October 22-25 ONLY at Rockefeller Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn in Hyde Park. 312-850-8440×111.)

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