Chicago Stage Review

By Venus Zarris

Sometimes the most perplexing aspect of a production is the choice of material. When it is wonderful you might ask, “Where did they find this treasure?” When it is not so wonderful you might ask, “What were they thinking?” Infamous Commonwealth Theatre is a profoundly gifted company that has made some bold and brilliant choices in the past, but this time out their script selection is perplexing.

They close their “Redemption Season” with playwright George F. Walker’s Escape From Happiness. The redemption correlation is apparent. The theatrical merit is not.

“All this stuff reminds me of stuff, and this reminds me of other stuff.” The family patriarch declares before leaving the stage. Grant it, the character is having some memory difficulties but this line sums up the plays overall impression as much as its title sums up the overall experience.

Tossing together a hodgepodge of silly dramatic styles at breakneck speed under the guise of absurdity does not amount to clever. Even in theater of the absurd, which is one of the genres that Walker seems to be attempting, there needs to be something that you walk away with other than ridiculous.

The play opens with a beaten man bleeding on a kitchen floor. There is debate by his wife and mother-in-law as to what to do. Call the police? Make him dance around the kitchen? Call the lawyer in the family? Unpack groceries? This scene sets the tone for one unbelievable scenario after another in a play that never establishes its altered reality enough for you to be drawn in to it.

Escape From Happiness resembles a novice playwright attempting Neil Simon trying to attempt Christopher Durang. “Wacky” characters inhabit preposterous exposition. You languish through the long first act, hoping for a dramatic rhythm but the sophomoric structure can’t make up its mind as characters display arbitrary emotional transitions and the story displays arbitrary expository leaps.

In comes the cavalry. Dropped on top of this puerile catastrophe, like two scoops of gourmet ice cream on top of a burnt-beyond-recognition TV diner, are two of the year’s most captivating performances. Nancy Friedrich plays Mary Ann, a psycho-babbling neurotic sibling in this family fueled by chaos. Friedrich has a rare and wonderful set of comic chops that gets you laughing from the second that she enters a scene. Her humor is broad yet deceptively complex. She creates a demented care bare of cuteness on crack, riding a frenetic self-absorbed wave of naiveté and bizarre emotional revelation.

Jennifer Matthews creates a grounding force where there is no foundation. She is infinitely present, infinitely compelling and infinitely intelligent as oldest sister Elizabeth. Matthews uncovers the only honest emotional reality of the story, even in the midst of her most insanely explosive scenes. Through Friedrich and Matthews we see a potential to the play that might very well be more than actually exists in the script. They are simply THAT extraordinary.

You imagine wanting Friedrich’s character with you at a somber doctor visit, as she can bring humor to even the darkest moments. You imagine wanting Matthews with you as well, as she can confidently size the situation up and then boldly take action.

Anne Sheridan Smith also adds an exceptional performance to the production. She is an actor that can draw you while she listens to another actor, not stealing the focus but rather emphasizing its intended location. Her emotional transitions may be hard to believe in the story but she delivers them brilliantly.

With the exception of Barbara Anderson, as Nora, the rest of the cast is solid. Anderson’s overly self-conscious portrayal of the mother contrasts the other performances. It seems as though she is in an altogether different production, perhaps The Odd Couple that is playing on Raven Theatre’s other stage.

Kathy Arfken’s set design looks great and facilitates the play’s extreme physicality well. The small countertop fish tank is a wonderful finishing touch and makes for a great opening visual.

Walker’s script flounders and fluctuates between absurd comedy, melodrama and childishly developed sociopolitical sermonizing. Director Genevieve Thompson extracts some surprisingly delightful humor and extraordinary performances but you can’t help but think that all of this talent would be better served by a better-constructed script. Still, the incomparable performances of Nancy Friedrich and Jennifer Matthews are well worth your time.

2 STARS

(“Escape From Happiness” runs through August 8 at Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark Street. 312-458-9780.)

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre

* Visit Theatre In Chicago for more information on this show. Escape From Happiness - Raven Theatre - Play Detail - Theatre In Chicago

Escape From Happiness

By George F. Walker
Directed by ICT Founder Genevieve Thompson

This darkly caustic comedy follows the idiosyncratic members of one very broken family in search of wholeness again. Both a viciously funny satire and poignant meditation on forgiveness, Escape from Happiness offers a unique and hilarious perspective on the many familial ties that bind.

Read the review here: Escape From Happiness – REVIEW - Chicago Stage Review

Presented by Infamous Commonwealth Theatre

Previews: Jul 9

Regular Run: Jul 10 - Aug 8, 2010

@ Raven Theatre

6157 N. Clark St, Chicago

Stage: West Stage

Show Type: Comedy

Box Office: 773-458-9780

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre

By Venus Zarris

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre opens their season dedicated to REDEMPTION with a strong production of Arthur Miller’s classic The Crucible. Miller’s scathing social, religious and thinly veiled political indictment still packs a gut punch and Infamous Commonwealth delivers it with conviction.

Set during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, The Crucible details the horror of fervent institutionalized religious insanity. No one is safe, especially the innocent, when the ranting of teenagers is taken for gospel. Imagine the state of the Union if wildly outlandish accusations were grounds for the ruination of lives. No, this isn’t a Fox Newscast. This is a cleverly constructed recreation of one of the darkest times in American history. Sadly, this all too familiar scenario can still be seen in one manifestation or another over three hundred years later. Although we’re not listening to the disingenuous supernatural hallucinations of children with hidden agendas, we are giving the ridiculous manipulations of zealots and pundits the dangerous weight of headline news.

Director Chris Maher gets off to an awkward start. The normally brilliant Stephen Dunn sets a maudlin tone with his over-the-top performance of Reverend Parris. His neurotic eccentricities border on flamboyant and seem out of place for this ultraconservative time period. He starts at such a fevered pitch that there is little room for build and less evidence of nuance. Dunn has created some of the most three-dimensional characters seen on Chicago stages but this time out his Rev. Parris resembles the villain in a Dudley Do-Right cartoon.

Elaine Ivy Harris also brings a two-dimensional aspect to her characterization of Abigail Williams. This is a deceptively complex role, as the actor must strike a balance between the superficiality of a scorned teen and the depth of her reactions to romantic rejection turning deadly. Harris conveys this well on the surface but seems to be flying by the seat of her pants to get out of trouble, rather than calculating her cunningly contrived construction of revenge.

What Director Maher does right is place the story in the laps of John and Elizabeth Proctor, brilliantly realized by Craig C. Thompson and Jennifer Mathews. The honesty and believability that they bring to their performances is staggering. It grounds this production in the personal horror and tragedy of the story. Together they elevate this production to poignant and extraordinary dramatic excellence by accessing the truth of this tale and evocatively illustrating the struggles of the innocent in the face of false accusation. The Proctors are the beacons of sanity in this sea of hysterical chaos and social corruption. Thompson creates a man caught up in the explosion of his own faults with impressive vulnerability, sincerity and just the right dose of naive indignation. Mathews creates the shocking terror of the times with subtlety and restraint that is lovely, breathtaking and almost poetic. You are so compelled by these performances that you hope for a rewrite of the ending, as they deserve the redemption of justice and a happy-ever-after that of course never comes.

Act one ends with an evocative build that sets up the second act beautifully. Act two raises the climate to urgent and then escalates to frantic. The courtroom drama is outstanding, due in great part to Edward Kuffert’s unwavering performance of Judge Danforth. Kuffert creates a masterfully subtle dramatic bait-and-switch by giving you a convincing glimmer of hope that sanity might have a chance but then takes you back to the crisis of chaos with appropriate self-righteous absurdity.

Exceptional supporting performances are delivered by Adrian Snow as Tituba and John Ruhaak as Giles Corey. Cody Proctor renders the most powerful personal transition in the play with an outstanding performance of Reverand Hale and Nancy Friedrich brings a bit of comic relief and then the sadness of compromised truth for he sake of self-preservation to her remarkable portrayal of Mary Warren.

This impressive interpretation of The Crucible underlines the complex difficulty of holding fast to your convictions, personal truth and honor in a reality governed by illogical insanity; something that sadly still too often holds true. Although at times a bit uneven, the intelligence of Infamous Commonwealth shines through in this powerful production that makes a contemporary cautionary tale of historical madness and delivers exceptional theater in the process.

3 STARS

(“The Crucible” runs through April 25 at Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark Street. 312-458-9780.)

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre

The Crucible production photos by Paul Metreyeon.

The Crucible

Set during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and written in direct response to the McCarthy trials in the 1950s, this scathing indictment of censorship remains a timeless classic of American drama - a master study on the inherent frailty, delicate beauty and limitless possibility of the human spirit.

Read the 3 STAR review here: The Crucible – REVIEW - Chicago Stage Review

Presented by Infamous Commonwealth Theatre

Thru - Apr 25, 2010

@ Raven Theatre

6157 N. Clark St, Chicago

Show Type: Drama

Box Office: 773-338-2177

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre presents the 5TH ANNUAL 24-HOUR PROJECT

5TH ANNUAL 24-HOUR PROJECT

Playwrights: Nancy Friedrich*, Bill Gaines, Cade Wenthe*, James Whitiington

Directors: Andy Baldeschwiler, James Dunn*, Chris Mathews, Robb Rabito

Featuring: Joe Ciresi*, Robyn Coffin, Bryan Dawidowicz, Stephen Dunn*, Whitney Hayes*, Jen Hines Hall, Annie Slivinski*, Genevieve Thompson*, Edwin Unger, Tom Weber

Musicians: The Real Jane Martin, Jessica Robbins, Jacob Sypniewski and Matt Lombardi, Trevor Patrick Watkin

Production Managers: Joseph Alaimo*, Abbie Colton*, Sarah Luse*, Chris Maher*, Steph Smith*, Rachel M. Sypniewski*

*ICT member

ICT presents the fifth annual ICT 24 Hour Project, a collection of four short plays written, rehearsed and performed within a strict 24 hour timeframe.

The project begins promptly on Friday, January 15, at 8pm. Four playwrights will each be shown a specific definition of the word REDEMPTION - ICT’s 2010 season topic. Each of the four playwrights have until 8am the following morning to write a short play inspired by the definition they are given. In the remaining 12 hours, four musicians compose a short piece of original music to precede each play while directors and actors rehearse the play they are assigned.

The project culminates in a one-time-only, must-see performance of world premiere plays before a live audience.

Saturday, January 16, 8PM

@ Vittum Theater
1012 N. Noble Street, Chicago

Tickets are $20 (student discount available).
Call 312-458-9780

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre

By J. Scott Hill

I have been writing for Chicago Stage Review for about seven months now. “Theatre Critic” has become my new badge. As I get introduced to friends of friends at various receptions and block parties, I usually say that I am a theatre critic. Like every other twenty-first-century American adult, I am several things all at once: husband, father, mentor for adult adoptees, slave to the almighty dollar, amateur portfolio manager since the pros at my 401K can’t seem to do it, musician, writer, theatre critic. I think of myself as a theatre reviewer rather than a theatre critic, but critic is the term that seems to conjure up the clearest picture for people. Saying theatre reviewer means subjecting someone newly met to a long-winded explanation of what the difference is and why one better describes what I do than the other does. Just describing that description above took too long.

As a theatre critic, people ask me the same thing over and over:

What’s the best show you’ve seen?

Ever? In my life? Sweeney Todd at the Lyric Opera with Bryn Terfel — but that was long before I was a theatre critic.

Since I have been a theatre critic? Either The Caretaker produced by Curious Theatre Branch, or Bohemian Theatre Ensemble’s Playing with Fire (after Frankenstein) — both shows long closed.

I think that, at its heart, the question being asked is functional:

What’s the best show you’ve seen that is still playing, so I can go see it, too?

My knee-jerk response: History Boys at the TimeLine Theatre.

I pored through my past reviews and still concluded that History Boys was the best show running in Chicago.  Still, it had been several months since I first reviewed History Boys, so I felt I needed to revisit the production before I could commit my knee-jerk reaction to print.

When I arrange to attend a show for the purpose of writing about it, I am usually allowed to bring myself “plus one” — like to a wedding or a cocktail party — someone else with whom to celebrate the theatre.  Sometimes, I like to bring a friendly informant — someone I know fairly well whose specialized training and experience can add to my understanding of the subject matter of the show.  Here are some examples:

When I attended The Second City e.t.c.’s production of Rod Blagojevich Superstar! — a timely and topical satire — my “plus one” was another theatre reviewer, or I should say we were each other’s “plus ones.”  This other critic has a background not only as a reviewer, but as an actor, improviser, and comedian — and grew up in Chicagoland carefully scrutinizing the talent that poured out of Second City.

When I attended Infamous Commonwealth’s production of The Grapes of Wrath — Frank Galati’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel — my “plus one” was my wife.  My wife reads two or three novels per week, is a librarian, and holds a master’s degree in English.

When I attended Tooth and Nail Ensemble and Two Lights Theatre Company’s production of The Conduct of Life — a play about military life and military interrogation tactics, produced using the Japanese dance style Butoh to stage graphic violence — my “plus one” was an army veteran.  This veteran served a hardship tour in Southeast Asia, is now a nurse, and has recently become something of a political science wonk.

When I attended History Boys the first time, I again went as co-”plus ones” with that same theatre reviewer.  We both raved about the show, particularly the set design, the unique staging, the use of video, the use of found music — in sum, the “theatricality” of the show.

My reviewer friend and I are old theatre hams.  We have always adored and supported live theatre, which is a big chunk of why we review theatre in the first place.  But theatre is not made just for old theatre hams, any more than movies are made just for movie actors and cinematographers and key grips.  Like most movies, most theatre is made for general consumption.

History Boys was a popular favorite in London and New York before the TimeLine Theatre produced the show here in Chicago, where it plays sold-out show after sold-out show. This does not fit the mould of a popular favorite. Grease is a popular favorite that looks back to twenty years before it was written, back to high school — with show-stoppers about mooning and scoring with chicks. History Boys likewise looks back twenty years before it was written, back to high school — with open-ended questions about the nature of sexuality, societal mores, status, social caste, the relationship between authority and responsibility, and whether or not a working knowledge of argumentation and rhetoric kills capital-T Truth.  This is not exactly the he-said-she-said of “Summer Nights.”

I needed a friendly informant whose mind works somewhat like mine, shares some of my sensibilities, and is in my age group (at the time History Boys takes place, I was roughly the same age as the students in the play). Most important, my friendly informant must not be enamored of the theatre — a general consumer of the theatre and no more.

When I attended History Boys the second time — needing a fresh set of eyes not easily seduced by theatricality — my “plus one” was a no-BS mom-on-the-go. This active SAHM has a degree in Marketing from DePaul, holds a certificate in fashion and design, is a Plein Air Painter, has been an ArtSmart teacher, is a certified fitness instructor, and is a mom so creatively budget-conscious that her frugality recently made the cover of the Chicago Sun-Times. The twerp is also my little sister, Beck.

Beck and I did not grow up together at all. That is a story for another place and time. Suffice it to say that we are very alike and also very different — like any other siblings. She has the artistic temperament to “get it” about theatre, but she doesn’t. She will catch a musical locally or when she is in New York. She goes to see Second City from time to time. Still, the live presence of the actors that invigorates most theatregoers distracts her. A movie can seem more real to her because it seems more like surveillance — like the events could have been real events captured on film out in the real world.  In live theatre, one sees actors fumble for their marks in the dark, or get up after the curtain falls on their death scene. For her, the immediacy of the performances does not cancel out the more prevalent artifice. She does not see theatre as frivolous or anything so negative; it just is not one of her passions. Theatre is not Beck’s jam.

SCOTT: What did you think of History Boys overall?

BECK:  I liked it.  I am glad I went. Thumbs up.

SCOTT: What was your favorite aspect of the production?

BECK:  The set.  I liked the set layout, with the realistic dorm rooms on one end.  I liked that the actors were sitting in their dorm rooms while we were congregating in the lobby and getting situated in our seats.  The set…and when I went to the bathroom.

[During the show, Beck unfortunately had to make a mad dash for the restroom.  Because of where we were seated and how the TimeLine Theatre is currently configured, she had to cross onstage to get to the restroom, and cross onstage again to get back to her seat.]

SCOTT: What happened when you went to the bathroom?

BECK:  I made it to the bathroom without really causing a scene. I was quick about it and I was apologizing to the ushers and all the people in the lobby.  Some of the actors were waiting out there for their next entrance and I was apologizing to them, too.  They were very nice.  The star helped me.

SCOTT:  The star?  Who helped you do what…get back to your seat?

BECK: Yes.  The star, the teacher, Hector [Donald Brearley].  I felt so bad having to duck out in the middle of the show.  I was apologizing profusely and he told me not to worry, that they would get me back to my seat.  He said he would run defense for me…and he did.  So nice.

SCOTT: Did you have a favorite scene in History Boys?

BECK:  Remember, in class when the students are yukking it up with the teacher Hector?  All the boys seemed really natural, as if it were really happening in real time.  I realize that it must all be meticulously scripted out, but it seemed natural without being too deliberate.

SCOTT: Who was your favorite history boy?

BECK:  The cute one, Dakin [Joel Gross].  He looked just like this guy I knew in high school — Tom Chapman.  Dakin looked like Tom Chapman, but the actor’s headshot in the program did not.  Weird.  I had the biggest crush on Tom Chapman but I never did anything about it and he never did anything about it. I don’t even think he knew.

SCOTT:  Dakin reminded me of a guy at my high school, too. John Carmen.  All the girls thought he was dreamy, and voted him Prettiest Eyes.  Maybe every high school back in the 1980s had a cutie boy who looked like Dakin.  If so, that was a brilliant piece of casting.

BECK:  He struck a chord with me.

SCOTT: Who was your least favorite character?

BECK:  I did not like the character of the young teacher, Irwin [Andrew Carter].  It was like Irwin was supposed to be the voice of reason, but he wasn’t.

SCOTT: If you had to give History Boys a star rating, up to four stars, what would you give it?

BECK:  I would give it four stars based on the set and the actors’ performances, but the story left me out at times.

SCOTT: In what ways did you feel excluded?

BECK:  There was only one woman in the cast.  All of these high school boys were raging balls of hormones and had no girlfriends, except for Dakin who had a girlfriend whom we never got to see. In BBC comedies, they make all these gay jokes about boys at Eton, and then History Boys plays right into that stereotype — as if just being British and going to boarding school turned a boy gay.

SCOTT: So you wanted there to be less gay?

BECK:  With such a large and diverse ensemble, I wanted to have someone to identify with.  As a straight woman, there wasn’t much for me to see myself in.

SCOTT: What sort of star rating do you give History Boys, feeling left out?

BECK:  My initial reaction is two and a half stars, but that seems low considering the amazing set and the great performances.

SCOTT: Really?  Being excluded detracts that much for you?

BECK:  It’s on the cusp for me.  What if I want to encourage people to see History Boys?

SCOTT: I assume that a higher rating would encourage more people to see it.

BECK:  If I give it three stars, will the guy who played Dakin take me out on a date?

SCOTT: He might…

BECK:  And, will he let me call him Tom all night?  I still can’t believe Tom Chapman never asked me out in high school.

SCOTT:  Okay then, three stars from the woman who doesn’t much care for theatre.

As for this old theatre ham, I stand by my four star review of History Boys. This time around, there were two cast changes from the first performance I saw of History Boys, but the show was just as astonishing.

(“History Boys” now extended through October 18 at the TimeLine Theatre, 615 W. Wellington, (773) 281-8463.)

*Click here for two 4 STAR ChicagoStageReviews of Timeline Theatre’s HISTORY BOYS:

The History Boys - Chicago Stage Review (reviewed by J. Scott Hill)

THE HISTORY BOYS review link… - Chicago Stage Review (reviewed by Venus Zarris)

TimeLine Theatre Company :: Plays Inspired by History :: Award-winning Chicago theater

By J. Scott Hill

I once quit a job without having anything else lined up. I was fed up and naive. I thought I knew how much money I had saved and how long that money would last. I thought I would find another job no problem, but it was a problem. It wasn’t long before I was selling my blood plasma just to have some money coming in. I am lucky enough to be in better circumstances right now, although millions of other Americans are not.

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath deals with the worst financial climate America has yet faced — the Great Depression. With the Depression already hitting hard, the Dust Bowl destroyed crops in the Great Plains. Steinbeck’s fictional Joad family packs everything they own into a single beat-up truck and heads from the plains to California and the promise of work.

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre presents this stage adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath at a time when it could not resonate more. The adaptation is Frank Galati’s — the script he directed at Steppenwolf twenty years ago and took to Broadway (and even to American Playhouse on PBS). In the original Steppenwolf production, the set was largely abstract and empty — the focus being on the rickety, overflowing Joad-family truck; a similar focus is given to the truck in this production. This set is suggestive of Steppenwolf’s without being a knock-off — I’ll say it’s an homage. The current set is a toned-down version of the Steppenwolf set, like the current real economic situation is a toned-down version of the economic situation in the play — strongly analogous, a difference of degree. Kudos to Scenic Designer Alan Donahue and Director Genevieve Thompson for pulling these intertexts together.

Unfortunately, this overriding metaphor of “a toned-down version” is taken too far. The story drags in places, and the resets lag between scenes (the cast could use the assistance of a couple of costumed stagehands to move that truck around). The characters are all worn out, true; but the production must not let the audience get worn out along with those characters. Even so, Thompson pulls solid performances from the entire ensemble.

Several performances are worth mentioning. Durable, ubiquitous character actor John O’Lesky is a frustrated yet persevering Pa Joad. Paul Joseph breathes wisdom and strength into Uncle John’s weaknesses.

Tom Joad is played by Wes Clark with a smooth “Aw, shucks” manner and, when need be, a firmly set jaw. He walks around like a cowboy, but he mops his brow like a farmer — tough as nails, right as rain.

Jennifer Mathews holds the entire show together as Ma Joad. Granma Joad may be the matriarch of this family, but Ma Joad is its power plant and its sage. Mathews gives strength to vulnerability and common sense to madness. She is too busy keeping the family together and in motion to tolerate much nonsense — a woman strong enough to prop up a family of broken men.

Jim Casy is the most conflicted character in this story, and Stephen Dunn plays this flawlessly. Dunn internalizes and externalizes Casy’s tortured soul in such a way that most of his brooding goes unseen out of a sense of Western reserve, but flashes of the wistful and broken man poke through that culturally-calm façade along with a smidgen of crazy.

The most talked-about, most moving scene in The Grapes of Wrath — the novel or this adaptation — is the act of Roman Charity at the end. Jenn Remke had been competent as Rose of Sharon up to this final scene — as the entire ensemble had been competent. Once this dire epilogue started, it was as if someone had flipped a switch inside of her and the actor and the character lit up the theatre. Rose of Sharon’s interplay with Ma Joad — spoken and especially unspoken — made gooseflesh and quelled disbelief. During the brave, almost holy, final moments of the show, audible sobs could be heard from members of the audience. Beautiful and sad and heroic and pathetic, Jenn Remke takes the most difficult scene in the show and carries it in her arms. Her website says that this will be her last show in Chicago before relocating to New York, so come see her now.

If only the whole show would have been as well paced and engaging as the end. Still, this is a pretty strong production of The Grapes of Wrath. The callback of this production to the famed Steppenwolf production nicely parallels the callback of the current state of the world to the world of this script.

Take the time to see Infamous Commonwealth Theatre’s revival of The Grapes of Wrath. No matter how you are holding up through this recession, you will walk away from this show empathizing with the Joads’ frustration and loss, and counting your blessings.

3 STARS

(“The Grapes of Wrath”, presented by Infamous Commonwealth Theatre, runs through May 24 at The Raven Theatre Complex, 6157 N. Clark St., (773) 338-2177.)

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre

Jenn Remke

Raven Theatre

Grapes of Wrath - Infamous Commonwealth

Click here Grapes of Wrath - Infamous Commonwealth to read a review by Venus Zarris of The Grapes of Wrath, playing at Raven Theatre through May 24.

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre

By Venus Zarris

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre presents a riveting world premier of playwright Robert Koon’s Odin’s Horse.

“We’re all in the fucking way and I don’t want to see anyone run over. It reminds you that you can be next.”

This logger’s remark sums up the essence of Koon’s delicately powerful script. He beautifully shows both sides of a controversial issue by making the conflict as human as it is environmental or economic.

A writer joins his girlfriend in the redwood forests of northern California to find inspiration. She is the corporate mouth-piece for a logging company and when his research extends to a phone relationship with a tree sitting activist, conflicts arise in his personal relationship as well as in his conscience.

Koon strikes a compelling balance, diving beneath the black and white surface of this contentious topic to uncover the gray middle ground. Weaving Icelandic mythology into the narrative only adds more depth and charming lyricism to the dialogue and provides a timeless point of view on a contemporary crisis. “In the old myths the tree falls at the end of the world.”

Director Anna Bahow compiles a brilliant ensemble that captures every character to picture perfect perfection. Anyone of these roles could end up as one-dimensional bores in less accomplished hands but they are all fully flushed out, thereby creating a dramatic impact that is emotionally convincing as well as thought provoking.

Kathy Arfken’s set deign creates a strikingly evocative visual while providing the perfect aerial playground for Cat Dean’s impressive mid-air acrobatics. Dean seamlessly blends this unique aspect of her portrayal of Astra, the passionate tree sitter, into her exceptional performance.

Jeremy Fisher and Mike McNamera stand out as the all too human loggers. They are likeable, frightening, funny, and dead serious. Sarah Denison and Larry Wiley show deceptive range as Callie, PR, and Lopat, CEO, of the logging company. And Stephen Dunn is engaging as Arman, the conflicted writer. You would be hard pressed to find a more intelligent cast dedicated to a more absorbing production.

If you are looking for intimate and engaging theater delivered by a consistently beguiling ensemble, this is your show and Infamous Commonwealth is your company!

3 ½ STARS

(“Odin’s Horse” runs through October 19 at Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark Street. 773-458-9780.)