April recommendations

we're back, baby!

Hi there! It’s been a while. Call it hibernation? But let’s get to the theatre.

🗽NYC: ORATORIO FOR LIVING THINGS by Heather Christian, directed by Lee Sunday Evans

presented by Ars Nova

In this sweeping world premiere, composer Heather Christian infuses the classical oratorio with blues, gospel, jazz, and soul. Oratorio for Living Things unfolds the complex layers of what it means to be alive and our relationship to time. Staged by Obie Award-winning director Lee Sunday Evans and featuring eighteen virtuosic singers and instrumentalists, the experience surrounds and uplifts, celebrating our curiosity, our wonder, and what we’re capable of becoming when in communion with each other.

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you already know I’m a big Heather Christian fan. Her show Oratorio for Living Things was shut down in March 2020, and now it’s back and, strangely, the perfect post(?)-pandemic experience. It’s theatre as holy ritual; theatre that has to be experienced live. The show feels like music made physical. I don’t know exactly what to call it - it’s not an opera or a musical or a religious service, but it feels closest to the latter. For one, it’s astoundingly intimate. Several times during the show I made eye contact with performers and we had a sustained moment together; I’d see them smile and register the connection. I maybe have never seen a show in which every performer is so present, in control, and comfortable. Don’t sleep on the instrumentalists either - where I was sitting, I could see the pianist, who was absolutely mesmerizing.

And the directing! It’s subtle and confident; a light touch. Lee Sunday Evans’s work is always excellent, but I really found myself spellbound by this one. I love seeing the work of a director who has so clearly taken her ego out of the equation and trusted the piece. Which is not to belittle her work: the confidence of the performers, the presence and joy that they radiate, and the theatrical space are all working in the service of a very cohesive and clear vision. Shoutout to a gorgeous lighting design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew as well.

Oratorio made me feel held and loved and hopeful. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s sold out, but I cannot recommend enough spending the time to get standby or rush tickets. Info below.

🚶🏽watch in person at Greenwich House
📆 through April 17
💉 must show proof of vaccination and wear a mask for the whole show
❗️For sold out performances, folks will be able to join a standby line for day-of-show tix based on last minute cancellations and no-shows. Standby will begin 2 hours prior to curtain outside of Ars Nova @ Greenwich House (27 Barrow Street). Tix are $35 and can be purchased with cash or card. Limit 2 tix per person. Most performances will also have rush tix available via TodayTix: $10 each with a limit of 2 per person. Rush tix open at 9AM ET.

🗽NYC: CONFEDERATES by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Stori Ayers

presented by Signature Theatre

Sara, an enslaved rebel turned Union spy, and Sandra, a tenured professor in a modern-day private university, are having parallel experiences of institutional racism, though they live over a century apart. This New York premiere...leaps through time to trace the identities of these two Black American women and explore the reins that racial and gender bias still hold on American educational systems today.

I haven’t seen Confederates yet, so I can’t speak to this specific production. But I’ll see anything Dominique Morisseau writes. She writes realism in the vein of August Wilson; realism that taps into something mythic. I can’t wait to see this one.

🚶🏽watch in person at Signature Theatre
💰 tickets from $35 + fees
📆 through April 17
💉 must show proof of vaccination and wear a mask for the whole show

🏙 Chicago: PASSAGE by Christopher Chen, directed by Kaiser Ahmed

presented by Remy Bumppo

Q is building a new life in Country X, having immigrated from Country Y. But it’s hard to make friends in Country X — the history between the two countries is fraught, and political tensions are running high. As Q tries to navigate interpersonal dynamics, the past and present collide in a complex geopolitical landscape. And no one is off the hook.

I saw Passage at Soho Rep back in 2019, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I didn’t know what to take away from it, but I also felt like the queasy feeling of ambiguity was part of what the play and production were pursuing. The writing and style of performance felt very careful in a way I hadn’t experienced before. So when I had the opportunity to see another production in Chicago, I jumped at it. And...I feel the same way I did about the New York production! What does this play want from me? Who is it speaking to and what is it saying?

I’m not sure, and that excites me. There’s a space for clarity in art, but it’s rare to see something that leaves the audience inarticulate and uncomfortable. The production sparked an interesting conversation with a friend afterward, and it’s worth seeing for that alone.

🚶🏽watch in person at Theater Wit
💰 tickets from $15 + fees
❗️ through April 10
💉 must show proof of vaccination and wear a mask for the whole show

That’s all folks! Resuming your regularly scheduled programming, so look for What’s On monthly-ish from here on out.