The three one-acts that make up the 32nd annual Chicago Young Playwrights Festival don’t shy away from big issues, but they struggle to convey those issues in a personal way. While it’s no surprise that high schoolers might have trouble dramatizing large topics such as sexual identity, domestic abuse, and immigrants grappling with gentrification in unique ways, there’s no questioning the earnest effort evident in each of these short plays, produced and performed by theater professionals at Pegasus Theatre.
Thinking back on the three pieces while leaving the theater, I kept coming back to the spectral figure in Fragile Limbs. Dubbed “Fragile Boy” in the program and played with an intensity lacking in any other part of the show by Elaine C. Bell, this was the only character who did not seem to me a product of either pop culture or other known tropes. This shape-shifting spirit felt like a personal evocation of the metaphysical entirely of Tyler’s conjuring.
Through 1/27: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; no performance Sun 1/13, Chicago Dramatists, 773 N. Aberdeen, 773-878-8864, pegasustheatrechicago.org, $30, $25 seniors, $18 21 and under.
