Raise your hand if you’re familiar with the work of Alice Childress. I thought not. Me neither. Sure, it’s easy enough to ID her as one of a constellation of black playwrights who flourished in New York during the civil rights era. But until I checked I’d have had a hard time telling you what exactly it was that she wrote. Childress’s ten plays died before her own death, in 1994. The Reader‘s online archives record only three Chicago productions in 28 years.
Cecilie Keenan’s staging has its drawbacks. Attempting to bring a sense of realism to a small space, Kevin Rolfs’s set ends up creating confusion over how and where everybody lives. More important, Raina Lynn’s Julia is awkward and artificial in the early going. Still, she more than compensates when it comes time to explode. And she gets powerful support from Susan Anderson’s comic/tragic landlady as well as Lisa McConnell, Myesha-Tiara, and Kevin Patterson as vividly sketched neighbors. Donna McGough and Reid Coker are as horrific as they need to be as Herman’s mother and a despicably Harvey Weinsteinesque salesman. Scott Westerman’s Herman is stunning in his absolute everydayness. v
Through 12/17: Thu 7:30 PM, Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM The Artistic Home 1376 W. Grand 866-811-4111theartistichome.org $28-$32
