**** The Chicago theater scene is filled with many little black box theaters and storefronts ,as well as a school little theater that we have all come to know as Citadel Theatre, nestled in Lake Forest. The small space has been used for English comedies, musicals and some very intimate love stories. They do a season that has a mixture of plays in order to give their subscribers an opportunity to experience all types of theater and , not have to travel far from home.
After the great success they had last season with the work of Lauren Gunderson (“Silent Sky” was a huge hit), they decided to bring another of her works to their stage. The play is “I and You” and is a 90 minute ( three scene), two person play that introduces us to two teen-agers. This is a world that most of us fear as the times have changed so much from when we were growing up. Today, we have social media where we get more news and information than we ever had available to us. This entire story takes place in a teen-age girl’s bedroom. Her name is Caroline ( played to perfection by Amia Korman). She is 17 and is suffering from a critical illness ( never truly divulged). She has been studying via remote ( we have to imagine that this would be ZOOM).
Today, she is being visited by Anthony ( deftly handled by Jay Westbrook), who is quite different than Caroline. He appears to be athletic, very popular and someone who will always exceed the expectations of others.It seems that the reason for his visit is that they have been teamed to do a special report and make a presentation on Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”. It is due “tomorrow morning” and Anthony cannot do it alone.
Smoothly directed by Scott Shallenbarger ( who recently retired from being director of Theatre Arts at Highland Park High School) on a set (David Solotke) that sort of resembles a teen-agers bedroom. Of course, it is missing a TV set and dresser, but the idea of this play is for the audience to focus on the two actors and to get into their characters. The back and forth between them is powerful as we watch Caroline go from not caring at all to feeling that this project must be done..
What takes place over the three scenes and 90 minutes ( no intermission) is amazing. We see changes in both characters, but more for Caroline as she offers unconditional acceptance of him and he in turn, in the third scene explains her situation in greater detail. The ending is one of surprise, allowing us to realize that what we witnessed in the first two scenes was merely “foreplay” for what was to come. The play is quite heartwarming and the two actors have created characters that appear to be real and could easily be the boy and girl next door.
” I and You” will continue Thru – Mar 23rd with performances as follows:
Thursdays:7:30pm
Fridays:7:30pm
Saturdays:7:30pm
Sundays:3:00pm
Show Type: Drama
Box Office: 847-735-8554
The theater is located at 300 S. Waukegan Road in Lake Forest with plenty of free parking
To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go t Review Round-Up and click at “I and You”.
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