**** Our Chicagoland theaters are truly hitting some major milestones this year. The Goodman is 100 years old, Steppenwolf is celebrating 50 years of bringing quality to our area and one of the smaller companies, American Blues Theater is celebrating 40 years, and has its own home now, with two stages. While their main stage is one with regular seating and a proscenium stage, their “studio” is an intimate space where they can become creative with their work. If one wants to do something where you can be creative and at the same time informative, there is nothing better than doing a William Inge play.

Inge , who loved the work of Tennessee Williams, and after witnessing “The Glass menagerie”, began writing his own works. Most people know of him for “Picnic” and “Bus Stop”, as well as “The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs”, but his second work, “Come Back Little Sheba” is one, that although written some 70 years ago, still reflects some of what is happeing in our country. ABT’s production, in their intimate Studio , smoothly directed by Elyse Dolan, is a powerful 90 minutes of theater. The set (Shayna Patel) is one where we see the living room and kitchen area, as well as the back yard and many of the audience members are seated in couches and Chairs  surrounding the stage area. I think there are 32 seats in total.

The story is about a couple that many will think quite dysfunctional. “Doc” Delaney ( deftly handled by Philip Earl Johnson) is an alcoholic ( recovering) chiropractor who has lost pretty much everything during his drinking days. He has gone pretty much a year and is still doing his meetings and his steps. His wife Lois ( played to perfection by Gwendolyn Whiteside) is a woman who worries about her husband, but for the most part has never grown up.

They were forced to marry when Lola became pregnant, but as it turned out, they lost the baby and with Doc’s drinking they ave not enjoyed a happy relationship and struggle day to day. They take in a college student “boarder”, Marie ( adorably played by Maya Lou Hlava) who dangles herself in front of Doc and has a local boyfriend, Turk ( Ethan Serpan) while waiting for her actual boyfriend, Bruce ( Justin Banks) to come to town and change her life. Doc sees her as a wild young sexy thing and reverts back to his booze and all hell breaks loose. Meanwhile, Lola realizes that her dog , Sheba, is never coming back, although each morning and night she opens the door and calls “Come back , Little Sheba, Come Bak!”

While this is a unique type of love story , I found that it is more about lost happiness and what might have been. I know there is a saying that you can only learn from the past, and plan for the future, but day to day, one has to live with the idea that each day is a gift ( thus being called, the present) and we need to make every day count. Inge shows us what can happen if one reverts back to their old ways in a very impressive fight sequence ( R & D Choreography did one hell of a job, as I was sitting less than 12 inches from the fight and was never concerned.

The ensemble of other players , Zack Schultz, William Anthony Sebastian Rose II, Cisco Lopez, and Joslyn Jones as their neighbor Mrs. Coffman all add to making the story run smooth. The tech portion of the show is amazing for a “Black Box studio” performance. Brendan Marble’s lighting, Thomas Dixon’s sound, Lily Walls’ costumes and Tyson Carter’s props ( wow there are a lot of them) all work. We even see some bacon being cooked as well as toast and orange juice and a refrigerator that reminded me of visiting my grandmother’s house back in the 1950’s.

The film version of this story starred Burt Lancaster and Shirley Booth. I recall the film and must say that watching the story come to life , live, just a few feet from the action makes the story far more realistic and the fact that the abusiveness of yesteryear still exists today, quite uncomfortable. I had an aunt who was abused and I remember some pretty scary events. I also had an uncle who was an alcoholic and at times scared everyone in our family with some of his antics. This play gets into this and shows us that some things don’t go away, they just adapt to the new ways.

While “Inge” never allowed Sheba to come back, the ending of this taut 90 minute ( no intermission) play will sort of warm your heart and surprise you!

“Come Back, Little Sheba” will continue thru – Mar 22nd with performances as follows: