“Detective Partner Hero Villain”

[rating=3]Despite this show being over, I am reviewing it for several reasons. One is that I feel theater audiences need to be aware of what Strawdog Theatre Company is doing. This is a vibrant part of our theater community, one that works to bring “storefront” theater to a new level ( Hugen Hall, their home is a second floor “storefront”, so it is of course at another level!) and secondly, because they are one of the few theaters that offer live theater on “off mights” ( mostly Mondays nights as well as Sundays and Tuesdays, where most non-Equity houses are week-ends.

The production that I viewed at their Hugen Hall in the studio/bar venue is written by Brett Neveu , who Chicago audiences are quite familiar with and is a novel, one hour piece entitled ” Detective  Pertner  Hero Villain”, a zany little mystery, directed by Gus Menary, dealing with a murder mystery that two officers, partners are assigned to, but cannot seem to get a handle on. There are some other characters, a super hero, The Fantastic Phenomenon ( Sam Guinan-Nyhart) and the villain, Supernova ( Tim Parker).

Our main detective and his partner are played to perfetcion by John Wilson and Marc Rita, but because of teh natur eof Neveu’s script, I cannot reveal to much as this is a mystery that is quite mysterious and has some very comical moments. I am sure that it will come around again, but of greater importance, on a Monday night in December, two weeks before Christmas, on  a snowy, very cold day, almost every seat at Hugen Hall was taken. This shows how Chicago loves theater! Great!

Strawdog is a company to keep an eye on. On their main stage, regular performance schedule and their  “off-night” schedule as well. To see what else they have planned, visit www.strawdog.org. There is ONE more performance- Tuesday, December 18th at 8 p.m.  $28 each.

Their theater is located at 3829 N. Broadway ( just South of Sheridan and Irving Park Rd, in the Wrigleyville area) with plenty of metered parking and some street parking and there are a number of local eateries on the street- this is a neighborhood with neighborhood prices. For info call 773-528-9696