“Passage”

[rating=3]Remy Bumppo is back! Some changes have taken place over the period of time that we call “the Covid-19 era”, but they are one of Chicago’s heart and soul companies, so one can expect plays that open one’s minds. The first production for their return and new Artistic Director ( Marti Lyons) is “Passage”, a Chicago Premiere,  written by Christian Chen. This is a 90 minute story that takes us to a place where we need to think. Under the direction of Kaiser Ahmed, we first meet our cast of players. Rather than names, they have letters (capital) and two of them are other types as well.

Each actor introduces themselves and gives us a short bio on their lives and how they got to the theater ( this night, not being actors). Part of this is to show us that we are unique, different and yet, are we? This is a play filled with sub stories that will be easy for some audience members to relate to. They continue to speak about people from Country Y and Country X and immigrating from one to another. From the short scenes where we meet all of the alphabet letters, we learn more about the history between these two countries and the political tensions between them and their inhabitants.

At this time in our lives as we see the news each day about Russia and the Ukraine, our thought might turn to this as an example of two countries that are at war with each other. It is difficult to get into all of the situations and not give them away, but I will tell you that in most of the cases, those who are immigrating from one to another have fears ( as do most people who leave their country to start anew) and find it difficult to overcome what they have learned as fact.

There is a scene where we hear a gun shot and one of the performers is accused of shooting the other, but in our eyes, we did not see what really happened and are unsure of who might have tried to shoot who.

The cast is composed of seven actors, who play all the roles, including a mosquito (Carolyn Hu Bradbury who also plays characters J and S. Her mosquito is adorable and gets great laughs. The Gecko on the wall is played by Adam Poss, who also brings H and R to our story. Each of his characters is quite unique and you will never be confused as to which is which. Tiffany Renee Johnson brings both D and M to our stories and G who is in some ways our narrator as well is played by Peter Sipla.

The three other actors who only play one role are Leyla Beydoun as Q, Patrick Agada as F and Core ensemble member ( who is also a member of Teatro Vista) Charin Alvarez is B, a doctor with high standing. The scenes between Q and B and those between F and B are quite intense and in come cases will make you think even more. As I said, this is a think pieces and I would venture to say, each audience member will get something different out of the story and the presentation.

This is also a play where the set and the costumes as well as the props are not as important as the lighting (Liz Gomez and Mac Vaughey) and sound/original music ( Michael Huey) This play was inspired by E.M. Forester’s “A Passage to India” but perhaps is even more tense, delicate and dangerous.

“Passage” will continue at Theater Wit located at 1229 West Belmont thru April 10th with performances as follows:

Wednesdays  7:30 p.m.

Thursdays  7:30 p.m.

Fridays  7:30 p.m.

Saturdays   7:30 p.m.

Sundays  2:30 p.m.

SPECIALS_

Saturday  , March 19th , Saturday March 26th at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2nd and Thursday April 7th at 2:30 p.m.

AUDIO DESCRIPTION/Touch-Tour  3/19 2:30 p.m. touch tour at 1 p.m.

OPEN CAPTION: Saturday , April 2nd at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets range from $35-$55 and are available at the box office by calling 773-975-8150 or at www.remybumppo.org

Running time is 90 minutes -no intermission.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Passage”