“The Opportunities of Extinction”

Recommended *** If you are one of the Americans worried about “climate change” as well as the changes that the human race is experiencing- “social media” and computer technology taking over, then you will probably see the depth of Sam Chanse’s new play, “The Opportunities of Extinction”. Presented by Broken Nose Theatre Company, now celebrating six years of bringing new works to their stage , The Den Theatre (2A) in Wicker Park. This is a three character play, smoothly directed by Jen Poulin, dealing with a couple, going through some rough choices in their lives , on a camping trip in The Mojave Desert. At their camping ground, they meet a young woman, studying the impact of climate change on the Joshua Tree. Georgia ( Aria Szalai-Raymond ) appears to be very young, perhaps still a student, who is deeply concerned about her world and what is taking place.

The couple, Mel ( played to perfection by Echaka Agba) , a writer and her boyfriend Arjun ( normally played by Richard Costes, BUT tonight the role was played by Vijay Sarathi, who will play the role again on June 27th) a social media expert. She is older, and pretty well set in her ways and wants. He is more of a free spirit and firmly feels that he needs to relate everything in his life on the Internet. As we all know, this is a major problem that we face daily. In fact, our President cannot leave anything off and is ready to “tweet” at a moment’s notice. This is our world and it scares me as much as it does Mel.

The play is about 100 minutes with no intermission, and while I found the actors to be solid and Sarathi ( with script in hand, doing a credible job- in fact, 8 minutes into the show, I forgot that he was an understudy and that he was indeed with script in hand- BRAVO) masterful. There are some confusing moments in the play which makes it one that is ripe for discussion as a group, on the ride home or just with some friends who also saw it. There is a scene where Mel and Georgia are about to save something they cherish, which may be a sapling of the Joshua Tree ( a symbol of our world as we know it) and making sure that Arjun does what he can to protect it. We must all work together to save our world from the changes time has brought us- weater and digital!

Part of what this play is aiming at , is to let us know that we are becoming trapped by the digital world around us and the worlds , both real and fake, that are created through the world of the internet and how we are tending to forget the beautiful things that nature has given us. DEvon Green’s set is simple, but to the point as we feel that we are in a camp site and the props ( tent, chairs, chest, groceries, also assembled by Green with Therese Ritchie, who also helped design the set) are terrific. Martin Hanna’s costumes are fitting, Eric Backus’s sound and original music is perfect and the lighting by Cat Davis, while good, was missing the fire in the fire-pot.

“The Opportunities of Extinction” will continue at the Den, located at 1331 N. Milwaukee Avenue thru June 30th with performances as follows:

Thursdays  7:30 p.m.

Fridays  7:30 p.m.

Saturdays  7:30 p.m.

Sundays  3 p.m.

Monday, June 18th is Industry Night

Tickets are “PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN”

BUT you do have to order them at www.brokennosetheatre.com

Parking can be a problem in Wicker Park, but you should be able to find a meter space. Many of them are only until 6 p.m., BUT read the box to make sure. The city does not offer pay what you can tickets!

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