***** Here we are , just starting the merry month of May, and one of our theater companies is ready to do holiday programming. Yes! If you attend the Ensemble Theatre at Steppenwolf, you will be treated to a rollicking time as four actors take you to a new way to look at Thanksgiving in “The Thanksgiving Play” a new work by Larissa FastHorse , making its Chicago premiere. It is the story of four well intentioned people ( with a theater background of some type) trying to bring a new Thanksgiving play to grammar school classes, that will not “ruffle any feathers”, so to speak.
The four people are different in every way. The leader/director is Logan ( played to perfection by Audrey Francis). Her character has worked hard to get the okay to do a play or pageant, that will educate her students and at the same time meet all the standards of the school board and her “parents”. Her boyfriend, Jaxton ( a terrific character as brought to life by the comedic Nate Santana) is a “street performer” who thinks of himself as a special actor filling the needs of those who watch hi. In his mind, he is a star!
Enter character number 3, Caden ( perfectly played by Tim Hopper) who is big on research and has wanted to do a script that will allow the world to hear his words and ideas and sees this as his shot. The fourth person in this quartet is Alicia ( Paloma Nozicka is dynamite in this role). Alicia is indeed an actress who plays specific role “types”. She is a beauty, who is sexy and easily can play Latinas as well as Native Americans, although she is not really either.
Smoothly directed by Jess McLeod, this is a laugh-out-loud play that will have you in stitches for the entire 90 minutes. The play is in the new Ensemble venue which is an in-the-oval theatre that has risers allowing perfect sight lines for every audience member. This is truly that “there is not a bad seat” venue. The show starts out with a lot of comic touches to the song “The 12 Days of Christmas” making it more of the 6 days of Thanksgiving with some great sight gags. Since there are no walls, the set is more about the furniture and large props used in the show and Andrew Boyce has designed just what is needed to make this comedy work.
The costumes by Raquel Adorno are quite fitting, and not to give away some of the unique surprises, her people have a lot of work to do regarding this one. The lighting (Keith Parham) and sound (Tosin Olufolabi) are terrific allowing us to see and hear every detail of every word in this hilarious script. The music ( Kory Danielson) adds to the overall picture and the R & D Choreography by Violence Design was amazing. Three of these performers are regulars at Steppenwolf and I can only imagine that Ms Nozicka will soon join the ranks. She is special in being able to convey her message with just the turn of her head. Watch closely and you will see for yourself.
As you know, I will never give away a surprise, so I am limited to how much more I can tell you except to say that if you had a bad day, week or month and you need something to take that all away and have you laughing your A _ _ off, this is the play and you won’t look back.
Tuesdays 7:30pm
Tickets start at $20 Be prepared to have a fun time
Stage: Ensemble Theater
Show Type: Comedy/Drama
Box Office: 312-335-1650
To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “The Thanksgiving Play”.
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