PicksInSix Review: An Iliad - Court Theatre

Kane’s Mesmerizing Performance Returns To Court!
PicksInSix® Gold Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton

Bravura. That's the appropriate word for the Court Theatre production of “An Iliad,” running now through June 29.

It's a solo play based on the legendary epic poem by the Greek poet Homer, who also wrote The Odyssey. Both these poems form the foundation of Greek literature, even as there are continuous attempts to deny authorship, not unlike what the reputation of William Shakespeare occasionally experiences. This version is co-authored by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare in an endlessly eloquent fashion.

The term 'bravura' is most often used to praise what musical elements are being presented, as well as to the skills of the performers sharing their wares. This play offers itself in such a way that it is quite easy to compare it to a musical motif. The play itself is a kind of verbally spectacular music on its own, and Ms. Peterson and Mr. O'Hare hold nothing back in what they offer.

As the audience watches and takes it in, the story becomes easily absorbed in each movement, much like a symphony or even an opera, with its tragic plotlines that challenge believability in today's terms but were comfortably accepted back in "the day". And each character—Achilles the god-like Greek warrior; Hector, the greatest soldier of Troy; Patroclus, the Greek second-in-command; Agamemnon and Paris, the two sons whose actions make them so vulnerable—has his/her own section of the story devoted to them. It really is symphonic itself, both tragic and grand.

This sounds odd, but all the almost fantastical elements that the great director Charles Newell has assembled are almost players in their own right. Scenic Designer Todd Rosenthal and his Associate Scenic Designer Lauren M. Nichols have created a dystopian-like shelter with a variety of levels and steps and holes in the back wall, as well as a very sharp raked platform that an actor can negotiate for any part of the play. Sound Designer André Pleuss and Associate Sound Designer Josh McCommon share an almost constant low-level drone that surrounds the storytelling with an enhanced tension, matching the language and character in its various and sundry auditory nooks that push the environs of the piece even higher.

Rachel Anne Healy's costume for the actor Timothy Edward Kane is a highly layered vision, where Mr. Kane takes off pieces as he goes in a compliment to the exposure of man's vulnerability to his thoughts and actions, one by one. Lighting Designer Keith Parham and his Associate LD Josiah Croegaert have done absolute yeoman work in "giving light to the dark," so to speak, with their angles and shafts of light and faded colors that enhance what is seen. All this expert technicality greatly heightens the elegiac authenticity and makes this truly a special ensemble experience.

And the conductor of this symphonic reality is Mr. Kane as The Poet. He sings. He speaks in an otherworldly language. He moves balletically across the stage. His seasoned command of the character—in rage and in vulnerability, with the entire range of the actor's voice and emotions—is one of the best this writer has ever witnessed. Yes, there is lots of purple prose here, but it's all well-earned. Mr. Kane takes us on a journey that, even if you've never read the original epic poem, you can easily understand and appreciate the flowing, heightened story—another bow to the authors. He has mined humor where it's a surprise, and his own relationship with the audience is at once intimate and grand. It's one of the great performances presented this year at Court and, dare we say, ever in Chicago.

A favorite actor, Robert Duvall, said once: "I remember something Sandford Meisner told us. When you create a character, it's like making a chair, except instead of wood, you make it out of yourself. That's the actor's craft—using yourself to create the character." This is indeed what Mr. Kane, Mr. Newell and the other fabulous artists of this exceptional orchestra have ultimately accomplished over the course of four productions of the piece dating back to 2011—unique, mesmerizing and an extraordinary accomplishment that is not to be missed.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Teddy’s Last Ride.”

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

Court Theatre
presents
An Iliad
featuring
Timothy Edward Kane

Abelson Auditorium
5535 S Ellis Ave
through June 29, 2025

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PicksInSix Review: Translations - Writers Theatre

‘Translations’—The Magic of Language Itself.
PicksInSix® Review | Ronald Keaton

It would be very easy to see “Translations,” the thick, challenging classic by the great Irish playwright Brian Friel, as a treatise about endless attacks on Irish colonialism.  After all, British soldiers travel from town to town and literally change the names of where people live to make them conform with English culture and language—by force, if necessary. And in many ways, this is true. But, as the elegant production at Writers Theatre in Glencoe that opened Friday shows in no uncertain terms, the real story here is about the magic of language itself. Writers Artistic Director Braden Abraham has deftly followed the brushstrokes of the master Mr. Friel in creating this entire world of contradiction and mystery.

This was a period—Ireland in the 1830s, a delicate time historically, if such a word can be used for the Irish—that sat roughly a decade out from the vaunted potato famine, which would kill more than a million people and uprooted many more by some estimates. In order to create a seeming conformity in the Isles, these British soldiers helped establish the first National Schools, which encouraged literacy but provided classes only in English, and thus prohibited the speaking of Irish/Gaelic, which greatly contributed to its decline. This battle focuses on three characters— Hugh, a highly regarded teacher who speaks fluent Greek and Latin; his son Owen, who becomes a kind of interpreter for the soldiers, while caught between them and his love for his native land; and Yolland, a soldier who also maps the countryside and eventually falls for a young lass, rendering him, well, a bit lost in translation himself.

Hugh (the marvelous, rock-solid Kevin Gudahl) teaches adults in this hedge-school, which was illegal and furtive in its existence because of the Anglican stance on who should know what. One easily imagines a kind of drunken philosopher here, as Hugh imparts what wisdom and history he can in eloquent phrases and between lifts of his flask. He believes that the world is affected not by the facts of history, but by how we view those facts—an outlook not totally lost on our world today. But he’s practical as well; he sees with disdain what’s ahead in the coming loss of his own tongue.

His son Owen (Casey Hoekstra as an appealing spirit of not-so-torn allegiance) is a knowledgeable, almost gifted translator between English and Irish, taking to his task with a fervor that rivals the soldiers themselves in its passion. Owen drives the play forward with that fervency and commitment. His brother Manus (Andrew Mueller, persuasively gentler in outlook and demeanor than Owen) attempts to hold down the linguistic fort in wanting to preserve all native language and education, all while remaining in his father’s shadow. Mr. Mueller’s departure from Ballybeg at the top of Act II is absolutely riveting.

There really is all manner of great character work here, a Writers Theatre stamp. Jimmy Jack (a fabulous turn by Jonathan Weir) is a wizened old soul of letters who regularly waxes poetic about his admiration for the gods and goddesses of mythology, often in Greek or Latin. The lovers Lieutenant Yolland (a deeply affected young soldier given wonderful and painful shrift by Eric Hellman) and the comely girl Maire (Tyler Meredith is lovely and quite effective) have the ultimate hill to climb; they cannot communicate on a practical level, because they literally speak different languages. Yet a love emerges. And this plays out achingly, thanks to a chilling moment that Ms. Meredith handles with aplomb.

The almost elfin mute Sarah (Julia Rowley, convincing in an extremely difficult role) finds it hard to even articulate her own name. Gregory Linington valiantly takes on his Captain Lancey, who could have been a thankless taskmaster were it not for the actor’s inherent skill. Doalty (Ian Maryfield) and Bridget (Chloe Baldwin) are both young adult students at Hugh’s school.  They have a constantly energetic and fun exchange whenever they appear. And all this is contained on a set that seems a combination classroom/apartment/lean-to ingeniously offered by Andrew Boyce. The always right Andre Pleuss gives the audience a sound scheme of economy and thought. The dialect work of the cast was stellar; dialect coach Eva Breneman earns kudos here, too. And always Mr. Friel, watching like a voice in one’s ear, making sure that the attempt to change the world through its languages gets a full and proper examination. So graceful, and so telling, in the results.

RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com  Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO | Michael Brosilow

Writers Theater
presents
Translations
325 Tudor Court
Glencoe, IL
through May 4

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