PicksInSix Review: Church Hurt - Red Theater

Three Women Walk Into A Church.
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Perse Grammer

Upon stepping into Red Theater’s world premiere production of “Church Hurt,” one can’t help but notice the massive cross mounted in the center of the stage. The audience rings three walls of this intimate space, which scenic designer Rose Johnson has dressed in neutral whites and browns. Lighting designer Amina Gilbert brings in pops of color via light strips along the cross and stairs. Throughout the show, Director Jessica Love has ensured that there is no inch of the minimalist stage untouched by actors, thus providing everyone with excellent sightlines. And the fast transitions from scene to scene are aided by music from sound designer Kate Schnetzer.

“Church Hurt” starts with Mar, who after several years living in Chicago, has returned to work at her hometown church with her childhood friends. Faith is happy to hear Mar is leaving behind her life of alcoholism and same-sex attraction, whereas the open-minded Julie is more skeptical. As Mar and Julie reconnect, Julie learns that Mar is lying about her return to faith and disavowal of lesbianism for the sake of employment. This stands in stark contrast to Julie’s open bisexuality as she tries to increase inclusion within her religious community. But conflict surrounding an upcoming baptism causes Julie to question her place in the church, and her friendship with Faith.

This is a three woman show, and each actress brings something different to the table. As Mar, Sara Sadjadi portrays bluntness and edge that is refreshing in contrast to Faith and Julie’s constant smiles. Alice Wu (Faith) delivers the forced enthusiasm of someone frantically trying to keep herself from spiraling, which makes her moments of desperate vulnerability all the more satisfying to witness. And Laura Michele Erle meets these two extremes in the middle, portraying the natural kindness and conviction of a character like Julie. Costume designer kClare McKellaston has distinctly outfitted each actress in modest yet modern Midwest Christian outfits.

Playwright Brynne Frauenhoffer’s dialogue is funny in the way where it takes a few seconds for the joke to creep up on you, and then you burst out laughing when it does. But Frauenhoffer also takes us to sadder places, such as a conversation between Mar and Faith about their very difficult breakups. The history and friendship between the three women is hammered in throughout the show, especially when the pressures of church fade away during a lockdown Nerf gun fight. Frauenhoffer has created an interesting clash on perspective of queerness and its place in religion through Mar and Julie as two sapphic women. However, once it’s revealed that Mar is lying about repressing lesbianism for the church’s sake, there isn’t much more conflict between them. In the one scene taking place outside of the church, the two have a bonding moment over dating women and how absurd the purity culture they grew up in was. I enjoyed how there wasn’t any romantic tension between the two. However, because they begin the play confident in the validity of their queerness, there isn’t much for them to deconstruct throughout the show. Whether Julie’s beliefs around sexuality and Christianity are new to you depends on how queer and online you’ve been for the last ten years.

I wish we had the opportunity to see more of Faith, who was somewhat sidelined in the middle of the story. Unlike Mar and Julie, she is still deeply affected by the purity culture she was raised in, which convinces her she’s an adulterer for having premarital sex. Her role as a Christian woman also drives her to despair over her dating life, or lack thereof. Throughout the show, Faith refuses to engage in conversations about queerness that don’t involve disavowing same-sex attraction. We eventually learn that this isn’t out of ignorance—Faith has been reading all of the theories and arguments that Julie sends her. She just can’t figure out how to think critically about her Christianity without feeling as if she’s betraying it. It’d be easy to dislike her if Faith didn’t clearly hold a deep love for her friends and also wasn’t struggling under religious expectations. Because Mar and Julie are more static in their beliefs and growth, lending additional focus to Faith’s internal conflict could have explored the effects of Christian indoctrination more deeply. She is an uncomfortable character, but a play about religious trauma isn’t the place to pull your punches. Leaning into that discomfort and complicating the convictions of Mar and Julie could lead to a tenser, more nuanced three-sided conflict.

“Church Hurt” has good bones, and a lovely team behind it. I’m excited to see how this play develops.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | PERSE GRAMMER is a multidisciplinary writer and theatre artist based in Chicago. Grammer is currently developing their latest play through a mentorship with Sandy Shinner at Shattered Globe Theatre. They hold a BFA in Playwriting from The Theatre School at DePaul University.  www.persegrammer.com

PHOTO | Wannabe Studio

Red Theater
presents
World Premiere
Church Hurt
The Edge Off Broadway
1133 W. Catalpa Ave
through November 21, 2026

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PicksInSix Review: The Secret Garden - Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre

Outstanding Performances Seed Theo’s ‘Secret Garden’
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton

It’s a famous children’s story that ends up, in this reincarnation, being the most adult tale in the room—and it works in both realms.  The Francis Hodgson Burnett 1911 novel “The Secret Garden,” presented by the always ambitious Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre as its annual holiday offering through December 22, tells the tale of Mary Lennox, a girl doing her best to stifle her grief through her own entitlement, while simultaneously searching for her self-worth at a Yorkshire estate full of colorful gardens, one of which is locked away, kept in secret, while also holding surprises of its own.

Mary (a complicated role in this guise that Joryhebel Ginorio handles with great aplomb and intelligence) is orphaned because of a cholera pandemic in India that took the lives of her parents and her guardian. She has been sent to England to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven (Will Koski offers articulate, clear choices with a handsome, tight tenor voice to boot), who is mourning himself the death of his wife Lily—seen and heard in ghostly form, as others are in this musical, by the graceful presence and voice of Brennan Martinez. Now Mary is very entitled, it seems, but the arc of this attitude is not given very much shrift, thanks to the fabulous Dakota Hughes as Martha, a chambermaid who exerts much influence and calm on Mary, all the while showing her own excitement in life.

The parade of characters, all with varying degrees of influence, include: Martha’s brother Dickon (an easy, accessible Lincoln J. Skoien), who actually tells Mary of a ‘secret garden’ to explore; Ben (a folksy turn by Bill Chamberlain), a gardener who keeps his word to Lily to tend the estate gardens after her passing; Mrs. Medlock (Kathleen Puls Andrade, properly conservative and authoritarian), who meets Mary first and takes her to her new home; Colin (an honestly thankless role given fine depth and nuance by Kailey Azure Green), whose health diagnosis keeps the lad bedridden for a major part of the story; Rose (with Rachel Guth’s lovely singing voice), Lily’s ghostly sister; and Dr. Neville Craven (Jeffrey Charles makes him more human than the character deserves), the nemesis here who has kept Colin in bed for most of his life.

A word should be said about this adaptation. People who know Brunett’s beloved book are aware, as they watch the progress of the musical, that Dr. Craven has been elevated to the status of villain and given more strength in the plot by original bookwriter/lyricist Marsha Norman, so some of his influence and characterization are a bit contrived in its expansion to help make such a choice work. Same with the fact that the story’s conclusion is not just Mary’s story, but Colin’s as well—and how the ‘secret garden’ actually might contain its own healing magic.

But that’s why adaptations are of varying degree. And the choices made do indeed allow truly fine musical moments to occur; the duet between Neville and Archibald about “Lily’s Eyes” is a great sight and sound to behold between Mr. Koski and Mr. Charles. Martha’s solo “If I Had A Fine White House” is energetic and fascinating, as shared by Dakota Hughes. In fact, the entire Lucy Simon score is offered in a mature, charming guise by music director Carolyn Brady and her charges.  And this chorus… outstanding. Wow!

Director Christopher Pazdernik requires praise here, too. The Theo space is simply a flat stage that needs lots of filling. And it’s been done admirably. There are six or so tables with four seats at each table, all enveloped in the walled seating that the space has available. But Mx. Pazdernik, a literal expert in musical theatre story and history, weaves the cast in and out of the seating area with small set pieces and literal lit areas for the ‘invisible’ chorus to inhabit. It’s pretty imaginative and strong. The minimalist set pieces from scenic designer Rose Johnson are a fine corollary. Levi J. Wilkins offers constant atmospheric lighting to proper and spirited effect for Lucy Elkin’s rich costumes. “The Secret Garden” is a surprisingly difficult story to tell, even with today’s sensibilities and maturity. But at Theo, it has earned a respect as a marvelous holiday offering.

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 “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com

PHOTO|Time Stops Photography

Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre
presents
The Secret Garden
721 Howard Street
Evanston, IL
through December 22, 2024

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PicksInSix Review: The Great Khan - Redtwist Theatre

Past’s Power Over Our Future’s Legacy
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Scott Gryder

The Redtwist Theatre’s intimate venue was further cozied up on Sunday afternoon with the Chicago premiere of the National New Play Network production of “The Great Khan.”  Set mostly in the bedroom of a teenager, Redtwist invites you to take a closer look into the lives of American teenagers struggling to find their place in society. While being pulled in various directions by their peers, parents and idols, the teens prepare to battle history to lay the foundation for their futures.

Michael Gene Sullivan’s “The Great Khan” is a multidimensional comedy centered around Jayden Gebremedhin, a teenager who is forced to make a move to a new home, with his mother as his only friend, after heroically defending a fellow student involved with a sexual assault. Now in hiding, Jayden must navigate the pressures of not only showing up but showing out at a new school and being haunted by his past. Not to mention, he may be going mad thanks to the newly seeded obsession over the topic of his latest class assignment: Temujin (aka Genghis Khan).

Sullivan’s play relies heavily on stereotypes; however, not in a two-dimensional predictability, but as a tool for us to immediately recognize ourselves in at least one of the characters. Simon Gebremedhin’s Jayden exemplifies the modern American teenager, struggling to find his place in a new home and at a new school, while running from his past. Gebremedhin’s pacing is thoughtful and unaffected. Monique Marshaun soon introduces us to the sneaky yet slightly outrageous Ant, who’s continually pushing the envelope for answers. Josie Mi’s Gao-Ming is often regrettably living center stage in a monologuing role, sharing factoids, but when she enters the world of Jayden’s bedroom, her precise balance between quirk and brilliance truly tickles. Bryan Breau’s Mr. Adams is sincerely awkward, trying his darndest to connect with his students by overcompensating to be hip to the times. Steffen Diem Garcia embodies Temujin (Genghis Khan) with complete physical embodiment, yet, unlike Genghis Khan’s famed savage bravery in the face of battle, Garcia’s Khan waivers in the execution of his lines, leaving Khan vulnerable to deflated moments of pacing. But it’s LaToriuous Givens who shines as Jayden’s mother Crystal. Her subtext is grounded in genuineness, bringing a maternal care and concern for her son by layering nurturing with a keen hard-edged smackdown when necessary.

Mostly, the script is quick-witted and organic, with characters comedically playing off opening moments of heightened dramatic circumstance. Additionally, throughout “The Great Khan,” each character speaks freely and frankly about their wants and fears. If only social norms would encourage and embrace that level of candid behavior. Thanks to this forward dialogue, “The Great Khan” does not shy away from topics such as violence, vulgarity nor the use of foul language. The text is poignant and relevant. Is the way we see ourselves or the standards we hold ourselves to what we truly believe, or are these expectations planted there by outside influences? And thus, what is our actual truth? How and who are we supposed to be? And is that seemingly insurmountable fear we experience when questioning our purpose a guide to keep us safe or a monster we must defeat?

Scenic designer and charge artist Rose Johnson gives us a mostly blank canvas to start, with a bedroom setting loaded with moving boxes and the classic adolescent decoration stylings of scattered laundry. But it’s with a sequence of charming reveals that the set is enhanced as scenes and characters advance. Piper Kirchhofer’s lighting design cloaks this open set with washes to sleekly transition between days and locations, and the combined efforts, specifically for one of the culminating moments of the show, was powerfully executed with surprise and power. The sound design by Max Cichon had a character of its own. The music perfectly set the emotional tone, carried us harmoniously between scene changes, and surged with intensity when required. Beyond that, it was delightful to see the patrons bop along with the tunes throughout.

“The Great Kahn,” though stumbling pacing-wise near the end, casually delivers a gut punch to remind ourselves that we are who we make ourselves. Our histories may seem powerfully overwhelming and oppressive, but it can only be our responsibility to do what we feel best supports our wants and needs, whether or not that contradicts our past. With new Artistic Director Dusty Brown at the helm of the cherished Bryn Mawr District Redtwist Theatre, and an energy for producing shows that encourage personal exploration and growth, I look forward to being challenged in the tradition of Chicago storefront theatre for the rest of their season.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | SCOTT GRYDER received a Non-Equity Jeff Award for his performance in the one-man show BUYER & CELLAR. www.thescottgryder.com  

PHOTO | Aaron Reese Boseman

REDTWIST THEATRE
presents
THE GREAT KAHN
through February 26, 2023

1044 W. Bryn Mawr Ave
(773) 728-7529

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