Strange Tree Group | Stowaway Travel Writing & Editorial Services

Who’s in the mood for some seasonal spookiness? Check out the always-odd, often-heartbreaking Strange Tree Group in their latest, The Spirit Play. Tom B. and I saw the show a week ago, and I was delighted with how delighted he was by the production. It’s always fun to feel like you’re really treating someone with your comp ticket.

Here’s an excerpt of my review:

This Halloween special explores the world of Victorian-era séances and the various ways we convince ourselves that something we want desperately to be true is true… Raps on the table, bells ringing in mid-air, and of course, ghostly hands creeping out from behind a curtain; all these were standard practice among séance charlatans of the era, and the medium and her entourage use them here as well.

You can read the rest of it here. Happy haunting!

I had a marathon theater day a couple weeks ago, during which I saw three plays by three different theater companies, all at the Garage Theatre at Steppenwolf. The theater is literally a space carved out of the parking garage, and it’s a decent attempt by an established theater company to lay claim to some of the edginess of fringe theater groups and spaces. The plays themselves varied widely, though they were all meant to focus on “an inquiry into the divide between the public/private self,” according to the program. They succeed to varying degrees. My favorite by far was the first one I saw, “The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen,” with “Heddatron” coming in an uneven second and “Sonnets for an Old Century” a distant third. Here’s a snippet of the review:

The humorous rhythm of the play is badly interrupted by the Ibsen scenes, which play far too sitcom-ready (“Take my wife! Please!”). The best part is the surreal scene just before Jane’s kidnapping, when all three timelines bleed into one another and humans and robots dance across the stage to the undeniable “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

Read the rest of the review here. The shows run through April 24, so you have plenty of time to head on over and spend $20 on an hour or two of quality entertainment. Enjoy!