Displaying items by tag: Charence Higgins

Tuesday, 14 March 2023 11:13

Seriously Entertaining: Rajiv Joseph's 'Describe the Night' in Chicago Premiere at Steppenwolf

(left to right) Glenn Davis and Caroline Neff in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Chicago premiere of Describe The Night by ensemble member Rajiv Joseph, directed by ensemble member Austin Pendleton, running now through April 9, 2023.

“Describe the Night” at Steppenwolf is serious theater that is seriously entertaining. Intellectually challenging yet side-splittingly funny, it has sat with me for days after as I’ve puzzled over what it is telling us.

Written by celebrated playwright Rajiv Joseph, whose sly wit enthralled audiences in Steppenwolf’s “Guards at the Taj,” the somewhat enigmatic script is also a captivating mystery story. It follows the emergence of famed Russian Jewish author Isaac Babel’s wartime journal, an uncensored record of his war time impressions.

Depicting real and fictional characters, Joseph spins a possible recount of how Babel’s journal survived while much of his writing was banned and destroyed. The title of the play was taken from that journal kept while Babel served as a war correspondent and propagandist for the Soviets in their 1920 war against Poland. Babel was a rising fiction writer when he signed into the military, and soon after the war wrote Red Cavalry, drawn from his personal impressions of the war, quite at odds with the positive spin he delivered in the news.

Eventually, under increasingly oppressive censorship, much of Babel’s fiction writing was banned by Russian authorities, the author imprisoned in 1939, and executed in 1940, with his working manuscripts, notes, and the journal offered in evidence at his trial. In the play's portrayal of the search for the surviving journal, we see two fictional connections to Babel—the grandmotherly babushka Yevgenia (Sally Murphy) and her granddaughter Urzula (Charence Higgins)—tailed by KGB operative Vova (Glenn Davis is pitch perfect).

The KGB wanted not just the writer dead, and his manuscripts and books destroyed, but his source material too. Hence the ongoing search for Babel’s journal. Vova's menacing presence is palpable, but his efforts are thwarted by the ditzy Yevgenia who charms him and all of us with an earnest insistence that he join them for soup. Vova acquiesces, and the playwright gives as a surreal dinner scene—foreshadowed deftly in Act 1—that is one for the ages, the laugh until you cry type.

It also encapsulates one powerful truth in “Describe the Night,” that a great antidote to disinformation and oppression is to laugh at it, buttressed with “alternative facts” as "truth" in our own age of disinformation and “the big lie” is in danger of becoming. In other words, we live in a time when truth and lies are harder to distinguish. And this evolving dynamic of confusion within society is at the core of "Describe the Night."

Written in 2014 and produced in 2017, “Describe the Night” predates our own unfortunate circumstances, with libraries censored, school curricula bowderlized, and news content cued to television ratings rather than impartiality. Reviews of other stagings have recognized the importance of this play, but it seems in Steppenwolf's production under the direction of Austin Pendleton, the actors have nailed the comic timing that makes the show so effective.

Kudos too, for scenic design by Collette Pollard, whose representation of the extensive KGB files on parties of interest is another high point of the show, played also to great comic effect. On Steppenwolf’s newest in-the-round theater space is a blank tablet with minimalist sets introduced only when required. Sound design by Pornchanak Kanchanabanca is noteworthy, from light touches of evocative music to dramatic sound effects such the roaring inferno where many of Babel’s writings are destroyed.

In some ways “Describe the Night” is an absurdist style play, the characters not naturalistic. But Joseph, who also won a Tony for his "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," leavens this with his signature style of natural contemporary speech. We see this particularly as two real life characters, Isaac Babel (James Vincent Merredith) and his military minder and friend Nikolai (Yasen Peyankov) who joust about the nature of truth. Likewise with two fictional characters from scenes in post-Soviet times, airport car rental agent Feliks (Jack Cain) and reporter Marikya (Caroline Neff, who I never can get enough of on stage). Mariyka also comes under questioning Vova in the search for the missing journal, making a connection to contemporary times.

This show flies by in two hours and forty-five minutes, and the first act is engaging and promising, on which the second act delivers in spades. I had no idea how much time had passed when the lights came up. “Describe the Night” runs through April 9, 2023 at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. It’s a great production of what is proving to be a seminal play.

Published in Theatre in Review

‘Anatomy of a Suicide’ Is Hard to Watch, But Not Because of the Subject

18 August 2026 in Theatre in Review

Perhaps surprisingly, Anatomy of a Suicide is not an overwhelmingly emotionally gripping play, nor is it horrifying. Instead, it vividly…

Gwydion Theatre Company presents The Chicago Premiere of Por’ Knockers at the Greenhouse Theater’s Studio 44 September 10 - October 4

18 August 2026 in Upcoming Theatre

This narrative tracks five individuals within the "People’s Diasporatic Party"—outfitted in corporate attire—as they take refuge in a desolate East…

Oil Lamp's I Love You Because has heart, despite lukewarm romance

17 August 2026 in Theatre in Review

Finding love has always been a challenge. In Jane Austen’s day, a time governed by strict rules of courtship, couples…

Joffrey Ballet opens its 2026-27 season with Chicago Premiere of John Neumeier's theatrical masterpiece, Liliom, featuring 16-piece live jazz band on stage SEPTEMBER 17-27

17 August 2026 in Upcoming Dance

The Joffrey Ballet opens its 2026-27 season with the Chicago Premiere of John Neumeier's landmark narrative ballet Liliom. Inspired by Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play and…

Detroit ’67 at Pulse Theatre Chicago – September 11-November 1

17 August 2026 in Upcoming Theatre

Pulse Theatre Chicago proudly announces a defining new chapter in the company's history with the expansion of its artistic leadership,…

Hail Mary/Maria at Theater Wit – A Welcome New Slant on Crossing Over into Adulthood

17 August 2026 in Theatre in Review

Coming of age stories resonate more profoundly when they mirror the lived reality of a real person. That’s why the…

Remy Bumppo Theatre Company Hosts "Exploring The In Between: A Conversation About Mid-Sized Theatres in Chicago," Monday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. at Theater

17 August 2026 in Theatre Buzz

Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s 30th Anniversary Season continues with "Exploring The In Between: A Conversation About Mid-Sized Theatres in Chicago," Monday,…

Shattered Globe Theatre Announces 36th Season

17 August 2026 in Upcoming Theatre

Shattered Globe Theatre (SGT), now under the artistic leadership of Ian Frank, is pleased to announce its 36th Season, featuring three plays that explore the…

M.A.D.D. Rhythms Announces the return of the Chicago Tap Summit this October and other 25th Anniversary Events

17 August 2026 in Upcoming Dance

M.A.D.D. (Making A Difference Dancing) Rhythms, Chicago’s premier tap collective, is proud to celebrate its 25th Anniversary at the Chicago Tap…

BLUE MAN GROUP "A NEW HOLIDAY SURPRISE" Coming to Chicago for the Holidays NOVEMBER 24 – DECEMBER 13

17 August 2026 in Upcoming Theatre

Broadway In Chicago is pleased to announce Blue Man Group will bring its first-ever holiday production, "A NEW HOLIDAY SURPRISE," on…

League of Chicago Theatres hosts 2026 Spotlight Gala: Unmask the Night, Embrace the Drama October 19

17 August 2026 in Theatre Buzz

The League of Chicago Theatres will host its annual benefit, the 2026 Spotlight Gala: Unmask the Night, Embrace the Drama at City Hall –…

Broadway In Chicago presents Waitress at JAMES M. NEDERLANDER THEATRE OCTOBER 13 – 18, 2026

17 August 2026 in Upcoming Theatre

Broadway In Chicago is delighted to announce that single tickets for the upcoming engagement of the 10th Anniversary tour of the hilarious…

Otherworld Theatre Boldly Goes Again with Starship Edsel Season 4

17 August 2026 in Theatre in Review

Otherworld Theatre blasts back into the cosmos with Season 4 of Starship Edsel: An Improvised Star Trek Parody, the latest…

Bernstein’s Score Burns Bright in Music Theater Works’ West Side Story

16 August 2026 in Upcoming Theatre

Some musicals carry such cultural weight that every new production feels like a referendum on how well a company can…

Gus and Alice Brings Nostalgic, Cozy Comedy

15 August 2026 in Theatre in Review

Theatre 31 Productions’ Gus and Alice has returned to the Greenhouse Theater Center this month. Written by Chicago playwright Mike Rago,…

From Subway Cars to Chicago Stages: Marcus Monroe at The Comedy Bar

14 August 2026 in Theatre in Review

Sometimes the best way to find a comedian who’s new to you is by stumbling onto a clip that stops…

Jersey Boys coming to CIBC Theatre November 10 - 22

14 August 2026 in Upcoming Theatre

Broadway In Chicago is excited to announce tickets for t he original Tony® & Olivier Award-winning musical sensation, JERSEY BOYS, are now on sale.…