With a Pair of Great Performances in Fine Irish Play, 'Chapatti' Has Me Dublin My Pleasure -- Chicago Theater Review

Theater Review

Chapatti
a world premiere play by Christian O'Reilly
directed by BJ Jones
starring John Mahoney and Penny Slusher
Northlight Theatre, Skokie, IL
Run Ended
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This won't be a barrage of statistics like my last review, but I feel it worth noting that I have now seen John Mahoney on a theatrical stage 9 times--at Northlight, Steppenwolf and once at Ravinia.

Truth be told, this is probably more than the number of Frasier episodes I've seen--I never liked the show nearly as much as Cheers, from which it was spun off--despite Mahoney playing Martin Crane, terrifically, in 263 of those.

According to IMDB, he has appeared in a number of TV episodes since Frasier ended in 2004, but I believe it true to say that rather than seek continued fame & fortune in Hollywood, Mahoney has opted to focus primarily on stage acting in Chicago, where he joined Steppenwolf at the age of 37, soon after deciding to become an actor.

He is now 73--just 14 years older than his TV son, Kelsey Grammer--and it was great to note that in Chapatti he appeared a good bit heartier than he has in recent years.

It is always a joy to see him on stage, yet while he is delightful in Chapatti--a play he directly helped to facilitate a world premiere at Northlight--his only castmate, Penny Slusher, is just as terrific in a rather warmhearted piece.

I saw the show's last performance in Skokie, so won't spend much time on a detailed review, but do highly recommend it--with the same cast--to those lucky enough to be at the Galway Arts Festival in July.

Past Northlight productions with Mahoney have been staged at the Ireland theater fest, and Chapatti is actually a co-production of Northlight and the festival born from Irish author Christian O'Reilly getting his script to Mahoney, who got Northlight Artistic Director BJ Jones interested.

Jones directed the Skokie production and will do likewise in Galway.

There, the one troublesome aspect of Chapatti shouldn't be a problem. Mahoney and Slusher each adopted Irish accents, and while I don't think I missed much of the dialogue, the couple next to me audibly tried to discern what was said on several occasions.

Given Northlight's generally older audience base, I might suggest that the play should have been presented here devoid of any brogue, even if a fair amount of authenticity would have been lost. I have to assume other audience members might have had some trouble comprehending all that was said, although this may have been satiated a bit by the fact that much of it was monologue, not dialogue.

Even though the play revolves around two older Dubliners who come to intertwine, writer O'Reilly cleverly has both Dan (Mahoney) and Betty (Slusher) talking to the audience--though not all that overtly--rather than to each other, much of the time.

This enables a deeper familiarity with each character, which makes their eventual interaction richer.

The title of the play, Chapatti, is that of Dan's dog, while Betty has several cats. None of the animals are seen, but the unique structure makes them an integral part of the piece.

I imagine the work would best be classified as a drama given some weighty themes, but it has enough humor to possibly be considered a comedy.

And it is touching enough--without being maudlin--to resonate with audience members of all ages, although perhaps particularly the more mature folks who fill most of the seats in Skokie.

Yet anyone who has the chance in Galway should cherish seeing a true Chicago treasure in Mahoney, and the wonderful work of Slusher, who is every bit his equal in Chapatti.

The play itself is good enough to work well with other fine actors, so it'll be worth your time, one day, if you missed it here and won't be getting to Galway.

But though a one-line synopsis may say that Chapatti is a Dublin-based play about a late-in-life dog lover and cat person who come to find commonality, at its core it is simply a piece about humanity.

Which John Mahoney and Penny Slusher embody just about perfectly.

'The Whipping Man' Poses Stirring Questions on Post-War Civility -- Chicago Theater Review

Theater Review

The Whipping Man
a play by Matthew Lopez
directed by Kimberly Senior
Northlight Theatre, Skokie
Thru February 24
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I have seen hundreds of plays, many that I’ve liked—to varying degrees—and some that I haven’t.

While the subject, words, themes and structure employed by the playwright, and in concomitant—a recent addition to my vocabulary—fashion, the performance of the actors have an obvious effect on my enjoyment, I’ve never had a grasp on how much credit, or blame, should go to the director.

In enjoying The Whipping Man, a fairly recent play by Matthew Lopez now getting its Chicagoland premiere at Northlight, it seems worth noting that this was the fifth play Kimberly Senior has directed in recent years that I’ve very much liked. Especially in noting that Senior seems to be one of the busiest theatrical directors in Chicago—helming several shows beyond the ones I’ve seen—and recently directed a play at New York’s Lincoln Center, her going 5-for-5 in steering satisfying shows must be more than coincidence.

But it’s also possible that a good part of Senior’s skill is a knack for selecting not only compelling but topically unique plays to direct. The Pillowman and The Cripple of Inishmaan, both by Martin McDonagh, fit this description, as does The Overwhelming—a play by J.T. Rogers centered around the Rwandan genocide—and Amy Herzog’s After the Revolution, which weaves family politics with Communism, American-style.

And The Whipping Man has one of the most original premises I’ve yet encountered.

Based in April 1865, amidst the last days of the Civil War, the play opens with an injured Confederate soldier named Caleb (played by Derek Gaspar at Northlight) returning to his family’s Richmond home to find it deserted save for Simon (Tim Edward Rhoze), one of the family’s newly freed slaves. A second slave, John (Sean Parris), is the third character in this two-act drama.

Playwright Lopez, who according to program materials is an Episcopalian from the Florida Panhandle, the son of a Puerto Rican father and a Polish-Russian mother, adds the interesting wrinkle that Caleb is Jewish and so too have the former slaves been raised to follow Judaism.

The historical reality that many Southern Jews fought for the Confederacy—despite Jewish people having long faced ostracism and even slavery—is well-explicated in the program notes, and I was expecting this seeming contradiction to be a more prominent part of the play. Though questions of faith do factor in, and Act 2 features the best improvised Passover Seder I’ve ever seen—discovering that Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox fell on the first night was Lopez’ spark in penning the play—the narrative more acutely weaves issues of responsibility, loyalty and recompense through the three men’s relationship, with matters of faith being less at the fore.

Leading into and through the second act, Lopez throws in some theatrical twists, which while heightening the tension felt a tad too familiar in a play that had been exploring rather uncommon ground without such overtly rising action.

Nonetheless, Gaspar, Rhoze and Parris are excellent throughout and with an impressive backdrop forged by her scenic designer husband, Jack Magaw, to whatever degree Senior puts her own stamp on Lopez’ material, over 100 minutes The Whipping Man is never less than interesting to watch, and often quite gripping.

Yet while I consider The Whipping Man an excellent play that I would recommend to anyone—particularly if you can snag $20 Day-of-Show discount tickets that Northlight makes available—part of what prevents me from deeming it “absolutely phenomenal” and awarding @@@@@ is a sense that in some ways, the play itself isn’t quite as fascinating as some of the background material that surrounds it. In other words, though the play is terrific, it doesn’t quite match the brilliance of its setup.