Elisberg Industries
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like
Decent Quality Since 1847

"The Liar"

7/5/2013

0 Comments

 
I've written about the Writers Theatre in Glencoe, Illinois, before.  It's one of the most bizarre and incredible theater companies in the country.  II'm from Glencoe, so I'm biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong -- I'm not.  It began life in the back of a bookstore, seating about 50, yet the productions were so high quality that the main theater critics of the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune would head out to the suburbs, 30 minutes from downtown, and cover its openings.  Further, when the New York Times sends a reporter out to cover the remarkable Chicago theater scene, they generally include the Writers Theatre.

Eventually, the Writers Theatre outgrew their back room, and about 10-15 years ago they moved to a "big" facility -- the back of the Glencoe Women's Club, which got redesigned and seats perhaps a whopping 125.  (They kept the bookstore as a second venue.)  The stage is about the size of your living room.  Seriously.  Yet quality remained sky-high.  A production of A Streetcar Named Desire drew raves not only from local critics, but the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.  An original musical, A Minister's Wife, was transferred  to New York, playing at Lincoln Center.  One of its regular performers, Jessie Mueller, went to Broadway last year and got a Tony nomination for One a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

On Tuesday night, I went to see their current production, The Liar, the classic comedy from 1644 by Pierre Corneille, with a new adaptation by David Ives.  It was phenomenal, in fact one of the best productions I've seen there which is saying a whole lot.  Nothing dated about it -- joyous, vibrant, exhausting pace, and hilarious.

The play is done in rhyme, and if that might scare you, it turns out to be half the fun here -- at times stylish, at times modern, at times winking at the audience about the conventions of theater -- as the actors face the challenge head-on and tackle the dialogue with gusto.  The plot is sort of beside the point, but think of it as in the vein of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors.  There are a lot of errors, mistaken identities, romance and lying.  Lots of lying.

I'll mention the actors because they deserve mention, since the quality was among the highest I've seen at the Writers Theatre -- an impressive standard.  Nate Burger as the voracious liar who lies as easily as he breathes, LaShawn Banks as his valet who virtually chokes if he tries to tell a lie, Laura Rook and Kalen Harriman as the two forthright but bewildered ladies around who so many passions get convoluted, Michael Perez and Samuel Ashdown as friends sucked into the morass, Anne E. Thompson in a very funny dual role as the maid -- sorry, "maids" -- and Jonathan Weir, in a terrific performance as Dorante the Liar's father, who gets the emotional highlight of the night, a rich speech when he discovers what a liar his son is, and lays him out.

And tying it all together is some truly clever staging by director William Brown, who's able to help make a lunatic farce richly human and accessible.   And along with fight choreographer Tyler Rich, they stage one of the funniest swords fights I've seen in a theater -- starting with real swords, that morphs to miming with sound effects, and goes so off-the-ledge that a member of the audience gets run-through, to long, uproarious laughter.

By the way, just so you know it's not just me, here's the opening paragraph in the review Chicago Sun-Times critic Hedy Weiss --

"I am no great fan of 18th century French comedies of manners. A little of all that 'lifestyles of the nouveau riche and their servants' goes a very long way. But director William Brown’s production of 'The Liar,' now at Writers’ Theatre, is so effervescent, clever and deliciously played that I have been at least temporarily converted."

And by the way, again, just so you know it's not just me -- or just local critics -- or that I fibbed about the Wall Street Journal actually reviewing plays in this teensy, regional theater -- here's from the opening paragraph of the WSJ's latest review of the Writers Theatre, written by Terry Teachout, posted only yesterday:

"What's the funniest play ever written? I used to think it was 'Noises Off,' but now that I've seen 'The Liar,' I'm not so sure...I finally caught up with it in the suburbs of Chicago, where Writers' Theatre is giving 'The Liar' a frenziedly farcical production at which I laughed so hard that I was sore the next day."

Finally, as a treat, here's a trailer of the show.  Unfortunately, there isn't much dialogue -- though some -- but it gives a sense of the venue and the vigor and quality of the evening


If you live in the Chicago area, it runs through the end of the month.  Try to go.  If this play is going to be in your area wherever you live -- hope that it's a great company that can do The Liar justice -- and if so, try to see it.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.

    Picture
           Available on Amazon

    Picture
           Available on Amazon

    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    International
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2025
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like