Anton in Show Business

Backstage Theatre Company

Heartland Studio, 7016 N. Glenwood

www.backstagetheatrecompany.org

Running through March 13^th, $12-$15

 

The Backstage Theatre Company’s artistic mission includes works where “the barriers between audience and performer are altered or removed”. It’s understandable, then, why the company included Anton In Show Business in their company’s season: audience interaction pervades the play. This audience interplay sometimes works to contribute to the often jovial nature of the show, but frequently does not.

 

Starting with great comedic promise, the stage manager (Sameerah Walker) informs us that we are at the auditions for the next production of San Antonio Actors Express (you gotta love that name), Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. Once the roles are cast, the remainder of the play deals with the clashes, angst, and eventual empathetic bonding of the three parody-driven women that occur throughout the rehearsal process deep in the heart of Texas. Yee-haw!

 

The three “sisters” are comprised of: the naïve newly-graduated Southern girl (P.J. Monson), just getting off the bus complete with suitcase and overdone southern-accent; the older and melancholy off-off-off-Broadway actor (Susie Griffith), and the (predictably) self-absorbed television star (Jessica Zweig), pressured by her agent to pursue live theatre as a way to improve her flaccid acting abilities. But because these characters immediately careen into uncomfortable cliché roles, there is very little depth in the parts for these women to grab onto. Even with this lack, though, the performances – minus the occasional problem of stepping on each other’s lines – are satisfactory to good. Standouts include Sameerah Walker, whose well-performed cynicism enlivens the play; Jessica Zweig, whose TV-star role improves as the play progresses, and the artistic director of the San Antonio Theatre (Jacqueline Stone) who sincerely develops the complexity of her role (even though no explanation is given why this Ivy-League-educated Polish-American would have an English accent.)

 

Technically, the show works. The set is cleverly sparse. And considering this space’s limited capabilities, the lighting is well-designed.

 

But as one of the rehearsal directors outrageously proclaims while throwing down the book of Three Sisters, “I don’t do scripts”, it seems that, when picking this production, the company took this declaration too much to heart.

 

Rating: ««

 

TIP: Being that Rogers Park is an apartment-heavy neighborhood (i.e., a challenge to find parking), take the el - the performance space is just one block north of the Morse el-stop. (www.yourcta.com)

 

TIP: To make a fun evening of it, stop for dinner beforehand at the theatre’s adjacent bohemian landmark, the Heartland Café. (www.heartlandcafe.com)