CheekyChicago

Collaboraction’s production of playwright Dan LeFranc’s Sixty Miles to Silver Lake is one hell of a road trip between father, Ky (Sean Bolger), and son, Denny (Ethan Dubin). The audience is a backseat passenger, sometimes piping up and sometimes squirming, waiting for the exit. From the moment Ky puts the car in drive, you can tell this isn’t an ordinary experience. The car itself is deconstructed (thanks to an ingenius design); projectors give the sense that the car is actually moving, and thus the characters along with it. Early on, it becomes clear that Denny’s parents are divorced; the title of the play is derived from the drive between his mom’s …  Read more

Hi there. I thought I’d bring back The A-List for a very special occasion. That is, one of my closest friends just found out that her ex – the one who was the ying to her yang, but whom she didn’t feel quite right about – is engaged. She doesn’t know how, or to whom, or what their relationship is like, but she’s sad. And she feels bad about it. I empathize. No matter how a previous relationship ended with anyone (or how it was for the duration), when you find out news like that, it’s bound to be a little… weird. You begin to think about what the two of …  Read more

Chimpanzee is a half “Animal Planet” documentary, half humanly constructed narrative that follows the life of Oscar, a young chimp living with his mother and a troop of chimps in the jungles along the Ivory Coast. Oscar tragically loses his mother after an attack by a rival group of chimpanzees, led by the formidable alpha male, Scar. It’s heartbreaking to see this helpless young primate struggling to find his place in a pack of competitive alpha males. And not only is he threatened by aggressive males, he’s also shunned by females too busy caring for their own children. For Oscar, this means the difference between survival and death, and the …  Read more