As of 10/8/18, the content of this page has been moved to Plays We’d Like to See in Chicago.
__________________________________________________
Our “bucket list” of plays is short but varied …
(in alphabetical order)
The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard: This trilogy is a huge undertaking for a theatre company, but we have our fingers crossed for a Chicago production.
Forbidden Best Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France by David Isaacson: In 2013, we went to a reading of a new play (inspired by the Robert Darnton book of the same name), and it turned out to be one of our favorite Theatre Oobleck experiences (no small accomplishment, because we’ve loved everything we’ve seen by them). Like other David Isaacson plays, it was a tour de force combination of scholarship and hilarity.
The Hard Problem by Tom Stoppard: In a 2016 article shortly before the American premiere of The Hard Problem, Stoppard explained that his first new play in almost a decade concerns consciousness: “How does gray matter — stuff inside your skull — how does that go from being matter to ‘Ode to a Nightingale’? … How does matter turn into imagination? How does stuff engender non-stuff?” This is the springboard for what sounds like another fascinating play that only Tom Stoppard could write.
Update: In 2017, we saw Court Theatre’s production of The Hard Problem, directed by Charles Newell, and loved it! The arresting staging and subtly nuanced performances by the A-list cast were the perfect catalyst for probing Stoppard’s essay on consciousness and human experience.
House and Garden by Alan Ayckbourn: We unfortunately missed our only chance to see these two plays, when they were produced in the new Goodman Theatre in 2001. The rarely performed work requires two stages where the plays are performed simultaneously, with the cast members moving between them.
The Outsider by Paul Slade Smith: We saw a fantastic reading of this play by Route 66 in 2015, and it was one of the funniest, most entertaining plays in memory. Needless to say, a full production would be a huge treat.
