Note: Mr. Albee
prohibits
reviews of this production as a condition in the granting of the rights
to Redtwist. We have announced that in all our press releases, emails,
and publicity. However, we are pleased to share patron testimonials and
comments below. If a member of the press
purchases a ticket and chooses to write a review we are unable to
prevent that very basic freedom of the press. We will post the good and
the bad. Enjoy the
comments below. If we received permission to reprint the
entire name
or it was a public comment, we've included it below. If not, we simply
used initials.
Patron Comments
General Buzz
Press
10-24-10 via Facebook Thanks to
everyone for a truly riveting performance! I thoroughly enjoyed myself:)
--Holly Bittinger
10-22-10
via Facebook My wife and I saw
"A Delicate Balance" last night. It
was superb. Pitch perfect acting in an Albee classic.
--Neal Robinson
10-21-10
via email
The ending of this play in which glasses are
strewn everywhere and everyone is drinking morning noon and night is
perfect. It shatters your comfort zone like the smashing of a fine
crystal goblet by an inebriated diva singing her songs of truth. Even
the odd casting of the seemingly too old daughter works brilliantly at
the moment when she flies into a fit and seems to revert to a tiny
child in her demands to get her room back. Brian Parry is a harrowing
and brilliant Tobias wedded to the majestic and all too stable Agnes
(Millicent Hurley), a sublime “dowager in ascendance.” Jan Ellen Graves
plays her part with beguiling assuredness, a chirpy and annoying
Edna, the spouse nobody likes, who not only moves into her best
friends’ house but starts redecorating with a knickknack! And her
morally bankrupt husband Harry, played by a compelling Chuck Spencer,
is a marvelous nervous wreck. You have to love the cast, admire the
set, thrill at the way the director pulls it off despite some obviously
unsettling age disparities; and wonder why, why, why Albee would not
want this play reviewed. It captures that terror rimming us all in one
golden globule. Redtwist’s A Delicate Balance is a tiny droplet of
champagne flung into the universe. It offers beauty and temporary
protection.
--EH and
SK
10-15-10
via Facebook Go! It's so good!
--Lisa Dillman
10-19-10 via email
The show was fantastic and I really like the
space and what you’ve done with it. Can’t wait to see more shows
there. --N 10-16-10 via Facebook Great
performances--congrats!
--Brandee Johnston
10-10-10 via email
An absolutely magnificent cast for this play,
perfect in every way. And what a set! --B
10-18-10 via email
Just want you all to know my partner and I saw
the Albee play Saturday night and thought it was terrific. Not an off
line or delivery the whole night. Just wonderful performances by all.
Bravo! We had a thoroughly enjoyable evening with dinner before at the
Little Mexican Cafe and then on to the play. Thanks
--bjm
10-13-10 via email
During intermission at a performance of A
Delicate Balance, one of my friends who is a reverse snob said, "It's a
play with an upper-middle class setting and characters, but this guy,
Albee's dialogue is classless. After the play, he said, "This
production gives the audience such a clear and present access to
Albee..I mean, they work this play as if he were Shakespeare!"
--KL
10-1-10
Congratulations on another strong, well-acted
production. Enjoyed it last night. --RT 10-1-10 via Facebook
Redtwist Theatre's production of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance is
nothing short of astonishing. The scenery, fine acting and directing
make this a must-see. The play takes us through a night of
excruciatingly funny interactions, sobering reality, and ultimately, a
devastating climax.
--Steven Gilpin
9-30-10 via Facebook AMAZING! Waste NO time,
GO see A Delicate Balance. True talent, true professionalism. Well
worth your time to see! :)
--Douglas OKeeffe
9-22-10
via
Facebook
When a production is so well crafted, it is impossible to single out
any one performance. Each member of this extraordinary cast was top
notch!!
--Rob Schendel
9-25-10 via
Facebook
The set is incredible! It's amazing how your designers and builders
could accomplish so much in such a short period of time! ....
and the cast is terrific, too! I'll be thinking about this production
for a long time!
--Rob
Schendel
9-25-10
via
Facebook
I just saw a wonderful
show at Redtwist Theatre, located at 1044 W Bryn Mawr in Chicago. A
Delicate Balance is not to be missed. Congratulations to Brian
Parry
and the entire cast on a great job.
--GTS
9-25-10
via email
THIS IS NOT A REVIEW - it's just my opinion... :
Everyone!!!!
Stephen, Barry and myself saw this incredibly balanced show last night
- it was soooo DELICATELY balanced that we didn't realize how it
had affected us until this morning.
Seriously - make time to see it.
I'm a fairly easy to please audience member - but this show BLEW ME
AWAY! I haven't stopped thinking about it all day.
AND it REALLY impressed Barry - and he is not too easy to please when
it comes to entertainment. He hasn't been able to stop talking about
HOW FABULOUS this show is.
FIRST - there is the great writing, Albee is amazing, after that it
just gets better
the sound (oh - wait - Albee says NO SOUND IN MY PLAYS!) - that's
ok - we need the silence
the set - fabulouso - fabulouso - an extremely small space used to
within inches of it's life - perfect
the costumes - each and every actor/actress should buy their ensembles
- they look amazing!
the lights - ok... it's SUCH a small space that once in a while you
find a par-can in your eye - but we can overlook that.
However - there were two or three moments in the play when they
adjusted the lights "just so" for the moment at hand to true
brilliance. Stellar.
the acting - ...eh...
JUST KIDDING!
Holy crap! This ensemble... each and every one of them... perfecto!
Honestly - they had me hooked within 5 lines.
The show is 2.5 hours with intermission - I could have watched them
EASILY for 2 more hours - they are all AMAZING (and you all know how
little time I usually have.)
Go see the show. http://redtwist.org/
P.S. This is NOT a review (or a cigar)
--Julie
9-25-10
via email
I saw A Delicate Balance last
nite.
I enjoyed
very
much
and
will
be
enthusiastically
be
recommending it and your theatre company to others. Your theatre
company seems to have a knack for choosing very good material
and making a top-notch production out of it. As with
everything I've seen at Redtwist, the acting was first rate with this
play. The set was well done as well. I live in Edgewater, so your
theatre is very accessible to me as it is to anyone who rides the Red
Line. Thanks for a nice nite.
--MSM
9-27-10 via
Facebook
Don't walk...Run down
and see Edward Albee's 'A Delicate Balance' @ Redtwist Theatre~
Congrats to a great cast, and crew, doing incredible work! &
woohoo! for the set (Andrew & Joel)
--Karen Hill
9-26-10 via Facebook Congrats on such a fine
production and strong cast (and on your Jeff recommendation)!
--Maggie Cain
A Delicate Balance has been Jeff Awards Recommended Visit
our
Redtwist Theatre Facebook page to
see what people are saying. Click "like" so you can be in on the latest
buzz.
Best Storefront
Theatre Companies
In Chicago Redtwist Tops
the List
“White hot drama, in a tiny black box, with a little red twist” is the
mission for Redtwist. Though, they’ve been known to do comedies, too.
However, whatever you see at this small, 40-seat theatre, located in
the Edgewater community of Chicago, you’ll be blown away. This is
in-your-face Chicago theatre at its best.
--Bob
Bullen, Oct 3, 2010
Jun
25,
2010 PerformInk.com Behind
the Curtain By
Kerry
Reid An odd twist to
the Redtwist Theatre season: the company, which covered
itself in glory with its months-long run of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, directed by red-hot
Kimberly Senior, has switched around some programming in light of the
multiple extensions of that show, including dropping a previously
announced production of Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy. That’s not the
odd part—what caught our eye was the announcement that their production
of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance,
directed
by
the
Goodman
Theatre
’s
Steve
Scott
and opening on September
25, may not, according to a stipulation by the playwright, be reviewed.
Why any living playwright would try to have it both ways—i.e., taking
money for performance rights while attempting to deny companies a
crucial marketing tool via reviews—is beyond my comprehension. Nor do I
think this is a particularly enforceable provision, as illustrated by
last spring’s Thunder and Lightning Ensemble production of Bob
Glaudini’s Jack Goes Boating,
which came with a similar caveat but which was still reviewed by Nina
Metz for the Tribune, who simply bought a ticket for the show and then
wrote about it.
September 21, 2010
Metromix.com and RedEye Five to see What's hot this week
on local stages
A Delicate Balance
In Edward Albee's
drama, a couple's routine is disrupted when several anxious, uninvited
houseguests arrive.
*** by Kerry Reid, Oct 8, 2010
A group of people
frozen in destructive habits fills Edward Albee's living-room monster
show, "A Delicate Balance," which, while not as verbally devastating as
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" probably cuts closer to the bone in
exposing the demons we carry with us in the form of family, friends and
our own inability to understand how we ended up with the people in our
lives. Steve Scott's intelligent and intimate staging for Redtwist
brings the story into deliciously uncomfortable focus.
Tobias (Brian Parry) and Agnes (Millicent Hurley) are comfortably
upper-middle-class folks in upper-middle age, settling in for
after-dinner drinks in their well-appointed drawing room. Though the
play begins with the hyper-articulate Agnes meditating on what it might
mean for her to go mad someday, it's impossible for us to believe that
this well-dressed, well-spoken matron could ever lose her marbles.
Until we meet the rest of her loved ones, which include outspoken drunk
sister Claire (a mordantly funny CeCe Klinger), who scoffs at the term
"alcoholic"; neurotic and childish quadruple-divorcee daughter Julia
(Jacqueline Grandt), who has once again returned to the nest; and
especially Harry and Edna (Chuck Spencer and Jan Ellen Graves), Agnes
and Tobias' lifelong friends who arrive on their doorstep fleeing some
unnamed existential terror that has invaded their lives — and promptly
begin acting as if they own the place.
Some of the same tropes that Albee explored in "Virginia Woolf" recur
here, particularly with the references to Tobias and Agnes' dead son,
Teddy. But overall, this 1966 play seems less concerned with flaying us
alive and more with leaving us stewing in our own juices of emotional
impotence and regret. The cast feels at times as if it's still
negotiating the terrain between Albee's carefully manicured dialogue
and the underlying emotional violence, but this has all the hallmarks
of a show that will grow richer as the performances settle in. "Are you
comfortable?" Agnes asks Tobias early on. "For a bit," he replies.
Albee implies that that's as good as it gets in human relationships.
September 28, 2010
chicagotheaterblog.com by Allegra Gallian
"Redtwist does not
disappoint with this fine production. "
An unraveling of
damaged souls
"The Redtwist 2010-11 season is about fear – how we try to understand
it, cope with it and overcome it. It’s arguably the greatest driving
force in the history of mankind,” said Redtwist Artistic Director
Michael Colluci of the theatre’s new season.
Redtwist Theatre opened its season this past weekend with Edward
Albee’s Pulitzer-Prizing winning play A Delicate Balance.
A Delicate Balance, directed by Steve Scott, opens on Tobias (Brian
Parry) and Agnes (Millicent Hurley), an upper-middle-class couple, in
their home. The couple discusses their daughter Julia (Jacqueline
Grandt) and Agnes’s sister Claire (CeCe Klinger). Agnes and Tobias are
burdened but obliged to their family members in need. Claire is an
alcoholic and Julia has walked out on her fourth marriage.
The family is joined by Agnes and Tobias’s best friends Henry (Chuck
Spencer) and Edna (Jan Ellen Graves). Harry and Edna are overly anxious
and show up announced to stay with Agnes and Tobias after having to
leave their home due to an unexplained terror they felt.
With a house full of unsteady people in one way or another, each person
tiptoes around until breaking points are reached.
A Delicate Balance fits in nicely with Redtwist’s theme of fear as the
characters face (or run from) their own demons both literally and
figuratively. Edna and Harry have run away from home based on an
irrational and sudden fear they both felt. Agnes confronts her fear of
possibly going mad and Julia delves into her fear of losing her place
in her parent’s lives. Each character at some point faces their fears
out in the open in front of all the others, shattering pretenses and
politeness in the way of truth.
Redtwist does not
disappoint with this fine production. It’s definitely worth a
look-see.
The Chicago Reader
September 27, 2010 by Justin Hayford
A Delicate Balance
Steve Scott's production of this 1967 Pulitzer Prize winner by Edward
Albee is like an ill-tailored suit from an exceptionally fine store.
The cast members don't quite fit--some are miscast as hyperliterate New
England blue bloods, others are the wrong age, and no one is up to the
script's brisk intellectual pace. But the exquisite material still
feels great. With a mild suspension of disbelief, these acerbic two and
a half hours--in which a privileged coterie discover how thoroughly
they've squandered opportunities, advantages, and love--are at once
satisfying and unsettling. Only in the inconclusive final scene do
things peter out.
Redtwist claims that Albee has told them that he doesn't want this
production reviewed. Wasn't Hayford paying any attention?
Posted by mj on September 27, 2010
It truly was prohibited by Albee to have any reviews written...this was
made clear by Redtwist. All other publications in Chicago have taken
note.
Posted by ar on September 27, 2010
I'm a huge Albee fan, but I don't understand the grounds for insisting
that a production not be reviewed. Is it because he loathes the Chicago
press that much(?), or that he doesn't want the production promoted
(and if so, why not refuse the rights to stage the play)?
Posted by Swopa on September 27, 2010
So long as Redtwist's production is open to the public, neither Albee
nor the company ultimately has much say in what gets written about it
or where.
Posted by Philip Montoro on September 27, 2010
I assigned Justin Hayford to review the show for the reason Philip
Montoro gives: As long as the event is public (and the cast is
professional and the tickets cost money), it's fair game. Albee just
plain doesn't have the right to prohibit access. He probably knows it,
too. My theory--based on nothing, really, but the irrationality of the
gesture--is that he made the demand out of deference to the
high-profile productions of Three Tall Women (at Court) and Who's
Afraid of Virginia Woolf (at Steppenwolf) coming up later in the
season. Of course, if I'm wrong and he's serious, then no doubt he'll
bar critics from those productions, too.
Posted by Tony Adler on September 30, 2010
I'm not puzzled by the fact that the Reader reviewed the play, but I am
puzzled by the review. I saw this production and it's quite good. The
cast certainly seems up to the "script's brisk intellectual pace" and
there are actually a few exceptional performances. There is one odd bit
of casting, age-wise, but even that performer pulls off the character
quite well. The entire product packs quite an emotional punch.
Posted by pkw
on
Note: Mr. Albee
prohibits
reviews of this production as a condition in the granting of the rights
to Redtwist. We have announced that in all our press releases, emails,
and publicity. However, we are pleased to share patron testimonials and
comments below. If a member of the press
purchases a ticket and chooses to write a review we are unable to
prevent that very basic freedom of the press. We will post the good and
the bad. Enjoy the
comments below. If we received permission to reprint the
entire name
or it was a public comment, we've included it below. If not, we simply
used initials.
