Tag Archives: Bill Smith

REVIEW: Theatre-on-the-Hill’s God of Carnage

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As posted in the TribLocal, the following is my review of Theatre-on-the-Hill‘s production of God of Carnage written by Yasmina Reza.

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This past weekend, Bolingbrook’s Theatre-on-the-Hill introduced another amazing comedy to the suburbs, and didn’t disappoint. God of Carnage is an ambitious, hilarious and very difficult story about two affluent couples who come together because their sons got into a fight in school that resulted in one of the boys getting two teeth knocked out. What starts out as a very civil and reasonably open minded meeting unravels into an in-depth look at the human psyche and how these people are nowhere near as civil as they appear to be, finally asking the question: “What do we know, really?”

So what do we know, really? Well, the small and stellar cast is comprised of Theatre-on-the-Hill alums Bill Smith and Erika Enigk Grotto, who play the elitist Raleighs, as well as newcomers Leann Hoffrogge and Zachary Johnson-Dunlop as the more working class Novaks. Each performer brought to life a vibrancy to characters that are not only relatable as individuals, but as the show progresses, create the realization among audience members that a situation like this could very well happen (or already had) in their own lives.

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Review: Shaking Spears (a conglomerate of Shakespeare’s tragedies set to the music of Britney Spears)

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Yes you read that right… one of my theater acquaintances wrote a stage play taking four works of Shakespeare’s tragedies
– Macbeth
– Romeo & Juliet
– Hamlet
– Julius Ceasar
taking various aspects, storyline lines, and characters and created a singular storyline. Not only that, she had various characters (including two of the male leads) sing Britney Spears songs…

Now upon first glance this shouldn’t have worked, Shakespeare and Britney Spears? I could hear Shakespeare rolling in his grave. However, the truth of the matter is that somehow, someway it did and I will be the one that would grudgingly admit that I was wrong in my original take of this particular ditty (and I really don’t like having to eat my words).

Let me explain:

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Comparison: TOTH’s Den of Thieves (three weekends later)

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So by the time of this writing I have seen seven (and a half) out of eight showings of Bolingbrook’s Theatre-on-the-Hill‘s production of Den of Thieves. One would think that after the first one or two shows, or even three in this case I would be sick of seeing this show already. The truth of the matter is, I’m not.

For someone with a little bit of theatre background, I can honestly say that seeing shows multiple times does not bore me as one would probably expect. More often than not it is a combination of a good script, with fantastic direction, and amazing actors that would typically drive the average theatre goer into seeing a production multiple times.

In the case of Den of Thieves, not only were there three versions of the show to watch but live theatre brings to the table an element of unpredictability that you can’t find anywhere else.

Where else would you find Hugh Jackman blowing up at an audience member for a cell phone going off in the middle of A Steady Rain? Where else could you find mishaps go wrong and watch an actor really show off their acting chops AND improv skills at a drop of a pin?

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Review: Theatre-on-the-Hill’s Den of Thieves (Original Draft)

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When I was approached to write a review for Theatre-on-the-Hill’s Den of Thieves, my first instinct was to wait until the second weekend of performances so I could compare and contrast actors in the roles that were double cast. But when I asked about deadlines it was brought to my attention the intent of the review was in the hope to bring in a larger audience for the remaining three weekends of performances.

So, below is the original idea that I had for a review for Theatre-on-the-Hill‘s production of Den of Thieves. There are notable differences between my original review and what was ultimately sent out to TribLocal as an official review, but the spirit of the review is still there for the most part. Which one do you like more?

Author’s Note: I will be posted my thoughts about various other productions that I saw in the past few years just to keep for posterity. Anything that is legitimate will be notated with an all capitalized REVIEW, whileas anything that is just my thoughts would simply be Review. Capeesh?

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REVIEW: Theatre-on-the-Hill’s Den of Thieves

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I was asked to review Theatre-on-the-Hill‘s fall production of Den of Thieves, and naturally I was honored to obliged. Then came a few issues:

This production of Den of Thieves has two roles that are double-cast, meaning that the performance dates are split between multiple actors. Theatre-on-the-Hill is notorious of doing this, particularly during the summer musical shows, this happens a lot less often during their Spring or Fall shows.

So which cast version to review upon? Well I went Opening Night, which wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t fantastic either. Then I went on the following Saturday night performance which was by and large the better of the two… so guess what my “legitimate” review was about?

This show will be open through the month of November 2011 in Bolingbrook. The version below was edited for the TribLocal online newspaper. I will include my original version in a bit.

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