"Stepp" into Brilliance

Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre production of after the quake adapted and directed by Frank Galati from the stories of Haruki Murakami is brilliant. It's simplicity is where it wins the audience over a hundredfold. From its style to thematic elements, costumes to scenery, direction to diction, the storytelling comes across crystal clear in the tales of the super frog who saves Tokyo from an earthquake and a fiction writer who invents bears who share honey pies and salmon. Knowing nothing, I got a rush ticket and found myself in the third row center, consumed by this beautiful and haunting story starring Aiko Nakasone and Hanson Tse [seen here]. If I had to choose one thing which I found the most exciting, though a difficult decision, I would guess it would be the music. I have had some experience with musical theatre (grin) and found the music here to be more integral to the plot and story and characters than in almost any MT piece I've come across. The cello and koto were seamlessly and, perhaps more importantly, successfully integrated into Galati's adaptation.

Genius work, and I'm thrilled I had the opportunity to see it--my first Steppenwolf (let alone Chicago) production. Since Philly's ADRIFT IN MACAO has closed, go see this, now playing through February 19.