Theater tickets

Mary Poppins tickets

Wicked tickets

Not To Be Missed:

The Dumb Waiter & The Zoo Story

Orphans

Spinning Into Butter

Cortoe

Ruthless!

Dionne Warwick

Spelling Bee

Hizzoner

Menopause The Musical

The Bloody Romantic

By Greg Beam with Eric Poulin

Directed by Frank Cermak, JR.

Produced by The Broken Compass Theatre

At Chicago Dramatists

1105 W. Chicago Ave

Chicago, IL

Call 773-772-0712, tickets $15

Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM

Sundays at 7 PM

Running time is 95 minutes with intermission

Through August 20, 2006

The Bloody Romantic is a serviceable dark comedy

The initial offering from the University of Chicago grads who founded The Broken Compass is based on the company’s mission statement: “most exciting art arises from a process of continual experimentation. No preconceptions or pre-formulations…”

 The Bloody Romantic, written by Greg Beam (who also stars as Vince) and Eric Poulin is a dark comedy with a bizarre ending that sure stretched the boundaries of relationship plays. This quirky comedy has gay lovers with one switching back to lust after a woman, a jealous husband dressed for a safari spying on his wife and a cheating partner who has an affair with his new boss.

This sensually raw work has men grouping each other, a man and a woman playing ritualized foreplay games to the tune of acerbic wit, stinging dialogue that re-defines screwball comedy. The sexual disorientation has Vince (Greg Beam), a chef, and lover to Frank (Brian Kilborn) having sex with his cooking student, Gloria (Katlyn Carlson), Vince’s ex-wife. Frank lands a job with Ben’s (James Errico) law firm and soon the two are having sex. Add several mysterious interludes with a brown clad man in safari outfit complete with a pit helmet and a double barrel shotgun and we have a funny, whacked-out sexy comedy filled with romance and betrayal.

The show zips alone rendering many laughs with a large dose of sensuality and terrific comedic turns from Katlyn Carlson and Greg Beam. Eventually the play takes a crazy twist that is surprising but plausible. The Broken Compass theatre troupe has produced a light-hearted black comedy that is both engaging and weirdly likable. It sure is a twist on gay relationship comedies with a little violence thrown in. I liked this fun show. I’ll be keeping an eye on this promising company because they vow to not follow the rules. Thank God!

Recommended

Tom Williams

Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments

Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast

Date Reviewed: July 29, 2006