The Madwoman of Chaillot

By Jean Giraudoux

Adapted by Maurice Valency

Directed by Kathy Scambiatterra

At The Artistic Home

1420 W. Irving Park Road

Chicago, IL

Call 773-404-1100, tickets $20 - $22

Thursdays at 7:30 PM

Fridays & Saturdays at 8 PM

Sundays at 5 PM

Running time 2 hrs, 20 min with intermission

Through December 18, 2005

This madness is so funny!

The Artistic Home is a Chicago gem producing amazingly high quality shows in their tiny storefront theater. The Madwoman of Chaillott is another ensemble masterpiece. Director Kathy Sambiatterra has assembled 16 quality actors who play their 30 + characters with zest and manic aplomb producing a host of belly laughs. You’d be hard pressed to find as many terrific performances as there are in this wonderful French farce.

The Madwoman of Chaillott, written in 1945 by Jean Girudoux was produced in 1948, takes a poke at large corporate business as its political cynicism erupts into a scathing satire of modern business and politics. This over-the-top production is rich in farcical characters like the juggler, the singing doorman, the deaf mute, scowling waiter and the philosophizing garbage picker. Those together with a wacky oil prospector who can taste oil in tap water and, of course, the madwoman and her  cohorts organize to thwart the ambitions of the corporate officers bent on finding oil beneath Paris even if it destroys the city and using it to finance war. This poetic and comic fable has many delicious characters, each played to the hilt by the talented ensemble.

Led by Gillian Kelly as the weird, flamboyant madwoman of Chaillott, Countess Aurelia, who is determined to helping good folks fulfill their dreams, and her ‘mad’ friends: Constance, the Madwoman of Passy (Miranda Zola), Gabriella, the Madwoman of St. Sulpice (Susan Burke) and Josephine, the Madwoman of La Concorde (Tera Dunlap). They embark on a quest to thwart the plans of the greedy prospector and the amoral business tycoons. The result is a side-splitting hilarious journey into the manic world of French farce. This complex piece keeps rolling from one wacky scene to the next as a fresh group of characters enters to do their business with in-you-face satirical humor. Sure its played over-the-top and it should be. If your going to flower the play with so many nut cases, you need to have them act like nuts.

Gillian Kelly and her fellow madwomen were a hoot. This fast paced comic gem is a lesson on how to stage and deliver farce. This show is extremely funny yet it still has enough sting to deliver its message. Good can overcome evil—and—we can have some fun along the way. The Madwoman of Chaillot contains rich comic types, energetic physical and some slapstick comedy together with satirical archetypes. Despite some overly long speeches in act two, The Madwoman of Chaillot is over run with smart to silly humor. I’ve not seen a funnier ensemble land so many laughs in many a moon.

Get your funny bone tickled with this gem. Gillian Kelly’s madwoman performance is tremendous and she gets lots of help.

Highly Recommended

Tom Williams

Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments

Chicago Stage Talk Radio Show

This show is eligible for a C.S.T. Equity Theatre Award

October 23, 2005