The Van Gogh Exhibit

Written and Directed by Matt Fotis

The Zebra Baby

Written by Matt Fotis

Directed by Jonathan Thomas

Produced by Shantz Theatre

At ATC Theatre

1909 W. Byron

Chicago, IL

Call 773-369-8566, tickets $12 - $15

Thursdays & Fridays at 7:30 PM

Saturdays at 7:30 & 10 PM

Sundays at 2 PM

Running time is 90 minutes with no intermission

Through January 28, 2006

Two one acts more irritating than entertaining

Shantz Theatre company is basically a one man show with Matt Fotis writing, directing and appearing most of their productions. This becomes vanity theatre with all the trappings of such. Without collaboration one is hard pressed to see the weakness and flaws in one’s own work. I believe that is the case here.

 Shantz’s latest work, two one-acts suffered from lack of clarity, structure and substance. I’m still trying to figure out what The Zebra Baby was about? The short 20 minute piece became confusing due to a muddled structure and a lack of focus. Is Greg (Buck Zachary), the lazy writer-husband daydreaming, hallucinating  or what when his wife Lisa (Kathy Lacio) enters with a football wrapped in a blanket carried like it was an infant. The couples were arguing about having a child with Greg stating he wasn’t ready for fatherhood. All sorts of confusing scenes follow until the act ends. I’m still wondering what happened and I have that “so what” attitude about The Zebra Baby. This tedious piece simply irritated me.

The Van Gogh Exhibit was another muddled mess consisting of 12 vignettes with no sustained plot structure where the theatrical techniques know as ‘LaRonde’ is employed to show two sides of a character in two distinct settings. Again “so what” since nothing much happens to the mostly dysfunctional, negative people with cynical outlooks on life? There is little to care about with this group. From foul mouthed wives to insulting gay stereotypes, this collection of short scenes contained whiny meaningless arguments between mismatched couples trying to fulfill their emotional needs. I guess?

Maybe I’m too old or to conservative but I found nothing interesting in these characters and they seemed to have little of value to say. When the 90 minutes were finally over, I felt that I wasted that precious time listening to them bicker and argue.

I found the production values wanting with poor to mediocre acting but nothing could have saved this pointless, gloomy and vague writing. There wasn’t much to say here and it wasn’t said well. This time I will save you a trip to a storefront theatre.

Not Recommended

Tom Williams

Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments

Talk Theatre in Chicago Radio Show

January 7, 2005